What the Mets can do to help their chances in 2010
Photo credit: Getty Images | David Wright and Mets have 48 games left to play, but there’s plenty of time to plan for next year.
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Mets 2009 season, game by game
So now what?
Despite Omar Minaya's proclamation last Friday at PETCO Park that he is a "glass-half-full guy" and his refusal to concede the remainder of this season, the year 2009, in a "meaningful-game" sense, is over for these Mets.
But as John Cougar Mellencamp once chirped, "Life goes on . . . long after the thrill of living is gone."
Anyone who witnessed the Mets' 2-5 romp through San Diego and Arizona this past week, including Jerry Manuel, would readily admit that the team's performance was less than thrilling.
And yet 48 games remain for the Mets, stretched over the next seven weeks, when the best they can hope for is to play spoiler, beginning tonight with the Giants at Citi Field. In addition, here's a few big-picture items that should be on the Mets' agenda before Citi's inaugural season comes to a merciful close on Oct. 4.
Grab the reins, Jerry
With 10 players on the disabled list, including three of the team's core members, the Mets had a built-in excuse for going in the tank this season. While Manuel earned his two-year extension after taking over for the fired Willie Randolph midway through 2008 - before the September collapse anyway - the front office gift-wrapped a $147-million club for him this year.
Now that those plans are in pieces, Manuel still has to prove he can get this mixed bag of players to put in maximum effort if he wants to guarantee his return for 2010, the second and final year of his deal. It hasn't happened consistently, but Manuel, who chastised a number of his players after Monday's debacle, is starting to take action. He benched Angel Pagan for the last two games of the Arizona series and maybe that message will resonate throughout the clubhouse.
Shut down Beltran and Reyes
It's time to end the pointless exercise of handicapping return dates for Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes. The Mets are going nowhere, with or without these two All-Stars, and it appears that both could use the rest.
Brian Giles is no M.D., but as a veteran of bone bruises that necessitated microfracture surgery, the Padres outfielder even suggested Beltran should "be smart" and rest up for next season. Beltran has played on two aching knees for most of his Mets career, only this seems to be his most serious injury to date because of the tricky nature of a bone bruise. It's too big a risk.
As for Reyes, his career was delayed for years because of hamstring problems and other assorted leg issues, so it's hardly a surprise that this tendon tear has kept him out longer than anyone expected. There's no telling when he'll even get on the field again, so why keep up the ruse?
"I have to keep focus here, I really do," Manuel said. "I thought that at this time, we would have a few guys back. But to go back home, and not see anything on the horizon, we've got to fight it out every day now."
No more front-office follies
Minaya put himself on thin ice with the Wilpons by the way he behaved in the wake of Tony Bernazard's firing and there may be no avoiding a restructuring of the front office during this offseason. These last few weeks give the Mets a chance to not only evaluate what they have on the field, but to see how they may better distribute the front-office duties between Minaya and his fast-rising assistant, John Ricco.
The botched handling of Bernazard's firing already has convinced ownership to give Ricco a more prominent role, and that will continue as he travels with the team more regularly as the ranking executive on road trips. Leaving Minaya behind the scenes will allow the Mets to keep some of the heat off as they figure out what to do moving forward.
At this point, there are no immediate plans to fire Minaya. But the key to the equation is Ricco, who has impressed the Wilpons, both as the team's "numbers guy" - Minaya's description - and for his adept handling of the media. With Ricco becoming a more important figure, especially with the power void left by Bernazard, he could get a new, more expansive baseball-op title if he doesn't wind up as the GM.
