Mets Part Ways with Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel

It's official: General Manager Omar Minaya and Manager Jerry Manuel are out,  Mets ownership announced today.

“We are extremely disappointed in this year’s results and the failures of the past four seasons,” said Jeff Wilpon, Mets Chief Operating Officer.  “We need to hire a new General Manager with a fresh perspective who will transform this club into a winner that we want and our fans deserve."

In a letter emailed to Mets fans Monday morning, Wilpon further apologized: " Like you, all of us at the Mets had high expectations for 2010 and we did not come close to meeting them. Since reaching the National League Championship Series in 2006, we have underperformed. The failure is unacceptable and we share your anguish."

Meanwhile, it was a sea of emptiness in the Mets locker room. It is officially baggy day -- the day to say goodbye to another lost season. It is the day we get final thoughts on the season the was. By the way, what season are we talking about ?

I am inside the Mets Clubhouse but I can't find any players. There are no hefty bags either. The only people in here are writers, reporters and cameraman.

How do you figure ? Maybe it's because their chances ended in July. Maybe it's because the team's leadership has been as empty as this vast locker room.

Will we see a new GM or Manager named today ? C'mon this is the Mets. That won't happen for several days.

Today is about severing ties with the two guys who led the not so Amazins' to back to back losing records, including a stirring 79 and 83 mark this year.

Manuel was promoted from bench coach on an interim basis after the midnight firing of Willie Randolph in June 2008. The Mets then went 55-38 the rest of the way but missed the playoffs with a loss in the last game at Shea Stadium, on the final day of the season. It was their second consecutive September collapse.

Still, Minaya was given a three-year contract extension through 2012 and Manuel a multiyear deal.

Minaya won't be staying on in another capacity — as of now.

"The fact is that it's not fair to give me another role. If you're going to bring in another GM — first of all, I don't think the GM would want to have me aboard and vice versa," he said. "Whoever the GM is, I would have to make the decision if I want to work with that person."

He said the possibility of talks for a different job with the Mets were for a different day.

"We came to a mutual agreement that at some point in time we might discuss that," he said.

Minaya overhauled a wretched bullpen in the offseason, seemingly the club's biggest weakness, and Sports Illustrated picked New York to win the 2009 World Series.

But long-term injuries to Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Johan Santana, Carlos Delgado, Jason Bay and Francisco Rodriguez have decimated the Mets' roster the past two seasons.

They finished 70-92 last year, their first at $800 million Citi Field, and a promising start this year was all but wiped out by a 2-9 road trip immediately after the All-Star break.

Attendance dropped at the new ballpark, and Rodriguez embarrassed the organization when he was charged with third-degree assault and second-degree harassment following a fight with his girlfriend's father outside a family lounge at Citi Field on Aug. 11.

On the field the Mets went for long stretches without Bay, Beltran, Reyes and Santana, who had shoulder surgery in September that could keep him out for much of next season. And while All-Star third baseman David Wright rebounded from a dreadful season in '09, he struck out a career-high 161 times and slumped for several extended spurts.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us