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In a report for SI.com, Jon Heyman lists Mets GM Omar Minaya among seven general managers who could potentially 
lose their job this season.
According to Heyman, “There’s pressure on every Mets decision-maker after their epic implosion last year…In general, however, the Mets have improved during Minaya’s tenure, thanks to some big-ticket signings…Minaya also has an excellent relationship with the team-owning Wilpons, which can’t hurt.”
…from what i understand, as i have said a few times since the end of the last season, as have others, Willie Randolph is on far shakier ground than minaya…that said, it would be in every one’s best interest to win..
Just win, baby. Juuu know what I’m sayin?
Yeah, and if you read the rest of his column, there’s a note from a scout saying with Rollins on the DL and the Mets having Santana, the Mets should have a 6 game lead.
It’s really true. And with the Braves’ injuries, it should be even more so. I still think if we can put together a nice streak like winning 10 out of 15 games, we can get a lead in the division.
Of course, what we do with that lead, now that is interesting…
So, Rollins being on the DL is worth a bunch of games, but Pedro+Alou+Duque having a combined 3 1/3 innings has cost us nothing, not to mention Schneider & Castro missing time?
Injuries happen in baseball. Cal Ripken doesn’t come along very often.
I guess Heyman just listens to the Philthies fans’ Clintonesque whining about how tough they have it. Anyone reading Beerleaguer would think the ‘07 Mets had 7 guys play 162 games listening to them harp on about how terribly their team was affected by injuries.
Are you suggesting Rollins has to play under the duress of sniper fire?
I actually meant that as a joke, but the more I think about it, it actually could be true in Philly . . .
its not omar’s fault that willie still hasn’t figured out how to use his pitching stafff properly.
That comment would make sense if those two things were the only things that determined game outcomes for either team. Otherwise it’s just foolish.
Omar has done more good than ill with the mets. However, I cannot help but think that he urged the Wilpons to retain Willie after The Collapse just to keep his fallguy around.
What has Omar really done other than convince the Wilpons to spend money? Hes traded away as many good players as he has acquired. Hes been mediocre at best when you consider the payroll he has to work with.
Your 71-91 2004 NY Mets
C Jason Phillips
1B Mike Piazza
2B Jose Reyes
3B David Wright
SS Kazuo Matsui
LF Cliff Floyd
CF Mike Cameron
RF Richard Hidalgo
SP Tom Glavine
SP Steve Trachsel
SP Al Leiter
SP Jae Weong Seo
SP Matt Ginter
CL Braden Looper
RP Mike Stanton
RP Ricky Bottalico
RP John Franco
RP Orber Moreno
Those were the days…ugh!
At least with that team I had no expectations…
Point proven and you didn’t even need to pull out the standings!!!
Was that your ace in the hole? No, wait. The ace was Tom Glavine haha.
lol awwwwwwww man. Strole down memory lane
Traded for Maine, Perez, Schnider, Chruch, and Sanchez. Signed Pagan. Those are all non related “payroll moves” that have worked out so far.
Not to mention every move in 2006 that worked out. such as Chavez, Bradford, and Darren Oliver.
We all know Omar has made plenty of bad moves as well, but to say he hasn’t made any good moves that didn’t involve the checkbook is ridiculous.
The move that I have been most critical of is letting Bradford go. He was not the only reason that the ‘06 did so well, but he was one of the reasons.
bradford and oliver were the 2 relievers I actually trusted with the ball in 06, who let them go? and putting pagan on the roster was a no brainer after the spring training he had. Perez is like the jekyll and hyde of the mets. Maine was a big pick up, and if he actually did think maine would turn into the ball players he has and will become then yea, that was great foresight.
The guys he has brought in have contributed far more than the guys he gave away, over the course of the deal…Now realize that I am only considering trades here, not contracts that were given after the fact. Note: Julio, Nady, and Mota don’t appear, as they were both shipped in and out via trade.
Out:
Bannister
Bell
Owen
Lindstrom
Jacobs
Yusmeiro Petit
Kris Benson
Milledge
Keppinger
Out of this list, Owen and Lindstrom have not amounted to anything significant. We all saw what Jacobs was, but the deal was the right move–Nobody has panned it. Bell had his chances here, but just couldn’t perform. Seemingly a change of scenery kind of guy. Bannister is the one guy you can look back at, but the deal seemed right at the time. Losing Kepp hurt, given his production with Cincy, and our 2nd base issues the last few seasons. The Benson deal has got to be the signature move, because he flat out robbed the Orioles.
