Yesterday on his twitter Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman posted the following:

“minaya, manuel have been told by mets boss jeff wilpon they wont be fired over this painful season.”

This organization continues to amaze me. The past 2 seasons have ended with the Mets missing the post season by 1 game, losing that important 1 game the last day of the season.  The Wilpons decide before the Madoff scandal broke that they want a lower payroll than last year.  They figured with the same team, a team that couldn’t score more than 5 runs in a 3 game series with each game a must win that this team suddenly had the ability to win in 2009.  Omar Minaya got a big extension and Jerry Manuel even though he managed the Mets to yet another collapse was brought back for the 2009 season.  Some are willing to let Jerry slide because of the injuries, I don’t like it, I would love to see Jerry fired but I do see their point.  However Omar has been relying far too long now on what he has done for the Mets in the past and not what he has done in the present.   Let’s take a short look for the last season or 2 at what the inept GM has done for this team.

Omar Minaya:

  • Last season signs Luis Castillo to a $25 million dollar contract, a guy who can’t catch a routine pop up by the way.  His range is gone, he calls himself a switch hitter but lets face it when he bats lefty he slaps the ball.  His knees are bad, you can see him wince in pain when has to run hard.  He’s with the Mets for the next 2 years.  The Mets could have just cut him loose like the Tigers did with Sheffield and the Jays have done with B.J. Ryan, signed Orlando Hudson to play 2nd base but Omar refused.
  • Signs Ollie Perez to a $36 million dollar contract.  Perez had never shown he was worth that kind of money.  He at best is a number 3 in the rotation guy.  He comes to the Mets after signing this undeserved contract out of shape and lazy, not willing to work on getting back to game shape.  He is downright horrible when the season starts.  The Mets ask him to take a minor league assignment to work on his game, he runs to his agent and squashes it, forcing the Mets to add him to the DL.
  • He turns down a trade that would have gotten the Mets Jason Marquis.  Jason Marquis this past weekend became the first pitcher to win 12 games this season.  Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, C.C. Sabathia and Roy Halladay among other pitchers.
  • Signs Fernando Tatis to a 1.7 million dollar contract.  Fernando Tatis when he comes up to bat with runners on you know it’s a double play waiting to happen.  Tatis knows his swing is different from last year yet we never see or hear of him working on it before the game.
  • Tim Redding who was coming off of an injury and was still injured gets a guaranteed contract worth $2 million!  He comes to Spring Training and is still injured.  His ERA is over 7 and is now doing bullpen duty.
  • One of the biggest guys on the trade market this season is Blue Jays pitcher Roy “Doc” Halladay.  This season Halladay is currently 11-3 with an ERA of 2.73.  He has pitched so far 4 complete games.  Among many of the teams rumored to be after Halladay are the Phillies, the Mets biggest rival in the NL East.  The Blue Jays according to Jon Heyman offered the Mets the following deal:

“#mets rejected request of package of f-mart, niese, parnell and ruben tejada for halladay”

  • How can you not jump on that deal?  F-Mart might be a good player but I’m not holding my breath on that.  Niese I still think is overrated, no matter what he’s doing right now at AAA, Parnell is at best a # 4 starter, perhaps a setup guy some day and Tejada has a lot of potential but the Mets already have a good shortstop whose young, they don’t need him in the immediate future.  I wonder if it was perhaps Murphy and Evans instead of F-Mart and Tejada the deal would have been done.

Let’s not forget the guys he could have gotten for cheap in the off season but didn’t pull the trigger.  Omar has done a horrible job building up the farm system which is evident this past season with all the injuries and the terrible players currently on the team.  Met fans this is starting to feel like the 90’s again to me.  2006 was a fluke, time to accept and move on.