Phillies GM Amaro feels for his friend Minaya

PHILADELPHIA - The Mets used to stoke the competitive fire of the Phillies. Now they elicit only sympathy.

This week, with his team preparing for its fourth straight postseason appearance, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. swapped condolence e-mails with Omar Minaya, who was relieved of his GM duties Monday after another sub-.500 season.

Amaro, 45, followed Minaya, 51, as only the second Hispanic GM in major-league history; despite their positions in the National League East, he considers him more of a mentor than a rival.

Only three years ago, Minaya was a Sports Illustrated cover boy and Amaro was an assistant GM still waiting for his shot at the top job. Now the ousted Minaya is in baseball limbo and Amaro, who got his GM title immediately after the Phillies' 2008 championship, is presiding over a team many consider the favorite to win the World Series. It would be the Phillies' second championship in three years and third straight Series appearance.

When asked Thursday about Minaya's fate, Amaro felt bad for his friend. "I guess things didn't work out as everyone would have liked over there," Amaro said. "But he's a great gentleman, and to me, he's still someone I look up to in this industry. He's always been very supportive of my career."

The Mets held Minaya responsible for the failure of his $130-million team this year, and the cumulative effect of four straight seasons without a playoff appearance ultimately took him down. But Amaro doesn't see why Minaya should take the fall for the past two years, which were sabotaged by a number of losses to key personnel.

"Obviously, they have a lot of talent on their club," Amaro said. "But they've been struck heavily by injury issues and haven't been able to get the continuity they've wanted from a lot of those guys. They lost their entire team last year, and so it's very difficult to assess the job that someone does when it's more of an incomplete than anything else. Those are things you really can't control."

That's why Amaro, seemingly invincible at the moment, knows that things can turn around quickly. It happened in the span of four seasons for Minaya, even with two years left on his contract.

Amaro also saw it happen to one of his former bosses. Phillies GM Ed Wade was fired after the 2005 Phillies finished 88-74, only two games behind the first-place Braves.

"I have not been in the unfortunate position to be fired yet - I know it will happen eventually," Amaro said. "But really, there's a fine line there. When Ed Wade was let go, you could look to two or three or four games that made the difference between us being perceived as a successful organization and not. It's about trying to make the best decisions and you're hoping that the players play to their ability. Sometimes they don't, sometimes they do."

Wade, however, did leave a lasting impression on the franchise by hiring Charlie Manuel as the replacement for Larry Bowa. In looking for the opposite of what they had in the fiery Bowa, the Phillies promoted Manuel, already employed as an adviser with the club.

Amaro knew him well, too. Manuel was his hitting coach when he played for the Indians, and that relationship continues to work well now that Amaro has ascended to the GM position. The Mets probably will look to someone they also are familiar with - and the opposite of Jerry Manuel.

"A lot of times you almost have to tailor your manager to the personality of a club," Amaro said. "We just felt like a personality change and maybe a new voice would help them get over the hump, and that's kind of where Charlie came in."