It seems to me that the Mets are in a lot of trouble. I’m not talking about the fact that the Mets are now in 3rd place and are now under .500. I’m talking about the 9 baseball players that are currently on the disabled list or that their salaries equal almost 70 million dollars. The organization itself seems to be in disarray.
The organization from top to bottom seem to be throwing each other under the bus to preserve themselves. Last winter we all know that Manny Ramirez was a free agent. Before it was revealed that Manny used performance enhancing drugs there was a lot of people who wanted Manny to be part of the Mets. Omar Minaya we all know had been trying to get Manny to become a member of this team since he became the general manager. Last year we all found out that the Wilpons were one of the many clients Bernie Madoff cheated out of millions of dollars, but they insisted that Madoff’s lack of a soul had nothing to do with the New York Mets. In January of this year Mets COO Jeff Wilpon said the following regarding Manny Ramirez to Bloomberg.com.
“Mets GM Omar Minaya has not brought the idea to ownership because the baseball staff is not interested in Manny.”
Wilpon not citing a cash flow problem all but threw Omar Minaya and the baseball staff under the bus because as per usual the Wilpon’s refused to admit that there was a problem.
Fast forward to Spring Training and Johan Santana developed some sort of injury in his pitching arm. There was miscommunication from the start on the exact injury and the severity of the injury. Dan Warthen was concerned, the trainers were but Santana went out of his way to tell the press that nothing was wrong when other were saying that there was a problem. Once again there is a lack of communication in this organization.
Santana’s injury was just the start of the Mets feeding misinformation within the organization. The medical staff and Omar told Delgado that his injury was day to day and that he would be in pain throughout the season, but that he would be able to perform. Two weeks later and Delgado is having perhaps season ending surgery on his hip. Jose Reyes goes down next and Jerry Manuel tells us that the training staff has assured him that Reyes is day to day, but Reyes has not played in over month. Last week Carlos Beltran went down and was placed on the disabled list in what is being called a bone bruise on his knee. Omar, Jerry and the training staff insist it is only an injury that would heal in 2 weeks. Beltran has said otherwise, in fact he has gone to Colorado on his own to see one of the best knee surgeons in the country because he believes the injury is worse than what the Mets have told him.
With 3/4 of the core down the Mets are struggling to stay alive in the National League East. Omar refuses to make a deal, he would rather sit and wait for the guys to heal and then try and catch up to the Phillies. Reports came yesterday that veteran Mets players are begging Omar to add some depth to this lineup. The manager also seems to recognize that a bat needs to be added to this team and quick. Jerry in his post game show has all but begged for Omar to add a bat on Sunday night after the Yanks swept the Mets in their home ballpark. Last night in his post game show he said about the under .500 team:
“We’re a below-average team — period”
The manager is lashing out at the GM for not doing enough with the team struggling, the team is under-performing and the Mets seem to be coming apart before our eyes. Departments are not talking to each other and misinformation is being put out into the public and this is causing more harm than good. The organzation as whole is guilty of this from the owners all the way down to the minor leagues. This didn’t get a lot of press but the Mets had 3 minor league players suspended last week for the use of PED’s.
I don’t know when it began or even how it started. Perhaps the collapse, perhaps building Citi Field took too much attention and now the Mets are paying the price, perhaps the Madoff scandal has had more of a negative impact than the Wilpons would like to admit. But something has happened to this organization since the end of 2006, and needs to be fixed and now. Otherwise there will be more times like this coming.
