The Mets will announce shortly after the season that general manager Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel won’t be returning in their roles, sources say. The announcements are likely to be made before the playoffs begin Wednesday. The changes will not come as a surprise, as they have been widely assumed for a few weeks now.
It isn’t expected that either replacement will be named immediately. There’s no evidence the Mets have begun contacting GM candidates. The new GM is expected to have a big say in the hiring of a new manager, so the managerial position will remain vacant for a period, as well.
Not exactly shocking news here, but perhaps the most definitively written of the anonymously sourced stories we’ve seen so far suggesting that both Minaya and Manuel will be gone after the season, since Heyman’s report includes at least vague, measured details about what exactly will happen to Minaya and the money owed him.
As I mentioned here earlier, the speculation around what will happen with the Mets’ front office and bench has grown tiresome, especially considering how much clearer the picture will likely look in just a few days. And it’s a bit frustrating because, if these stories are true, it’s unclear why the Mets feel the need to wait until the end of the regular season to part ways with their general manager and field manager.
I wrote this last year:
I always take offseason rumors from anonymous sources with several grains of salt, but what Heyman suggests does seem to jive with everything that has happened in the Mets’ front office and every rumor we’ve heard.
And if it’s really true, the Mets should fire Omar Minaya right now.
Look: Either you have confidence in a GM to build your team for the upcoming season and the future or you don’t. “Putting the heat on him,” as has been suggested, is about the worst possible approach. That only further pushes Minaya toward moves of desperation, the type made to save his job but not necessarily to forward the franchise.
For whatever reason — bureaucracy, checks on Minaya’s power, who knows? — the Mets managed to make it through 2010 without doing major damage to their future. But there were plenty of assignments and transactions that may have negatively impacted that outlook, and as far as I’m concerned, a team should just never go forward entrusting important decisions to people whom it no longer trusts are best fit to make them.
Presumably the Mets will get a fresh start soon, with someone helming baseball decisions and, eventually, a manager they feel can aptly run their team in 2011 and beyond. But if they didn’t feel confident that Minaya and Manuel were the guys to do that entering 2010, it’s puzzling why they kept them around so long.
Tedquarters 
I agree with you 100% here and moreso even on the GM part. You just cant have a GM on the hot seat, in a must win position.
A team must be managed with both short an long term goals in mind. Once you put a manager on the hotseat, the short term outlook becomes the only thing that matters and thats dangerous.
This is an exact reason many point to for why the financial system and banks almost collasped. Because the people in charge were being paid huge bonuses on the year over year earnings, that they had no incentive to look out for the long term.
In regards to a manager, its different, you can operate with a manager on the hotseat, because his control just doesnt extend far enough to do that much long term damage.
the Phillies continue to soar & the Mets continue to tread water..have got to do something to fill those empty seats ..
Finally!!!!
The most disturbing Mets news I keep reading is about “favorites” for the managerial job and the team’s thoughts on tradiing Beltran.
Not only do the answers (Backman & they would like to) frighten me, but how can anyone even be having these conversations when the decision-makers aren’t in place?
Maybe the new GM wants someone with no Mets ties to manage the team. Maybe he’ll be smart enough to realize you shouldn’t give away Beltran.
There’s a good chance it’s just idle speculation from a media that needs things to write about. Or, more frighteningly, it could be that the Wilpons want to exert influence on baseball decisions.
I gotta say, I went from down on the idea of Backman taking over to at least ambivalent about it after visiting Brooklyn. I know he’s got demons in spades, and I know he has a reputation as a frustrating little-ball guy, but he hung out and talked with us for a while and I left feeling like I’d be a lot more confident with him as the Mets’ manager than I thought I’d be.
A lot of that is probably bias because he was obliging and friendly, and it was an off-record conversation so I don’t want to get too deep into it here, but it struck me that a lot of the complaints we have about Jerry Manuel — especially in terms of personnel decisions and protection of his players — would not be problems with Backman.
Could be wishful thinking, of course. But I think we hear he likes to bunt and assume the worst, when he might not actually be the worst.
That could definitely be. I’m not as irrationally opposed to Backman as I once was.
My biggest issue is that it would be throwing a bone to all the mongos who feel like the biggest problem with this team is attitude and effort, instead of talent.
As if these lazy guys just need a fire lit under them to perform well. No, they need an Opening Day lineup that doesn’t feature Mike Jacobs, Alex Cora, Gary Matthews and Jeff Francoeur.
(I know I’m preaching to the choir here)
Preach!
let’s bring in Torre for 2 years and Backman as his bench coach, with the idea he takes over in 2 years
It’s about time and about money. Omar and Manuel are owed salaries because they are not at the end of their contract. The Wilpons have surely seen all the empty seats and have done the math. The only way left to go is up!
OK, but have any of you seen the video of Backman losing his temper in a South Carolina game? On one hand, I did enjoy the Earl Weaverish touch of kicking dirt on home plate, but on the other hand, I worry about how he will handle the pressure of managing in New York City.