Amid the Mets’ spiraling path to the bottom of the standings, their general manager, Sandy Alderson, announced on Tuesday that he would take a leave of absence to address a recurrence of cancer. But it might be a permanent departure, he said, because of the current performance of the team he has assembled.
Alderson, 70, who presided over the team’s World Series run in 2015 and wild-card appearance in 2016 as well as its epic collapses this season and last, learned he had cancer in the fall of 2015. Last year, before spring training, he spoke optimistically about his treatment but cautioned that he was undergoing checkups every four months.