Mr. Met isn’t smiling tonight…
There is a saying in sports that you can’t fire the owner and you can’t fire the players. A certain baseball team in New York is showing this rule applies.
First was the embarrassing events that took place this week with my favorite baseball team, the New York Mets. Quick back story on the situation. The Mets fired their manager Willie Randolph after about a month of speculation about his job tenure. Managers get fired all of the time, no biggie there. I personally don’t think the terrible play was completely Willie’s fault, which I’ll get to later.
The problem was the way that the situation was handled. The Mets were about to head to California for a road trip and Randolph told Omar Minaya, his boss and general manager of the team, that he didn’t want to go on the trip if he was going to be fired. Randolph wanted to leave the job with dignity, if it was possible. According to speculations, Minaya told him that he wasn’t going to get fired and the team headed to California. Then after the Mets win three out of four games, things seem well. However, after the Mets won a game against Anaheim, Minaya fired Randolph and announced it on a press release at 3 a.m. in the morning.
What a joke. I see how the Mets were working, from a PR prospective. They wanted to sweep this firing under the rug so that no one would notice. That’s why they did it during a road series, to avoid the New York media. However, that move may have worked twenty years ago, but not now in our current digital age.
The problem with that organization is a lack of accountability. The Mets collapse towards the end of last season and their uninspired play to start this season comes down to everyone. Randolph deserved some blame but Minaya deserves blame for putting together an old, slow and injury prone team as well.
It seems like if you’re an old, Latin ballplayer, Minaya has you on speed dial. Enough with the old guys. I’ve always said that I would rather see my teams lose with young players than old players. Just ask the San Francisco Giants how having an old team has been the past few years.
The Mets have the budget and the resources to have a good player development organization, yet they seem to be stuck with old guys. Delgado, Castillo, Alou, Pedro Martinez, Fernando frickin Tatis. Really?
Let’s look at the top teams over the last few years and some teams that have emerged this season. All of them have embraced young players that have developed properly in their systems. Some teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, Angels and Cubs bring in some veterans but still have acknowledged that they need to mix in some young players to stay on top. Then you have teams like the Rays, Indians, A’s, Twins, Phillies, Marlins, Brewers and Diamondbacks who have overhauled their teams with young players and have bright futures. I don’t see that with the Mets. Minaya is a blame for this.
However, someone had to hire Minaya and this is where ownership comes into play.
They need to just overhaul everything and start over and only keep Reyes, Wright, Beltran and maybe Wagner even though he’s older.
It is what it is and resident Mets fan Jon Stewart summarized it best below.
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