In all of sports, players regress and at least to me it seems that baseball players regress more than athletes of any other sport. Baseball players regress for any number of reasons: age, injury, failure to adjust to change in the game, etc… What you don’t normally see is regression of executives. I feel that since Omar Minaya took the job of General Manager for the New York Mets he has regressed, specifically after 2006.
Once Omar’s playing career came to an end due to injury, he became a scout. He started his behind the scenes career in 1985 for the Texas Rangers as a scout for that organization. Omar helped bring Juan Gonzalez and Sammy Sosa to the major leagues during that time. Omar eventually left the Rangers, came home to New York and worked his way up to assistant General Manager behind former GM Steve Phillips. Many people credit Omar with the success the Mets had in the late 90’s, helping to build a team around Mike Piazza with young role players.
Minaya eventually left the Mets to become the GM for the Montreal Expos. The Expos had pretty much no money, being jointly owned by the other 29 teams in Major League Baseball. The lack of financial support meant that Omar would have to be creative in making this team better than what they had been for a long time. Omar during the 2002 season, he added Cliff Floyd and Bartolo Colon to the roster, helping the Expos to win 83 games. In 2003 they also won 83 games but once Vlad left they quickly took a nose dive in the standings. With the Expos franchise coming to an end Omar was forced to trade many talented players away such as Jason Bay, Chris Young and Grady Sizemore to name a few.
At the end of the 2004 season, Omar returned to the Mets after the Expos franchise was relocated to Washington, this time as the Mets’ General Manager. Omar went right to work that off season and immediately improved the team after signing both Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. After the 2005 season, a season in which the Mets were eliminated from making the playoffs during the last week of September,
Omar continued to improve the team and make it more competitive. He signed Billy Wagner and added Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca to the lineup. The bench was fortified with experienced veterans and role players like Jose Valentin, Julio Franco and Endy Chavez. Wagner was not the only bullpen improvement as Minaya also added relievers Chad Bradford and Duaner Sanchez to the pen. Omar was even able to limit payroll by trading Mike Cameron for Xavier Nady as well as trading away Kris Benson for Jorge Julio and John Maine. Everything came together and the 2006 Mets came within one game of going back to the World Series, but still the future looked bright.
In the off season, Omar allowed Chad Bradford to leave via free agency, and his main acquisition would be signing veteran outfield Moises Alou, who when healthy was solid, but was plagued with injuries for much of the upcoming 2007 season, a season that would end in gut wrenching fashion for the Mets.
After the collapse of 2007, Omar went out and traded for, and then signed Johan Santana to a multi year contract that would make him the highest paid pitcher in baseball. Despite several other warning signs, Santana would be the Mets’ only significant move. There was also the ill advised 4-year contract given to second baseman Luis Castillo. We don’t need to be reminded of how 2008 ended, but the worst was yet to come in 2009.
Omar signed a much needed K-Rod, and traded for J.J. Putz to revamp the bullpen, but passed on several better options for the rotation and instead resigned Oliver Perez.
Omar had enjoyed a reputation of being able to build a team due mostly to being an excellent judge of talent. His first two years with the Mets clearly showed that. Unfortunately for us and the Mets, Omar has since regressed. It’s very confusing, at least to me.
Perhaps once the Wilpons opened up their wallets and allowed him to spend up to 150 million dollars, he got too used to solving problems by throwing money at them. Suddenly, he was targeting players with star appeal instead of going after players that would be able to contribute to the success of the Mets and fill a core need.
Omar’s regression also spreads to the minor leagues, and the system has floundered and has not produced as everyone had hoped.
Omar I believe is a dying breed of GM in that the landscape is changing, but his style is not adapting. Ten years ago, the MLB draft was not focused on by big market teams as much as it is today. For most teams, it’s one of the most vital aspects of their organization, and more teams now realize the importance of building from within. Player development is now the hallmark of a great organization. Omar still seems to hold to his philosophy of building the team by signing big name free agents or trading for them, something that was never the case with him in his early years as a GM. He has gone backward as the sport continues to move forward. If the Mets do not make the post season or get off to a terrible start, he almost assuredly will be out as general manager of the Mets. It’s time for Omar to get back to form and use his ability as a talent evaluator to build the Mets back into a championship team.
