Eddie’s poll asking if Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya would last the entire season with the Mets got me thinking. For me the question is not if they will last, but how they will get fired. As much as I try to be positive, I just don’t see how either of these guys keep their jobs past 2010 the way things are already going.
So how do they get fired? It’s interesting when you think about a team trying to firing both it’s manager and it’s GM during the season. It’s not common that a team needs to clean house entirely in the season, let alone go about and do it. This is why the Mets should have fired Omar Minaya this past off season. Allowing him at least another season only handcuffs the team, limiting options they may have had otherwise.
The reason for this is under no circumstances should Omar Minaya be able to hire another manager here with the Mets. Willie Randolph was his guy, and that was a poor choice for New York. Even worse was how he went about firing “his guy.” We learned quickly that Willie wasn’t really the problem when Jerry Manuel went out and accomplished the same level of incompetence by collapsing and failing to make the players in his own right. The next manager of the New York must not, I can’t stress this enough, be selected by the Omar Minaya. It’s time for a change now, it’ll be even more so then.
How do the Mets do this though is the real question. I’d be very surprised if they fire their general manager in the middle of a season. It would be a new low mark in a history littered with lows. So if they can’t fire Omar during the season what do they do?
Chances are they will remove Jerry and install Bob Melvin as the interim head coach to limp the Mets home for another of our patented seasons. The reason I say Melvin and not Wally Backman is simple. One because Backman would really make more sense, so you know they wouldn’t do it, and two I think they want to give Backman more time in the minors to prove he is able to walk that straight and narrow line. Personally I’d love to see what would happen if you injected Backman’s style into this team filled with spoiled brats. It would probably end in an unmitigated mess but it would sure be fun to watch.
To many the type of switch at manager that would happen from Jerry to Wally needs some time to adjust. It would need a spring training where Wally could ramp up his personality over the course of the camp. Just dropping him into that clubhouse would be nuclear most likely. These players have been coddled and protected for far too long, actually making them accountable, and calling them on it, would be a major culture shock.
we would more then likely be stuck with Bob Melvin carrying the team home to another lackluster season. Melvin is not a bad coach, he has a good resume, it’s just more of the same with the Mets. But if it means that during the off season Omar Minaya is gone, and we have a total fresh start here for the 2011 season I could be convinced to put up with it for a few months.
The key to the entire scenario obviously, and to the Mets future as a premier franchise, is the willingness of the Wilpons to keep their hands off. Good owners are businessmen. Good owners are smart enough to know what they don’t know. I’ve been told that you know your doing your job well in business when you hire people smarter then you. The Mets need to start operating like a smart business, and not a family toy.
