Davidoff: Maine only one of several depth-sapping roster issues festering under Minaya

Let us begin this column by stipulating that Jerry Manuel is not a good manager at all, in our opinion, and that the Mets would give themselves a better chance to win each day by replacing Manuel with Bob Melvin.

Friday night, however, Gil Hodges couldn't have figured out a way to beat the Yankees.

The Mets lost the Subway Series opener, 2-1, because they had to use Elmer Dessens in the seventh inning of a scoreless game.

Elmer Dessens. Your classic veteran Quadruple-A player.

And that decision does not fall on the shoulders of Manuel. It falls instead on Omar Minaya and his lieutenants and, to a lesser extent, on ownership.

It was Minaya who decided last winter to tender a contract to John Maine when the Mets could've simply washed their hands of the enigmatic right-hander for no cost.

It was Maine who took the mound Thursday night at Nationals Park and, continuing a pattern of oddness that earned him the "enigmatic" handle, threw five batting practice-caliber pitches to Nyjer Morgan.

It was Manuel who rightly pulled Maine at that point, a necessary move, but one that burned the bullpen to the point that Dessens became the man at this crucial moment.

We'd cut Minaya some slack; After all, he signed Hisanori Takahashi, who befuddled the Yankees with his blend of off-speed stuff and looks like a much-needed boost to the starting rotation. But roster depth has been a recurring theme for this club since 2007, and it seems once again to be a crippling flaw.

It's apparent that the Wilpons committed to the four-year, $66-million deal for Jason Bay last December and otherwise drew a hard line on the free-agent market. Yet the Wilpons certainly didn't tell Minaya to bring back Maine for $3.3 million.

To commit to Maine as a definite member of the starting rotation, given how poorly Maine's 2008 and 2009 seasons went, belied common sense. It shouldn't shock you that not only is Maine on the disabled list but that he arrived there in the most tense, awkward fashion imaginable.

So with Raul Valdes, Manny Acosta, Jenrry Mejia and Pedro Feliciano all put to work Thursday night to back up Maine, Manuel went to Dessens, just recalled from Triple-A Buffalo to replace Maine on the roster.

Dessens caught a bad break. With Nick Swisher on first base and none out, Francisco Cervelli tapped a soft bouncer to second baseman Alex Cora - whom Minaya overpaid significantly at $2 million. The usually sure-handed Cora, trying to get the lead runner, threw wide to Jose Reyes, and the runners wound up on second and third.

West Babylon native Kevin Russo, making his first major-league start, then stroked a double to rightfield, and the Yankees had a 2-0 lead.

And . . . that was about it. The futile Mets offense couldn't deliver. Can't blame the Mets' front office for the continued struggles of Reyes and David Wright. Yet certainly we can wonder why Jeff Francoeur came back for a $5-million salary.

In a winter when dollars appeared scarce after Bay, the Mets spent more than $10 million on a trio of players whom, you could argue, could be replaced adequately by three minimum-wage guys. That would've given Minaya the extra dollars he needed to go for a Jon Garland, or even a Jarrod Washburn, at very reasonable costs.

A lack of roster depth turned the Mets into heartbreakers in 2007 and 2008, and we'll cut them a break over last year's injury plague, which would've decimated any team.

In 2010? These Mets are in jeopardy of becoming just as irrelevant as their immediate predecessors. They just don't appear to have the horses.