*Mets Merized Online Needs Your Help*
Add Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillips to Grady Sizemore – he traded all three to acquire Bartolo Colon. Freakin’ disaster for a cash-strapped organization.
Good topic, but article misses the mark. Between 2006-2007, Omar dismantled a strength, the bullpen, by allowing both Bradford and Darren Oliver to depart via free agency and he traded Heath Bell, Matt Lindstrom, Henry Owen & Brian Bannister, to name a few of some very talented young arms emerging from within the organization.
Hence, the proliferation of blown saves over the next two (2) years.
At the beginning of 2007, I thought that Bannister and Heilman should’ve competed for a slot in the rotation, and that we absolutely should not have traded Bell, Lindstrom, Owen & Bannister. Further, Bradford and Oliver were critical to our success in 2006. Had Omar not touched the bullpen in the offseason, we would be lightyears ahead of where we are now.
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Your comments relevant to the necessity of Omar’s focus changing from the free agent bargain bin to building from within is on point. Instead of looking outside the organization to resolve shortcomings at the major league level, the focus needs to be on developing the talent we’ve selected through the draft and adding top-drawer talent to supplement the ML roster. That’s really the only way to build a perennial contender.
TOMMY, CASE IN POINT, FROM ‘05 THROUGH ‘08 OMAR WAS NOT “IN CHARGE” OF PITCHING PERSONNEL DECISIONS. THAT WAS PETERSON, WITHIN NYM ORGANIZATION/FLOWCHART. SINCE PITCHING COACHES ARE NOT ACCEPTED FACILITATORS FOR TRADES, OMAR HAD LITTLE CHOICE ONCE RICK DEEMED A PITCHER AS “GONE OR EXPENDABLE” SEE PRE-OMAR DEAL OF KAZMIR. YOU WILL FIND AMONGST LINSTRUM & BELL QUOTES(BOTH SINGLE OUT RICK-TROUBLES AS CAUSE FOR MET TERMINATION) THAT NEITHER ADHERED TO PETERSON’S DESIRE FOR THEM TO ALTER THEIR DELIVERIES & MORPH FROM POWER APPROACH TO CONTROLLED CONTACT ONE. BTW, DECISIONS ON OLIVER & BRADFORD LIKELY JUST GOOD OPTIONS AS BOTH HAD TROUBLES PRE-’06 & THE LIKELIHOOD OF SUSTAINABILITY VERY LOW. BRADFORD HAS BASICLY BEEN RELATIVELY INEFFECTIVE, WHILE OLIVER HAS BEEN DECENT, SUPRISINGLY SO, REMEMBER HE WAS ALL; BUT RETIRED WHEN OMAR CALLED IN ‘06.
THERE ARE 2 HOUSEKEEPING TYPE OF CLARIFICATIONS NEEDED TO THIS POSTING, #1) CAMERON WAS NOT A COST CUT MOVE; BUT RATHER MOVING A PLAYER UNABLE TO BE RETAINED SINCE HE REFUSED TO RETURN TO RF AFTER COLLISION AS WELL AS TO REPLACE FLOYD, HIS BFF IN LF INSISTING UPON ONLY CF. CAMMY ALL BUT DEMANDED A TRADE & REQUESTED A FIRST CHOICE OF SD WHICH OMAR EFFECTIVLY SUPPLIED BY MAKING LEMONADE IN ACQUIRING ‘X’. 2) OMAR WAS THE FACILITATOR IN TRADING FOR JOHAN; BUT THE SOLE CONTRACT NEGOTIATOR WAS JEFF, OSTENSIBLY “LOCKING OUT” OMAR FROM ROOM.