In:
Maine
O, Perez
Santana
El Duque
Sanchez
Church
Schneider
Roberto Hernandez
Green
Castillo
Gotay
We know the story with Maine and Perez…Between Sanchez, Maine and Perez, you’ve essentially cancelled out (and then some) Omar’s poor trades. Omar played his hand well in the Santana deal, but certainly the jury is still out with regards to him, Church and Schneider. The trades to bring in Green, Duque and Castillo were a great way to fortify the ‘06 and ‘07 teams, though extensions given were not as wise.
I think he has got an excellent trading record. His free agency signings (aside from big ticket items) leave more to be desired. The deals that really hurt were the Duque deal, the Castillo deal and the Mota deal. The former 2 are definsible however, to a certain degree…Duque was resigned for a modest sum, and did produce last year.,..this year, im not convinced. Castillo was a good pick up because the team has a hole at 2nd, and there was no talent available…some bring up Gotay, but I’m not so sure about him as a starter. The 4 year term of the Castillo deal seems excessive off the bat, but time will tell.
Ultimately, Omar is far more than a mediocre general manager. I don’t factor in his performance in Montreal, as that was a very different set of circumstances. For the Mets, every bad move he has made can be countered by several better ones, many of which are under the radar.
I know its not the entire roster of people he has traded away or traded for…these are just the ones that have had some sort of significant impact on the ML level.
this is a nice list, saved me from a lot of leg work looking all that up.
One thing I will add is when you look at all the money thrown around to free agent pitchers, You can’t really fault the El duque deal and especially picking up his option for this year, obviously it hasn’t worked out so far, but if (and i know it’s a big if) he does pitch with any success this year we may be singning a different toon about him, same with alou (who had success when he was healthy last year).
Also, two big moves we are totally down playing, was the locking up of Wright and Reyes. I know it seemed like a now brainer move, but he still was able to pull off the move and at the money we are paying them now relative to the going rate for players of that caliber, those moves were solid.
Of all the young players that he’s traded away for the “win now” philosophy, I’m still not sold on the fact that any of those moves were bad moves, Delgado was great for half of that contract and now he’s in his walk year so no lose there. Lo Duca was great while he was here and he left him go at the right time.
I know it wasn’t his money, but all the big name free agents he brought in have had good success, Pedro, Beltran, Johan (so far), and Wagner (I think he brought in Wagner). Yeah Mota stank, schoenweis is sketchy, but all in all we aren’t sitting on any Zito’s, or Giambi’s or Johnny Damons.
This year he knew Alou, El Duque, and Pedro may be past there prime, so he stocked up the reserves, with Pagan, and Clark, Vargas, FIguero, and Armas.
I’m not an apologist, I realize omar’s not perfect and has made some mistakes, but all in all for all of my short memory of the mets (1990 and later) I’ve never felt more excited about the present and the future as i have the past 2-3 years.
I have to agreedwith you, Matt, on your assessment of Willie and Omar’s future.
Omar has had some good deals and some not so good deals. I tend to think that none of them caused the collapse last year. He fielded a team that has won 97 games in ‘06 and could have locked up the division in mid-September last year.
Also, his best move might have been not signing Zito for the long term deal. I did not lose any sleep over not signing him before the ‘07 season.
I think his downfall may actually be in a year or two when his “win now” philosophy is deemed a failure. He has to find a creative way to get younger at some point.
The Mets clearly don’t play in a market that allows for building a team from the ground up and the recent success of teams like the Rockies and the D’Backs illustrate that. However, I also agree that it is hard to “re-build” when they are moving into Citi Field next year.
*agree* not agreed…sry
Heyman also talks about the firing of Rick Down and the hiring of Rickey Henderson and Howard Johnson. Since the Mets go depending on how Jose is playing here are his numbers from 2006 (Rick Down hitting coach), 2007 (Down / Ricky and HoJo)and 2008 (HoJo):
2006: Full season:
647 AB’s
194 hits
53 walks
.300 Average
2007: First Half (86 games Rick Down)
358 AB’s
140 hits
47 walks
.307 Average
2007: Second Half (74 games with HoJo and Ricky)
323 AB’s
81 hits
30 walks
.251 Average
2008: 22 games
97 AB’s
23 hits
5 walks
Quite a difference in the numbers between the two hitting coaches.
