As a Mets fan, I’m happy Omar Minaya was relieved of his duties today. I’ve been banging this drum for over a year, maybe longer: The guy did not come close to maximizing the resources available to him to make the Mets a championship team.
Still, watching him address the media today after his meeting with the Wilpons made me feel sorry for Minaya, even though I know he’s still making seven figures for the next couple years and even though, as a Mets fan, I’m near certain it’s what’s best for the team.
So though some nasty part of me, anticipating this, felt tempted to put together a comprehensive list of all Minaya’s questionable-to-bad moves in his tenure with the Mets, all the baffling contracts and bizarre roster decisions, I now feel no desire to do so. Everybody knows why Omar Minaya got canned. It’s better to look forward.
Problem is I really have no idea what happens now. About a billion names — and combinations of names — have been thrown around as potential replacements, and all of them, of course, have both decorations and blemishes on their resumes. Some seem promising — Terry Ryan, Rick Hahn, Josh Byrnes, to name a few — and none seems downright awful.
But I’d be kidding myself and all of you if I pretended to know the GM market well enough to be able to point to one candidate and say for certain that he or she is the right fit to build a sustainable contender in Flushing.
I know the Mets have the resources to create that contender, in the hands of the right person. They play in a brand-new stadium in a huge market and regularly field teams with payrolls upwards of $120 million. Plus for the first time in a while, they actually have a decent — if unspectacular — crop of young players nearly ready to contribute at the Major League level.
So I suspect it might not take as long as we fear for the next GM to point the ship in the right direction. But first, of course, we must find out who’s at the helm.
Tedquarters 
Good post. Pretty much sums up my feelings both on the firing/release and on the future GM.
You don’t remember how hard it is to evaluate GMs until your favorite team is looking for one.
Clearly Adam Rubin is behind all of this.
Terry Ryan sounds good.
One thing I think people forget about when they look at the potential replacemenst for GM’s is that GMs, like anyone at any job, likely grow and learn as thier career progresses.
Whenever a candidate is mentioned, people always bring up what they did in thier previous jobs, as if thats what they will do with the Mets.
For one, its a different team, market, payroll etc. Second, dont people change and grow and learn from mistakes? Like you said every guy will have blemishes on the resume, but I’d like to think most guys, espeically the younger candidates would still be learning, what worked what didnt work in an effort to mot make those same mistakes again.
I think fans, just as I’m sure ownership will be doing, need to look beyond the resume of potential candidates just in terms of deals that were succesful or not. Of course thats hard as fans, since we onthe outside have no other way of judging.
You’re a good man, Mr Berg. Better than I am, for sure.
It just bothers me when media members (not saying you’re doing this) lecture fans on the appropriate reaction to something like this. Unlike Jon Heyman or Steve Popper, I actually pay to go to games. And I don’t care if Omar is nice to them or just lost his dream job. I’d love to play quarterback for the Jets, but I’m horrifically unqualified, both in terms of skill and handsome-ness.
To hear Heyman/Popper tell it, Omar is like a Detroit auto worker whose factory just got closed down as opposed to someone who will make $2 million over the next two years.
I’m thrilled Omar got fired. Nothing personal, just want what’s best for the team.
As I see it, this change will be a good one! The Mets spent too much time in recent years playing lackluster ball.
Firing Minaya from the GM spot is the right decision so as long as his replacement is an upgrade.
Same goes for Jerry.
If you remove someone from a position only to fill the spot with “replacement level” or below, that’s a problem.
People may not be in love with Omar, but I assure you there are some GM candidates out there that are worse. Hopefully the Wilpons don’t hire those people.
Ted…Joe Mc is the name that comes front and center to me. No one can deny or fail to recognize the improvements made to the system over the past three years. These improvements need to be safe guarded and no one can I think of who could better do that while handling the NY market better then Joe Mc.
The Mets number 1 priority should be Dave Duncan as our new pitching coach.
Dave Duncan can have more of an immediate impact than any manager or GM we can hire. The timing is perfect, he would have never left the Cards earlier, but now he is upset with the way the organization, media, and fans handled the situation with his son. Duncan would be like a college team hiring a great recruiter. The Mets need pitching desperately and what better way to attract pitchers than with the most respected active pitching coach and one of the best pitching stadiums. “Are you a pitcher and willing to sign a one year deal and make yourself a lot of money next year, this is the place to be”. No brainer. slam dunk.
Duncan also fits in nicely with my first choice for manager, Joe McEwing. Duncan was a coach with the Cards when McEwing first came up with them. McEwing a Met fan favorite while a player was everything the current Mets are not, fundamentally smart, a never say die fighter, an old school baseball player who always did the little things to help his team win games. Baseball America named him one of their managers of the year the past two years. And unlike Backman he does not come with the baggage and potential public relations nightmare that accompanies Wally (DWI, domestic violance, IRS issues, anger managment classes, etc.)
Clearly changes had to be made, but it is difficult to determine how much of the blame to put on Omar. It is hard to imagine a GM who said his offseason focus will be on pitching would make a decision to sign an over priced Jason Bay without management influence. I just hope the Wilpons bring in the smartest baseball people they can find and let them do what needs to be done to turn this around.
At least finishing in the bottom half of the standings we won’t lose our number 1 draft pick if we sign a Type A free agent.
The Wilpons will hire Josh Byrnes as the new Mets GM and Josh will hire Tony La Russa as their new manager.
here a novel idea….why not hire a woman GM? the couldn’t do any worse….
I JUST HOPE THAT WHOEVER COMES IN..REGARDLESS OF WHO HE IS THAT HE DOESN’T START TRADING ALL THE YOUTH THAT WE HAVE AWAY FOR A GUY THAT WE DON’T NEED. TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF THE GUYS WE LOST RECENTLY AND LOOK AT WHAT THEY’VE DONE.
HEATH BELL, DARREN O’DAY AND NOW THAT HE REINVENTED HIMSELF ROYCE RING. ALL OURS, WHAT A BULLPEN WE WOULD OF HAD, IF WE ACTUALLY LET THEM STAY. I’D HATE TO SEE DAVID WRIGHT OR IKE DAVIS, ANGEL PAGAN OR EVEN RUBEN TEJADA, JOSH THOLE, DILLION GEE OR JOHN NIESE GO. TO ME THAT IS A REALLY SOLID CORE OF OUR OWN GUYS.
GET WHAT YOU CAN FOR MR. DL JOSE REYES AND CALL IT A DAY. BELTRAN HAS SOMETHING TO PROVE TO HIMSELF SO HE’LL BE FINE, BUT IF YOU GET A GOOD OFFER SEND HIM PACKING TO.
CASTILLO AND PEREZ……NOT EVEN WORTH TALKING ABOUT. JUST MY THOUGHTS