The Minaya Era

This past week, the New York Mets hired Omar Minaya to head up baseball operations. Jim Duquette was retained, but demoted to the role of assistant to Minaya. In conjunction with the removal of Art Howe and his staff, this move makes a strong statement about how ready the Wilpons are to make a change. The demotion of Duquette came as a shock and surprise to many, but not Old Backstop (See my August 19th article: Is the Writing on the Wall for Jim Diquette?).

Unlike Minaya, Duquette came to the table without trump cards. He had no MLB GM experience, no reputation for player evaluation and no track record of prior success. Essentially, Jim had to succeed right away in order to have any chance. Things looked good when the Mets were around .500 at the all-star break but everything had gone just right for the Mets to be there. As soon as adversity hit the Mets, made of smoke, mirrors and duct tape, fell apart.

Omar Minaya had a great relationship with the Mets. In fact, he never actually moved out of New York when he went to Montreal. When the Mets parted with Minaya, Wilpon spoke as if he wanted to send him off to GM college for a few years before his return home to run the Mets. Wilpon hinted of a possible return and a few years later that is exactly what has happened.

It is difficult to tell what Minaya brings to the table. He's never really managed a normal baseball team before. Running the MLB-owned Expos just doesn't qualify as a major league baseball team. With the Expos, Minaya had to deal with ...

1. No money. With no fan base and an MLB-imposed budget, he could not afford any real talent. He was completely forced to work with minor league prospects and a few washed-up unwanted veterans.

2. Bad Money. Exchange rates just stink for Canadian teams.

3. No Allure. What major league free agent wanted to come play in Montreal on turf in front of 2500 fans under a bad exchange rate living in cold weather?

4. Home Field Disadvantage. In addition to playing lots of games in Puerto Rico, they also had no fans at home games and a terrible surface to play on. Road trips were actually a good thing for the Expos.

5. The NL East. Teams like the Mets, Braves and Phillies all spending around $100 Million each season ... not to mention the other team in the NL East ... yeah, the one that won the World Series last year.

Minaya has been praised for his charisma with players and his ability to evaluate talent, but many of his moves as GM of the Expos have been criticized as well. Of course, it's hard to blame him for obtaining people like Carl Everett and Tony Batista. Everett had been productive ... if you could ignore his mental demons. Batista hit 32 homeruns and drove in 110 on an anemic team ... although his defense is questionable and his .272 on-base percentage is laughable. The truth is, the Expos weren't going to do much better than those type of players and they did get 'em on the cheap.

Originally when Minaya traded Javier Vasquez for Nick Johnson it was considered a horrible move. I did not mind the move since I was never sold on Vazquez (see older posts and articles) and loved Johnson's ability to get aboard, but after the 2004 season Minaya is beginning to look even smarter. Vasquez was not the ace he was paid to be. He only struck out 6.8 batters per 9 and had an ERA near 5 ... the wheels really came off the wagon for Javier in the stretch run. Nick Johnson was riddled with injuries in 2004, but he is only 26 and making just over $1 Million per year. His on-base percentage was still .359 when he was on the field.

One immediate upside of Minaya is the ability to turn things upside down. If the Mets trade Mike Piazza, they can simply say "We gave Omar the power to do whatever he wanted, and he wanted to move Mike". Same is true for Glavine, Floyd, Matsui and Cameron ... heck, even Reyes could be moved now under the new "Minaya Regime". In some ways, the Wilpons backed themselves into a corner with Duquette, since everyone knew that Duquette did what the Wilpons commanded. The key question is, will Minaya truly have autonomy? One thing is for sure, he'll be responsible, on-paper, for the Mets success or failure going forward.

It's obvious that Minaya knows players, but there are many questions about his ability to build a winner, handle negotiations, and handle the NY Media. One can only hope that he can truly utilize all of the resources the Mets have. He is thrilled and excited about being the GM of this team ... he's even a native of Queens. I for one can use a change of scenery. A new GM and manager is a good start.