ALL IN ALL POST WAS A GOOD RECAP; BUT REGARDING FARM, NEGLECTS TO IMPLY HOW ANYONE COULD POSSIBLY INHERIT A FOURTH PLACE MLB TEAM WITH ONLY 1 DECENT PROSPECT(MILLEDGE) AND IMPROVE THE MLB TEAM IN SHORT ORDER, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY REBUILDING A FARM SYSTEM SANS FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICKS WHILE ADHEREING TO THE COMMISSIONER’S RECOMMENDED DRAFT SLOTTING SYSTEM THAT PRECLUDES BONUSES IN EXCESS OF NORM FOR THE DRAFT POSITION OF PLAYER. SACRIFICING THE FARM BUILDING IN LIEU OF MAJOR LEAGUE BUILDING IS MOST LIKELY THE PROPER COURSE OF ACTION FOR A FRANCHISE EMBARKING UPON BUILDING A GRAND NEW VENUE. THE METS’ BEST OPPORTUNITY FOR UPGRADING THEIR MILB PIPELINE WAS, AS MANY TEAMS DO, ACQUIRE TOP PROSPECTS WHILE DISMANTLING A “FAILED” MLB ROSTER AS DUQUETTE WAS ORDERED TO DO IN ‘04. BECAUSE JEFF ORDERED DUKE TO NOT INCLUDE CASH CONTRACT ASSISTANCE ON ANY OF THE DEALS, THE PEDIGREE OF PROSPECTS OFFERRED & REC’D SUFFERED MEANING WE DEALT AWAY VETERANS BURNITZ,BENITEZ,ALOMAR,VENTURA, ZEILE AND INSTEAD OF A PLETHORA OF USEFUL PROSPECTS WE RECEIVED OF NOTE, ONLY ROYCE RING(AAA-CHARLOTTE) FROM CHISOX. IF U CONCENTRATE ON SIGNING TOP F/A IN ORDER TO QUICKLY RETURN TO CONTENTION, THE ONLY MEANS OF IMPROVING THE FARM IS TO OFFER FIRST ROUND BONUS $ TO FALLEN FIRST ROUNDERS IN LATTER ROUNDS. SLOTTING PREVENTS THAT OPTION OR ANOTHER WAY IS DEAL VETS FOR PROSPECTS(MISSED ‘04 OPPORTUNITY) OMAR HASN’T HAD THE DEALABLE,DESIRABLE VETS TO ACCOMPLISH THAT. HE HAS, IN HIS WAY, DEALT VETS FOR YOUNGER MLB TALENT SUCH AS DEALING YOSHII TO LA FOR DUANNER & OTHERS, HE RECENTLY “DUMPED” CASTRO ADDING BROADWAY; BUT THERE HASN’T BEEN SITUATIONS LIKE NYY HAD WITH SHEFF TO DETROIT FOR MULTIPROSPECTS, OR SABATHIA TO MILW IN RETN FOR SIMILAR BUNDLE. NYM BEST OPPORTUNITY, OF LATE, WAS IN ‘04. U MAY CHOOSE TO VIEW CAMMY/NADY IN THAT LIGHT AS VET FOR YOUNG MLBer.
OTHERWISE, I HAVEN’T SEEN THE “BIG” MISSED OPPORTUNITY.
Bradford’s numbers in 2007 & 2008 can hardly be described as “ineffective”. To the contrary, he was equally effective compared to his 2006 performance with the Mets. Here’s his stats from the Baseball Cube:
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/B/Chad-Bradford.shtml
In 2009, Bradford experienced are trouble, which is where his performance fell off.
Darrin Oliver remained effective.
And BTW, don’t attribute Omar’s decision to load up on hard-throwing Latinos to Rick Peterson. That’s just wrong, plain and simple.
