Free agency is open and the Mets’ managerial interviews are under way, as well, but Sandy Alderson isn’t quite done with his overhaul of the team’s front office: The club announced today that they’ve hired Paul DePodesta, Billy Beane’s onetime assistant with the A’s and the former GM of the Dodgers, as their vice-president of player development and scouting. Alderson and DePodesta — a central figure in Moneyball who’s armed with a degree in economics from Harvard — didn’t overlap in Oakland, but they did work together in San Diego for two and a half years. [Official site]