The Mets have added another key piece to their front office, hiring Baseball Prospectus analyst and writer Russell Carleton.

GM Brodie Van Wagenen had stressed the importance of bolstering the team's analytics department. After hiring assistant GM Adam Guttridge in an analytics role, Carleton is another big hire in that area.

Carleton said during an appearance on Thursday's Effectively Wild podcast on FanGraphs that Guttridge reached out to him roughly a month ago about a position the team was creating and that they thought Carleton would be a good fit for.

"It's gonna be a lot of the same research I do at BP, probably with better data," Carleton explained about his role with the Mets. "The way they described the role was more in the lines of 'we want people who have the research experience. ... good research ideas.'"

Carleton, who is the writer of The Shift: The Next Evolution in Baseball Thinking, was BP's longest-tenured writer and has a background in clinical psychology and experience in other MLB front offices.

About The Shift:

Positioned at the crossroads of sabermetrics and cognitive science, The Shift alters the trajectory of both traditional and analytics-based baseball thought. ... Carleton illuminates advanced statistics and challenges cultural assumptions, demonstrating along the way that data and logic need not be at odds with the human elements of baseball-in fact, they're inextricably intertwined.

Carleton joins Allard Baird, Jared Banner, and Guttridge as another important addition to the Mets' front office this offseason under Van Wagenen.

Along with the above moves, J.P. Ricciardi left for the Giants, David Wright has been named an adviser, and former assistant GM John Ricco is transitioning into a new role as senior vice president, senior strategy officer.

Ricco will report to COO Jeff Wilpon "on special business and finance projects, including significant construction projects the Mets are planning for their Spring Training facility and other minor league facilities."

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