A Mets architect, an invaluable pair of eyes who helped put together the dynastic Yankees and a longtime major league manager who was beloved in The Bronx are vying for Cooperstown.
Sandy Alderson, Brian Sabean and Lou Piniella are on the eight-person, non-player ballot that will be considered by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee for Hall of Fame election for the Class of 2027, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced Monday.
The committee will meet on Dec. 6 in San Diego to vote on a group that also includes Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy, who are World Series-winning managers and front-runners, along with Joe Maddon, Ted Turner and Bill White.
The candidates, who will be considered by this committee because their primary contribution to the game has come since 1980, will need 75 percent of the vote from the 16-person panel to earn induction.
Locally, the most relevant candidates are:
Sandy Alderson
Mets GM from 2011–2018 and president from 2021–2023
With a résumé that also includes a World Series and three pennants as GM of the A’s, a pair of division titles as chief executive officer of the Padres and work in the commissioner’s office, Alderson guided the Mets to various heights and through plenty of turbulence beginning in 2011.
As GM, he signed David Wright; helped stitch together the Fab Five rotation of the mid-2010s, trading for Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard and overseeing the development of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz, which culminated in a World Series appearance in 2015; and was a face of an often dysfunctional and penny-pinching Wilpon era.
Alderson stepped away from his day-to-day duties after a cancer diagnosis in 2018, and returned early in the 2020s as a trusted voice to lead an organization that Steve Cohen was buying.
Brian Sabean
Yankees scout, scouting director and director of player development from 1985-1992 and executive senior adviser from 2023-26
Sabean is better known for his GM reign with the Giants, with whom he won World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
But prior to building an even-year dynasty, the old-school scout planted the seeds for one in The Bronx. Sabean was a critical talent-finding voice who helped the Yankees decide on drafting and signing Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera.
Sabean returned to work under Brian Cashman in ’23 and served as one more voice for the organization before his contract was not renewed this offseason.
Lou Piniella
Yankees manager 1986-87, ’88; general manager 1988
A fan favorite as a player, when the clutch hitter helped the Yankees win World Series titles in 1977 and ’78, Piniella’s potential Hall of Fame managerial career began in New York, too.
Piniella went from Yankees outfielder (and hitting coach) in 1984 to manager by October 1985. “Sweet Lou” was sent upstairs to become GM in 1988 as Billy Martin returned, then went back to his seat in the dugout midseason when George Steinbrenner fired Martin again.
Piniella was briefly a Yankees broadcaster before managing the Reds in 1990, with whom he won a World Series.
In all, he managed for 23 major league seasons, primarily for the Mariners but also the Devil Rays and Cubs, and retired with a career mark of 1,835-1,713.
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