Oct 2, 2008 - 8:37 PM
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New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya must have nine lives.
Minaya, the architect of a team that has collapsed each of the last two seasons, inexplicably was given a three-year contract extension on Thursday.
The deal also includes two club options that could let Minaya continue to fumble his away around the "Big Apple" until 2014.
Sure, the first Hispanic general manager in baseball history has done a lot to help turn around the once moribund franchise. Minaya is 357-291 in four seasons and has turned New York into a contender year in and year out - albeit with the help of seemingly limitless financial resources.
Center fielder Carlos Beltran, first baseman Carlos Delgado and lefthander Oliver Perez - among others - were the key acquisitions that helped spur the Mets to within one win of reaching the World Series in 2006.
He also was lauded for bring in Pedro Martinez, a move that helped lure Beltran and Delgado to New York and made the Mets an instant box office draw.
But since then, Minaya has struck out in almost every way imaginable. The fact that the extension was announced just four days after New York completed its second September collapse speaks for itself.
The Mets relinquished a seven-game lead with 17 to play last season in the National League East Division and failed to make the postseason this campaign despite holding a 3 1/2-game lead in the division with the same amount of games left on the schedule.
Mets' fans must be asking, 'Are we in the twilight zone?'
The answer appears to be yes if you listened to chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon during Thursday's press conference.
"Coming up a game short the last two seasons is incredibly frustrating and disappointing," Wilpon said.
"The entire baseball operations staff is evaluating our shortcomings from top to bottom to see what we're missing so that we can get into the postseason in 2009. The contract extension reinforces our confidence in Omar's leadership in the short and longer term."
Wilpon then explained why he still has faith in Minaya.
"We failed this year and we want to get the redemption that we need and move forward, and we thought Omar and his staff was the best group to put us in that position," he said. "We obviously were not a very good team when Omar came aboard, and he's turned this thing around, and we think he deserves another chance to keep getting us to where we want to be."
Wilpon may be one of the few people that have confidence in Minaya given his track record over the past few years.
"It comes with the territory," Minaya said of the criticism. "I think when you take these jobs, if you're going to have polls done after teams lose, you're not going to be popular. If you have polls when the team wins, you'll be popular."
Minaya has made some bad personnel decisions during his time in New York, but nothing tops the four-year, $25 million contract he gave injury-prone second baseman Luis Castillo in the offseason.
Minaya acquired the 33-year-old slap-hitting Castillo for a pair of prospects in July 2007, and then inked him despite the fact that he had arthroscopic knee surgery the following offseason.
As expected, Castillo was bothered by the knee in all of 2008 and also missed time with a strained hip flexor. He hit just .245 with three home runs and 28 RBI in 87 games.
Exhibit B is left fielder Moises Alou. Minaya signed the brittle 41-year-old to a one-year, $7.5 million deal in the offseason. He should have just burned a pile of $100 bills.
Minaya was well aware that Alou had not played 100 games since 2005, yet made no effort to insure the team when the inevitable injury struck.
Alou lasted just 13 games before heading to the disabled list with a calf injury. He never saw the field again, and the Mets were left with a platoon of journeyman Fernando Tatis and the offensively challenged Endy Chavez.
And last but certainly not least, Minaya also grossly misjudged the bullpen situation.
Nary a lead was safe in the late innings this season. Mets' relievers blew a franchise-record 30 saves, which in part was due to the loss of All-Star closer Billy Wagner, who will miss all of next season once he undergoes "Tommy John" surgery.
While you cannot account for injury, a little foresight could have prevented the embarrassment that became New York's bullpen. It was clear throughout the offseason that it needed to be upgraded, yet Minaya did nothing.
Yes, last winter, he did bring in lefthander Johan Santana (16-7, 2.53 ERA), who nearly single-handedly prevented another collapse by tossing a three-hitter in the season's penultimate game to pull the Mets into a tie with the Milwaukee Brewers for the NL wild card lead.
But the aforementioned bullpen blew at least seven wins for the two-time Cy Young Award winner this season. The Mets lost the NL East Division to the Philadelphia Phillies by three games - you do the math.
And while the trade for Santana was a boon, it drained an already porous farm system that was fostered by years of bad drafting and even worse trades. New York's farm system entered the season ranked 28th out of 30 teams, according to Baseball America.
It's no secret that Minaya has swung and missed as much as Phillies slugger Ryan Howard. In case your wondering, Howard has struck out 199 times in each of the last two seasons.
Unfortunately for the Mets, Minaya - like Howard - will get plenty more at-bats.
