Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

Sandy Alderson will be the next general manager of the New York Mets, a source confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com.  An announcement could come Friday, on the off day between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series.  Alderson, 62, has been considered the favorite to land the position since the outset.

SI.com first reported his selection Tuesday night.

Alderson led the Oakland Athletics to three straight World Series appearances, including the 1989 championship, while serving as general manager from 1983 to 1997. After a stint with Major League Baseball concentrating on umpiring and building the game internationally, Alderson served as chief executive officer of the San Diego Padres until resigning in March 2009 when that ballclub was purchased by a group headed by Jeff Moorad.

Commissioner Bud Selig has been an advocate for Alderson, and Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon and Selig have a strong relationship.

Alderson graduated from Dartmouth College in 1969 and Harvard Law School in 1976. He served four years in the United States Marine Corps as an infantry officer, including a tour in Vietnam.

The Mets completed the interview process for their next general manager Tuesday when Fred Wilpon, team president Saul Katz and chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon met with Alderson at Citi Field. Former Arizona Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes, the other finalist, met with the ownership group Monday.

“We will have no further comment on the process until we are ready to announce our new general manager,” Jeff Wilpon said in a statement Tuesday.

Alderson and Byrnes emerged as finalists from the field of six first-round interviewees that also included Boston Red Sox assistant GM Allard Baird,Toronto Blue Jays special assistant Dana Brown,Chicago White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn and Los Angeles Dodgers assistant GM Logan White.

In a 2008 interview with the Padres blog Ducksnorts, Alderson explained how his untraditional baseball background — as a lawyer and Marine — affected him.

“As a lawyer, through law school, you’re trained to be analytical, unbiased, more objective,” he said. “I think that was helpful. And having a legal background, too, you have an understanding of what the contractual issues are and so forth. I think it boils down to just being probably a little more analytical.

“The Marine Corps was helpful on several levels. First of all, what it does impress on you is the importance of organization and process, and philosophy, and tenacity. What people don’t understand about the Marine Corps is that … it does require absolute adherence to certain principles, but there are very few principles, and they’re conceptual in nature. It doesn’t require you to do the same thing, the same way, every time. It really encourages initiative and a certain amount of creativity within a framework.

“The other way that the Marine Corps was helpful to me, early in my time in baseball, was for credibility — as odd as that sounds. Without having a background in baseball, people look at you — and you’re a lawyer — and they could have some skepticism about that, but as a former Marine, it’s like — it wasn’t as if I was a former player or someone that had direct association to the game, but it was still something that people respected. I didn’t wear it on my sleeve, but I think, in addition to the inherent qualities that one develops by being in the Marine Corps, from a credibility standpoint it also helped bridge the gap there early, when I was an outsider basically.”