From JOEL SHERMAN

I believe the following: If Joe Torre had not taken the Dodger job, he would be the Mets’ manager right now. There are a few items temporarily saving Randolph’s job. One is that the Mets are not convinced they can tap a person of stature to replace Randolph; somebody who can get the attention of this underachieving roster. Torre’s gravitas plus his history of succeeding in New York would have made him an easy choice for the Wilpons. That the Mets, within the same move, would be tweaking the Yankees only would have made it sweeter.

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