In The Aftermath Of The Collapse - Part Four: The Maestro

Part Four:  The Maestro

           Has Omar Minaya been a good general manager of the New York Mets?  Well, for one, he didn’t trade Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano.  No, when he traded the Mets’ top prospects, he got a much better return—Johan Santana anyone?

           Since Minaya took over GM duties for the Mets, Santana hasn’t been his only impressive acquisition.  He also brought in Pedro Martinez, who restored the Mets to some respectability and allowed him to sign Carlos Beltran, and he traded for Carlos Delgado, another instrumental part of the core of the Mets team that has been competitive every season with Minaya on board.  Other useful acquisitions include Paul LoDuca, Darren Oliver, Jose Valentin, Duaner Sanchez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Endy Chavez, Ryan Church, Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis.

           But it hasn’t been all peaches and cream for Minaya, who also took chances on Luis Castillo, Moises Alou, Orlando Hernandez, Shawn Green, Scott Schoenweis, Jorge Sosa, Aaron Sele and Matt Wise—none of whom were very impressive as Mets, and many of whom had massive difficulties staying healthy.

           On top of that, Minaya has made some questionable trades, which have involved bringing in useless players in return for pitchers who have subsequently seen success elsewhere.  In the course of three moves in 2006, Minaya traded Heath Bell (2.72 ERA with San Diego in 2007 and ’08), Royce Ring (2.70 ERA for San Diego and Atlanta in 2007), Henry Owens (1.96 ERA for Florida in 2007), Matt Lindstrom (3.11 ERA for Florida in 2007 and ’08), and Brian Bannister (12-9 with a 3.87 ERA as a rookie for Kansas City in 2007) for Jon Adkins (1 IP for the Mets in 2007), Ben Johnson (27 AB for the Mets in 2007), Jason Vargas (12.19 ERA in two starts for the Mets in 2007), Adam Bostick (5.78 ERA for Triple-A New Orleans in 2007 and ’08), and Ambiorix Burgos (23.2 IP for the Mets in 2007, but didn’t play in the majors in ’08 and is currently dealing with serious legal trouble).

           Not to mention, Minaya’s inexplicable decisions not to re-sign Darren Oliver, Chad Bradford and Roberto Hernandez after the 2006 season.  Instead, he tendered Guillermo Mota a two-year contract despite the fact that Mota was to serve a 50-game suspension at the beginning of ’07 for using performance enhancing drugs.  And we all know how that signing turned out…

           But as bad as some of Omar’s moves have been, and as bad a job as he has done with the Mets’ bullpen over the last two years, we can’t forget some of the brilliant transactions he’s made.  Mike Jacobs, Yusmeiro Petit and Grant Psomas (who?) for Carlos Delgado and cash?  Ingenious.  Kris (and Anna) Benson for John Maine and Jorge Julio?  Highway robbery.  And the Johan Santana trade?  Brilliant.

           All in all, Omar Minaya hasn’t been perfect as GM of the Mets, but he’s certainly done more good than harm, and has put a competitive roster together each year since he’s held the job.  Now, you can say that’s easy to do with a payroll as high as the Mets’ and in a market as large as New York, but there are so many examples of big-budget, high-payroll teams who flat out stink—and that includes the Mets of 2001-2004, before Minaya took over.

           Sure, he could have done a better job with the bullpen over the last couple of years, and could have put the Mets in a better position to avoid the 2008 collapse, but his overall resume is still solid enough to warrant him another chance—but not without consequences.  Omar deserves his contract extension—three years may seem like a year or two too many, but if he doesn’t right the ship this year he probably won’t last any longer anyway.  This is an important offseason for Minaya, if not for the turnaround of the franchise, then for his own job security.