The MLB Winter Meetings are a time for rumors, rumors and more rumors — but no one expected the first to be about Donald Trump.<\/b>
\nThe Winter Meetings are a time for rumors, rumors and more rumors. But no one expected the first rumor of the Winter Meetings to be about the president of the New York Yankees and the President of the United States.
On Monday morning, this rumor greeted the baseball world as it woke up to meet the day.
President Donald Trump is looking for a new chief of staff, since the man currently in the job, John Kelly, recently announced he would be leaving the White House at the end of 2018. And Yankees president Randy Levine has somehow ended up on the shortlist of people who are in the running, along with Steve Mnuchin and Matt Whitaker.
Emphasis on the \u201csomehow.\u201d It\u2019s not clear where MSNBC got this info, whether it was from an actual White House source or just a list a few producers put together on their own. But Levine, who has been president of the Yankees since 2000, was suddenly thrust into the national conversation about who would be the third person in two years to try and manage Trump\u2019s White House.
The national conversation about Levine ended up being very short. Just a few hours after the rumor began circulating, Levine shot it down. Via the New York Daily News:
Levine has some experience in political management, so him being mentioned wasn\u2019t totally out of left field. He spent three years as New York City\u2019s deputy mayor for economic development, resigning to become the president of the Yankees. He also worked as a fundraiser for John McCain\u2019s 2008 presidential campaign.
But even though Levine has been supportive of Trump, he hasn\u2019t shied away from publicly criticizing him. Just over a year ago, Levine wrote a column for the conservative publication Newsmax that asked Trump to rethink his tax plan, and listed numerous reasons he didn\u2019t support it.
It doesn\u2019t look like Levine is going to leave his job with the Yankees anytime soon, and who could blame him? The Yankees are reaping the benefits of a recently ended rebuild. Just a year ago they traded for megastar Giancarlo Stanton. They\u2019re currently in the running to sign Manny Machado. They\u2019ve got talent all around the diamond, including the pitching mound. Considering how thankless the job of White House chief of staff seems to be, Levine is making the right decision. After all, working at the White House doesn\u2019t get you a World Series ring.<\/p>\n