Any idea about his OBP?
OBP:
2006: .354
2007: 1st half .387
2nd half .316
2008: .272
That, I think, is the most telling statistic.
He has got to be on base…just being on base distracts the pitchers and catchers…
but look at Jose’s 2nd half 2007 stats by month. His September dragged everything else down significantly.
sept was his worst month hitting .205 but in July he hit .265 and in august .272.
Not sure if I’m first to note….
He didn’t total 221 hits in 2007. Check your stats.
sorry about that. It should be 110 hits the first half of 2007 not 140.
the ironic part is that Minaya had a very good offseason. he got an ace in a depleted farm system and did not trade away their best prospect and he took a “potential” prospect and filled two starting positions.
you can claim that he didn’t fill the need for a backup 1B but he did fill the need a LF in case Alou got hurt (thus far anyway).
their rotation is injury prone, but all of a sudden Pelfrey has been adequate and Figueroa has been a huge surprise (this far).
for all the Omar bashers, name one move that Omar could ahve made in the past 6 months that he did not. before you go ripping the Catillo signing, who would you propose played 2B this year because there is no indication that eckstein would have accepted the move and I don’t care what anyone says, Gotay is a stop-gap and was not the answer either.
I would have been content with Anderson Hernandez. He was good enough to start the season with the job in 2006. Why not now?
bvaz,
that was a reply to your comment about who i would rather have at 2B.
“I would have been content with Anderson Hernandez. ”
Really? I’m not content with a .200 hitter anywhere in an NL lineup, other than #9.
are you really going to say going into the season that you would have AHern over Castillo? that’s pretty aggressive.
what if Castillo hits around .300 (like he usually does), steals 20 bags like he is on pace to do and provides a good #2 hitter behind Reyes like he is meant to be?
I wanted Castillo here this year. I just hate the 4 year contract.
take a look at the Mets 25 man roster. Minaya was involved in a good portion of them coming here. I think the good has outweighed the bad by a longshot.
I don’t know. If the Mets don’t win this year, someone will be gone and I think Willie goes before Omar. I just haven’t seen enough yet to think the mets won’t get into the postseason this year. what would happen in the postseason is anyone’s guess. I don’t know if Pedro or El Duque will be there or Alou. I don’t know if Reyes will be popping up the first pitch every AB. Omar put together a team to get to the postseason. what Willie does with it is out of Omar’s control.
I don’t care what anyone says, I’d rather have the Reds former GM Krivsky I think? He did a good job wit the Reds, personally I think it is time for a change at Manager,GM and hitting coach. We should’ve gotten that guy Rudy Jarmillo for hitting coach… I think we should trade Castillo to someone who needs a 2B as we did with Mota just for them to eat the salary or half. Maybe the Cubs or Rockies? We could always trade for Orlando Hudson. One more thing, we need a guy like Krivsky who can draft some good young prospects (see Reds 2007 draft ;)
by the way, I also heard that Dan Uggla is on the market mayb we could trade for him. Not sure what they would ask for. but he could give the Mets some much needed pop
Uggla is so feast or famine. Big power out of the second base spot but seemingly a guy that is looking to go long with every swing. Plus is simply adequate defensively.
Although Castillo has been hurt and pretty unproductive so far…I expect him to be better soon as his health improves and he will be better defensively as a 50 year old man than Uggla is right now.
Don’t forget that Minaya chose not to chase Zito. That allowed the Mets to get Santana this year. Every GM makes good and bad moves,but sometimes the best moves are the ones that they do not make.
Dan Uggla also has a horrible batting average and strikes out like he’s Ryan Howard…
No way Omar gets fired after he stole the best pitcher alive from the twins…what more can you expect? He’s given the mets every opportunity that a GM can to win
Agreed!
At some point, the players need to step up and the manager needs to get the most out of them since the team arguably is one of the best on paper in the league.
Heilman, Beltran and Reyes slumping has been one major reason for the average start.
The injuries (2 of which should have been anticipated Duque and Alou) are also leading to the slow start.
I’d really love to see the team in action with
Alou in left, Pedro as the #2 starter, Schneider back behind the plate and Duque as the #5 starter.
Would certainly be a more potent pitching staff and Alou is a pro…in our lineup, he would make a big difference in runs scored.
