“The more things change, the more they stay the same” seems to apply for the Mets after the last few days. On Friday I posted here that Terry Collins told reporters that it would be up to Carlos Beltran on whether or not he would move from center-field and start playing right-field. Yesterday Brandon Butler posted that Oliver Perez has already been guaranteed a roster spot by Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins. I was hoping with a new regime things would be different but at least in these two instances that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Willie Randolph and Jerry Manuel, the last 2 managers of the Mets ran their teams much like this. They would let the player decide things instead of managing the player and doing what was best for the team. I’m surprised that he would let a player decide where he would play. Everything we’ve heard about Collins is that he’s a take charge manager, the opposite of Willie and Jerry. In a perfect world it would be nice if Beltran would go to Collins and admit his days in center are done but we don’t live in a perfect world. Collins needs to do the job he was hired to do and manage the team. We’ve seen what happens when the manager does not have the control to do this.
What doesn’t surprise me is that Oliver Perez might have been given a guarantee that he’ll make the team regardless of his performance this Spring. I knew Alderson would never allow a player making that much money to be released, regardless if his performance is not going to help the team. I understand wanting to get some value from Perez who is making 12 million dollars this season but this makes no sense. Sometimes you have to go against your “moneyball” philosophies and realize a player is just a lost cause. I don’t understand the logic of having Perez occupy a roster spot again this year. It’s not like the Mets are a team that can win with a 24 man roster, they need all the able players they can get to be productive. I would much rather see a young pitcher like Gee who is hungry and wants to help this team win, make the team instead of Perez who twice refused to accept a minor league deal so he can rack up service time.
I understand Alderson and Collins inherited an aging Beltran and an awful Perez but they could do things differently than the past regimes. The whole reason the Mets got rid of Omar and Jerry was because the way they were running the team was not working. I don’t understand why Collins and Alderson are doing the same thing. Hopefully they’ll learn from history otherwise we’re doomed to repeat it.