Your article is a good positive piece in hopes Omar will get this organization back on track. However, I have never really been an Omar fan. I do give him credit for signing some good players, but team/organization building is clearly not his strong point IMO. All MLB teams have one common goal, a WS title. It is the responsibility of the GM to build the organization to accomplish that, which he has never been able to do. As far as his talent scouting capabilities, seems to me in comparison to the talent he has signed, he has traded equally if not more talent away. I do agree with Tommy in the sense that perennial contenders have deep talent developing in the farm systems. This insures a strong future for any organization. Clearly our farm system is seriously depleted, and this would fall on Omar and his talent scouting ability as well. I understand Omar is our GM, I don’t have to like that but it is a fact. So, I have no choice but to pull for him to make the necessary changes to re-build this team/organization. I seriously hope he can turn it around.
I’ve never been a big fan of Omar either but i don’t think you would have written this article if we had no injuries this year.
With Beltran, Reyes, Delgado, Maine, Perez, and later Wright & Santana AND several backups going down..John Shuerholz, Joe Torre, & Tony LaRussa would have regressed.
With no injuries this season is a different story..and spare me the details.
Bayonne – with all due deference to last season’s injury plague, the ML squad dropped the ball bigtime twice in 2007 and 2008. The 2009 club hardly busted out of the gate, either.
My advice:
First, don’t allow the injury plague of 2009 to mask concurrent symptoms of an illness that permeated throughout the entire Met organization. The Brooklyn Cyclones were the only team with a winning record, and Omar’s been at the helm since 2004/2005.
Second, in deference to your point about the 2009 season, Omar definitely deserves a shot at righting the ship. He’s a good dude. Let’s hope he’s a quick learner.
I’m well aware of everything you’re saying. I’m just keeping it simple.
This article doesn’t exist if we had no injuries last year.
While 2009 is probably the main reason for this article, the fact that since the 2006 season Omar has signed big names like Johan and K-Rod but has not drafted well and has not really improved the bench or gotten role players to help the core in winning a championship.
Well if Wright and Reyes didn’t choke during the 2006 playoffs, and Septembers of 2007 and 2008 we all may be singing a different tune now. And yes Wright DID choke during the September 2007 campaign as well as the 2008 campaign (even worse). I know his numbers were decent in September of 2007 but it’s akin to going 3 for 4 in a game but in that game you get 3 hits your first 3 ABs in 6 innings and the strkeout with the bases loaded and game on the line in the 8th. So don’t give me Wright’s batting statistics for September 2007 because they are deceiving.
And in 2008 I know the main reason was the bullpen but we still had a chance but Wright and Reyes..AGAIN..didn’t show up when the pressure was on.
And now that Alex Rodriguez has broken his jinx of not being a clutch player you know who is the number one choker in New York now?
Take a guess……….
Let’s see what happens in 2010.
You are the first to call out people that say anything positive about Wright that they have pom poms, but you certainly have drank the arsenic when it comes to Wright. I wish we had so many players as bad as him.
By the way – D Wright hit .444 with the bases loaded in 07 and a lowly .310 with RISP…….
Yeah he was the reason the team failed in 07
Take a moment out from looking at the David Wright poster hanging in your bedroom and put down your “I Heart David Wright” coffee mug and listen.
Did i say he was the only reason? No.
You say he hit .444 with the bases loaded in 2007. That’s fine, most guys have good numbers with the bases loaded. What part of 2007 are you talking about? Did he hit higher with the bases loaded from April to July? Did he hit .158 with the bases loaded in August? Did he hit .275 with the bases loaded in September?
Again, your stat tells me NOTHING! Were any of his bases loaded hits in September in a pressure situation? Or were they early in a 10-0 rout?
When did he hit .310 RISP? Does that prove those were big hits in the right spots?
Don’t try and argue baseball with me ok?
Now go back and drink from your “I Heart David Wright” coffee cup and maybe you can give him tips on how to wear his pink ribbons and pink cleats.
David Wright is a nice ballplayer, a good 4th or 5th best player on a team. He collects numbers. He’s a glorified Kevin McReynolds. Nothing wrong with that just don’t make him out to be more than he really is.
I’ll go drink arsenic with Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins and spit it out, you can go have pink lemonade with David Wright.
