So far, the New York Mets have had to proceed building a roster without a General Manager. Of course, when you have Sandy Alderson in charge, your organization is well equipped to forge forward, but at some point a team wants and needs a GM.

For his part, Mets owner Steve Cohen is surprised the team does not have a GM. The Mets not having a GM has led to some insane theories, but there is likely a much more plausible theories.

For starters, we know many organizations have not permitted the Mets to interview many of the Mets targets. It’s difficult to hire people when you’re blocked from doing so.

We saw another obstacle with former Mets pitcher Chris Young. He interviewed for the Mets GM job and soon thereafter accept the Texas Rangers GM job. He had taken his name out of consideration for the Mets job due to family reasons.

It’s very likely many candidates are doing that at the moment. While unspoken, we probably should not discount COVID19 as one of the reasons why.

COVID19 has changed nearly every aspect of our lives. One significant area is our ability to travel. That makes uprooting your life to move to New York all the more difficult of a decision.

Take Young right now. The State of New York has a two week quarantine for people traveling to non-contiguous states. Given the nature of the GM job, you really can’t be out of commission for two weeks.

As a result, if you accept the Mets GM job, you don’t see your family for a lengthy unspecified period of time. Yes, your spouse and children will come, but you leave never knowing when you will ever see your parents or siblings again.

You’re also uprooting your life during a pandemic. The process of finding a new home and schools for your children is far too impacted to make the educated and well researched decisions you’d normally undertake.

No, that doesn’t mean you can’t hire anyone at all. Kim Ng took the job with the Miami Marlins, and Sandy Alderson did return to the Mets organization. Still, with all the people turning down this Mets GM job you can’t help but wonder why.

The Mets GM job may be the best one in all of pro sports. There’s a terrific core, and there are tremendous resources at their disposal to make a perennial World Series contender. Something isn’t adding up.

Right now, no one really knows the real reason people are being reluctant to accept the Mets GM job. When that happens, you really have to wonder what is happening.

Yes, it is pure conjecture, but at this point, we do have to wonder if COVID19 is impacting not only the Mets ability to interview the candidates they want, but also their ability to get those candidates to uproot their lives during a pandemic.