When the Mets hired then-Boston Red Sox assistant general manager Zack Scott in 2020, the agreement came with a potential catch: A prohibition against the Mets hiring any other members of the Boston organization.
The hiring freeze, reported by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, was to extend through this offseason.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom declined to comment on any question related to a permission request, including the Mets’ hiring freeze.
Other league sources said that Boston has already granted permission for the Mets to speak to Raquel Ferreira, which they are expected to do in the coming days.
If the sides see a fit -- and it is far too early to say whether that will happen -- the Red Sox are unlikely to stand in the way, per those sources.
It is unclear whether the freeze would still apply, because it was devised when Scott was making a lateral move to become an assistant general manager in New York.
Shortly after the Mets fired GM Jared Porter, they promoted Scott to acting GM (Scott and the organization parted ways on Monday as part of the fallout of his August arrest on suspicion of DUI).
If the Red Sox tried to stand in the way of a Ferreira hire, the Mets could argue that Scott’s elevation voided the agreement. They might or might not win that argument, but it will not likely matter: If Ferreira and the Mets decide they want to work together, they will likely be allowed to.