NEW YORK -- The Mets are expected to interview Brewers manager Craig Counsell for their managerial vacancy, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, making Counsell the first publicly known candidate for Buck Showalter’s old job. Neither club has confirmed.

This comes as no surprise for a Mets team that has been publicly linked to Counsell since hiring his old boss, president of baseball operations David Stearns, earlier this month. It remains unknown, however, if Counsell would leave his comfortable position in Milwaukee to pursue a lateral move to New York. Brewers owner Mark Attanasio has expressed a desire to keep Counsell in Milwaukee, while Milwaukee GM Matt Arnold called him “our top choice for sure.”

Stearns, at his introductory press conference, declined to comment on Counsell and any other individual candidate.

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Counsell’s contract with Milwaukee expires on Wednesday, though the Mets have received permission to interview him sooner than that, as SNY first reported. The longtime Brewers manager has gone 707-625 over nine years in Milwaukee. He grew up in Whitefish Bay, Wisc., and still maintains his full-time home there.

The Mets also requested permission to interview Will Venable, but the Rangers' associate manager turned down that opportunity, according to the New York Post. Stearns has said he intends to cast “a wide net” in search of the next Mets manager.