You are right, I will not argue baseball with you anymore, you are incapable of having an intelligent discussion without trying to insult someone on the other end of the opinion.
I will save my efforts on someone that actual shows some signs of having some baseball knowledge.
roll your eyes all you want – i am 100% correct.
No team in any sport can sustain the injuries we suffered. Know your baseball
Bayonne – Kelly’s freaking me out. Her eyes keep rolling.
BTW, I wouldn’t drink Hawaiian Punch with Victorino or Sunny D with Rollins. But they are ballplayers, for sure.
Wright is a very curious case. On one hand, its easy to take him for granted – he’s generated some very clutch hits in the early course of his career and his numbers are clearly Allstar caliber. On the other hand, he has more recently demonstrated an inability to step up in key situations on a consistent basis, especially when he was among the last men standing.
He’s capable of being the 4th or 5th best player in the league, but would you really want him up when the chips are down? Frankly, I think he needs to eliminate his endorsement contracts, forget about being politically correct and go out and let his raw talent take over. He should make it his business to smack a line drive off the skull of any pitcher that throws him high and tight.
I recall in a highschool game I was thrown out at second base sliding head first, and the shortstop intentially kneed me in the head. A few innings later, he was assisted off the field after I stole second base and tore the glove off his hand with my spikes. I will NEVER regret that move.
If I’m putting a team together, give me Carl Crawford, Chone Figgins or Brandon Phillips and Matt “Face-plant” Holliday – I’d find a way to get them in my organization.
I agree with everything you said Tommycat. I just want to correct one thing – i said he’s good enough to be a 4th or 5th best player on a TEAM, not the league…God knows not the league lol.
All the moves omar has made with the mets could have been done by any die hard Mets fan:
We could have signed Beltran, Martinez, just by offering the most money, most years, and a no trade clause. Santana fell into our laps because the Yankees and Redsox wasn’t in spending mode….and Omar and his inept crew still went over the 24/48 hour deadline when negotiating his contract. He got K-rod at a bargin price because of the economy.
The two good things Omar has done was to wrap up Wright and Reyes with multi-years deals….but when he had to use his actual GM skills…he failed becaause he doesn’t have any. He let too many gamers go and bought in his hometown homeboys who were not even qualified to be bench warmers on semi-pro team.
Imagine if Brian (the weasel) Caashman had to use his brain by being an actual GM…instead of just throwing 7, 8, 9, and 10 year multi million dollar contrats around. He would be unemployed or the Steinbrenners personal toilet paper holder.
I think Omar has damaged this franchise more than enough. The mets are a basket case. They happen to have a checkbook and that is all Omar understands. We need a builder or a rebuilder. Omar is neither of those and not likely to become one. I cannot conceive of him lasting beyond this year and I do not even want that. I want him to fail so we can get on with the business of creating a professional baseball organization, not a laughing stock.
Ok first of all has Omar made mistakes of course, but do you realize that he got Johan and Carlos Beltran and at the time Pedro Martinez. I hate when people want the Mets to fail. I believe last year if everyone was healthy and a small pitching trade at the deadline the mets would’ve made the playoffs. I’m not saying they wudve won the world series, but they would’ve been in contention to make the playoffs. I actually think the mets are one-three free agents to being a solid team. Being a mets fan can really really blow, but dont we fail enough? Why would you want our team to fail, just to see Omar leave Cmon We have stick together and people like you really hurt the Mets fanbase
I want the mets to get on the right track. If a year of failure does that, then fine. Call it rebuilding. Patching will not solve their problems. Omar got Santana because the yanks and red sox dropped out. Omar wrote a check for beltran, who still tried to bolt to the yankees for less. Omar is a fraud. He was a fraud with the expos and he was a fraud here. Even the worst GMS do a few good things. The product on the field tells the story. Athletes are not wooed by GMs. They are wooed by bucks. I think it is significant that Beltran was willing to take less from the yanks when the mets’ organization offered much much more. It tells me more about the mets org than it does the yanks.