No way Omar is fired. He’s the best GM we’ve ever had. With out team going all Latin ,how will the players feel about losing Omar?
I can see Willie being replace by Ozzie Guillen or Lee Mazz and in my dreams Bobby V. but no way is Omar getting axed.
no fracture for alou…back in az on friday
Back on the DL by Saturday.
i could careless who omar’s aquired with the open checkbook….
it’s about winning….
steve phillips- 2 playof berths …. 1 national league title… 1 world series berth…..
omar - 1 dissapionting playoff berth ….. 1 collapse…….. with a MUCH bigger purse to work with…….
omar belongs on the seat……..
signing … depending on the old folks home for players3 years in a row is enough to put him on shaky ground…
Omar is not getting fired. Not this year. The Wilpons would look incredibly stupid to fire a guy who stole Johan Santana from the Twins just this year.
what makes omar the best ?? ever heard of frank cashen…?
ummm santana had no where else to go…………. should the yanks have coughed up hughes …….no santana in flushing…
Omar should not be fired, but he does need to re-think his player personnel strategy. We need to get younger and healthier Omar! Beltran, Wright and Reyes are veterans now, lets surround them with young hungry players.
as of right now i agree …. where just talkin hot seat ,now ….. but should we be out of it come sept…… well……..
Well someone posted earlier that they think Randolph is his fall guy and I agree. I think Omar will last through this year if things go south and Willie will take the fall. This is at least a .500 team and most GMs can survive with that.
Omar is justifiably on the hot seat now. So far he’s been an average GM, and that is not good enough for NY.
I don’t know how some can give him credit for not having won the Zito sweepstakes. That is just being lucky. Like the Red Sox not winning out on Contreras. That was just luck. Omar dodged another bullet when Posada decided to go back to the Yankees. For Omar to have made him the #1 target this past winter shows incredibly poor judgment, IMO. And I’m sure this hasn’t escaped the Wilpons either. This is why he deserves to be on the hot seat and possibly fired depending on how the team does this year.
I agree with the Zito comment but the Posada comment is silliness and I’ve had beef with others who’ve brought it up since the winter. Everyone and their sister knew the Yankees were going to do whatever it took to keep Posada and faulting Minaya for purely speaking about targeting Posada as his #1 catcher is silly. It was clearly all talk as I don’t even think the Mets made him an offer. It’s not like he flew to Posada’s home and had thanksgiving dinner with him and by happenstance got spruned by the Yankees.
Since when has Omar engaged in “all-talk” scenarios in the past? I believe they talked to his agent. They were probably told by his agent that Posada still had the Yankees as his #1 goal so to stay tuned.
Why would Omar need to fly to Posada’s home to court someone who has played in NY all his life?
Do you really believe if Posada couldn’t come to agreement with the Yankees that Omar wouldn’t have made him a big ($11+ million) multi-year offer of at least 3 years? I don’t.
Also, the Mets-Posada stories went on for a few weeks and were pretty concrete. Not just speculation. The Mets frequently shoot down items that are purely speculative and wrong. They never shot down this one.
There’s a big difference in showing interest in a player, and signing him. Of course the Mets were interested in Posada, he was the top player available at a position they were looking to fill.
Honestly, bottom line is finding Minaya culpable for showing interest in a player he didn’t sign, is just as ridiculous as praising him for not signing a guy like Zito. But you’ve had an ax to grind with Omar for a while so I wouldn’t expect you to make the distinction.
There’s also a big difference between simply showing interest in a player and making him your #1 target in the offseason. And why is it “of course” when talking about the Mets’ interest in Posada? Any GM who would make their #1 target a 36-year-old catcher who everyone knew would cost a lot has serious flaws in judgment. Especially a GM who had been previously burned badly by aging DL’ed players.
I think it’s always fair to assess a GM for his judgment — whether or not the deal or signing ever materializes. In the Zito instance, I’m actually sparing him criticism, and I think the Wilpons would too as they were probably gung-ho on signing him. But I can’t see sparing Omar any criticism for his judgment on Posada who would have been a disaster for the Mets and a high-risk move from the beginning. Whether it’s a concern or not to the Wilpons will probably depend on whether or not they themselves felt Posada was a good idea. It is the Wilpons’ responsibility to judge Omar on everything — not just deals he actually completes, but on his ideas and plans as well. But you’ve been a charter member of the Omar Protection Patrol, so I wouldn’t expect you to understand.