Beltran was not willing to take less from the Yanks, and didn’t. Not sure where you got that information, because he clearly said in an interview quite the contrary..
Hate the guy go ahead, a change for the team is probably a great thing, and I’d love to see a change too (go ahead read that again before you move on), but to say he did nothing is wrong too, no one will admit it, but he still got some pretty big names here.
The team assembled last year was a pretty damn good one, not infalliable, but pretty good. No sports team in HISTORY of any sports would have sustained through those injuries, no matter how much you all hate Omar.
I was on other met blogs before last year (and all the injuries) began and predicted that team would finish third. met fans tend to overrated players. Especially guys like Maine and Ollie. We did not have the pitching at the start of last year. It was perfectly clear. As for Beltran, the information came from newspaper writers. If you choose to believe Beltran– fine, but what else could he have said if the writers were correct and the yanks turned him down? He would have looked like a dirtbag. I choose to believe the writers. Specifically because it was not one writer who was writing it–it was all over the newspapers. I am not the kind of fan who takes players at their word. They are always manipulating the media. I happen to think Beltran is a pretty good guy, and in the situation he was in at the time, I probably would have denied it too. As for Omar, if you guys want to cross your fingers and hope he does a good job, fine. I think they are taking the wrong approach and wasting our time.
Actually he did offer to take less to go to the yankees:
The New York Yankees were tipped as favorites and Beltran offered them a $20 million discount. The Yankees declined and the crosstown New York Mets signed him to a 7-year, $119-million contract, the biggest in franchise history at the time. It was the tenth contract in baseball history to surpass $100 million.
Link-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Beltran
Also from NY Times:
Beltrán Responds to Torre’s Comments
By BEN SHPIGEL
Carlos Beltrán is about to enter his fifth season in New York — has it been that long already? — but he just as easily could have been doing so for the Yankees and not for the Mets.
A quick rehash: Scott Boras, Beltrán’s agent, gave the Yankees one final shot at signing him and snatching him from the Mets’ grasp by proposing a six-year, $100 million contract — that’s for one year shorter and $19 million poorer than the Mets’ offer. The Yankees, having already added Carl Pavano and Randy Johnson, resisted.
With that in mind, Joe Torre touched on Beltrán’s reported desire to take that discount and play for the Yankees in the book he co-wrote with Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci, “The Yankee Years.” Torre said: “Beltran wanted to come to us, so he could hide among the trees. Nobody wants to be that guy to lead.”
Before being honored at the Thurman Munson Dinner on Tuesday evening, Beltrán responded to Torre’s comments.
“First of all, I don’t know Joe Torre personally, so I don’t know what kind of person he is,” Beltrán said. “The second thing I have to say is that when I met with the Yankees when I was a free agent, he wasn’t there, so you know, he didn’t know that we talked, so I didn’t meet him. So if he did say what he said, then that’s his opinion. I don’t have to comment on that. I feel very happy where I am.”
Not surprisingly, Beltrán added, he does not plan to read the book.
I apologize – you are right, I did some reading, which I should have done ahead of time.
I do remember seeing Carlos on an interview, perhaps a Mets Weekly, not sure, but I do remember him saying “I wasn’t offering any discounts”, but that could just have been a rebuttle, and with Boras as his agent……
On one hand you have Joe Torre – an overrated manager who is a great clubhouse handler but makes repeated head scratching moves once the game starts. He is at his best when he has a team full of superstars. (Reminds me of Willie Randoph – and the way Omar had to Willie Proof the Mets bullpen – something that Tommy2cat alluded to earlier).
On the other hand you have Carlos Beltran – a talented player who is not a leader. My lasting memory of Carlos is the Mets’ world series hopes ending with the tying runs on and the bat on his shoulder.
I haven’t respected Torre since he defended Clemens’ deliberate beaning of Piazza – but I don’t think he’s wrong in saying that Beltran likes to ‘hide among the trees’.