Category: Management

Mets To Announce New Contract For Jerry Manuel

Multiple media outlets are repoting that the Mets will make an announcement today that Jerry Manuel has agreed to a contract to continue managing the team. The interim tag will finally be removed from Manuel’s title after managing 93 games this season after the firing of Willie Randolph.

The deal is reported to be for two years at $1 million per season, with a team option for a third year. That contract will put Manuel squarely in the middle tier of manager’s salary between Bob Melvin in Arizona and Eric Wedge in Cleveland.

I’m surprised that the Wilpon’s and Omar Minaya didn’t appear to investigate other options. They jumped right into negotiations with Manuel. Apparently, they really liked the way he managed the team.

There isn’t much not to like about Manuel’s work this season. He certainly motivated the players to attain their potential and did his best with a bad bullpen. He’s a solid choice to lead the Mets in their first seasons at Citi Field.

The only concern I have is that, by all accounts, he lost the White Sox clubhouse in 2003. He had some tough personalities there like Frank Thomas. But that’s something we’ll need to keep an eye on going forward.

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Mets Set To Extend Minaya For Three Years

There’s an 11:00am news conference scheduled by the Mets for today. Several media sources are reporting that the Mets will announce an extension to Omar Minaya’s contract that will keep him with the Mets until 2012 or beyond. I’ll be curious to see what the terms of the deal are. Minaya is finishing the fourth year of a five year contract valued at $4 million total.

In all fairness, he should be in the top five GM’s in terms of salary. He’d be higher if the Mets had won a World Series during his tenure. His compensation should be comensurate with the team’s payroll, track record of success, and size of market. He’s got two of the three, now we just need a World Series championship.

Maybe they’ll surprise us and announce a new deal for Jerry Manuel.

Mets Manuel Likely To Return

The word is there could be an announcement as early as Tuesday that Jerry Manuel will be signed to a contract to continue as the Mets manager. I have no problem with that. He had a .591 winning percentage over 93 games this season, a sizable sample. Over a full season that translates to 96 wins. You can’t beat that.

That said, I’m extremely disappointed that the Mets got to the precipise again and couldn’t make it over the top. And that’s with Manuel at the helm. He did take over a team that was dead and gave them some life. So Manuel started out pretty deep in the hole. I don’t consider injuries as a factor for the Mets this season because every team has injuries.

If it was my decision, I’d do some due diligence to see if Keith Hernandez was willing to take the managerial job. If not, I’d work on signing Jerry Manuel to a two or three year deal.

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Report: Mets Will Extend GM Omar Minaya For 4 Years

ESPN.com is reporting that the Mets will announce a four year extension of Omar Minaya’s contract. Minaya’s had his up’s and down’s during his tenure but I like his aggressiveness. He’s consistently put the Mets in a position to make the postseason, as would be expected with the payroll he has to work with.

I’m all for signing Minaya to be here for four more years. He would be a hot commodity in Philadelphia and Seattle in the offseason if the Mets let him go.

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Report: Jerry Manuel Expected To Return in 2009

CBS Sports senior baseball writer Danny Knobler wrote a column yesterday about managers that will be returning next season. We already knew that Cito Gaston would be back in Toronto next year, but Knobler also writes that Jerry Manuel is expected back with the Mets.

I’d be shocked if Manuel didn’t come back next year. The 2008 season has turned around dramatically since he took over. He’s accomplished the only thing that he really has control over: motivating the players to reach or exceed their potential. His in-game decisions are solid, if not innovative. He’s not driving us crazy by batting the pitchers eighth in the lineup or anything silly like that. I’d be hard-pressed to come up with an argument not to bring him back.

Image via Wikimedia

Thumbs Up For Mets Manager Jerry Manuel

Today is two full months since Jerry Manuel was hired as the interim manager of the Mets. He took over for Willie Randolph on June 17th in the ill-fated late night firing in Los Angeles. Although the Mets front office took a lot of heat for the logistics of the firing, it turned out to be the right move. Now we’ve had a good sampling of the type of work that Manuel can do.

Manuel’s been able to develop positive relationships with the players. Some of the players he takes a “big brother” tact with, and others he has harsh words for in the media (e.g. Luis Castillo). That contrasts with Willie Randolph who didn’t seem to have any relationships in the locker room by the end of his tenure.

image Manuel’s moves on the field have been aggressive offensively, hitting and running is getting much more than lip service now. He’s picked his spots to show faith in his pitchers to get out of jams, and he’s shown a quick hook on occasion as well. He’s working with a good feel for the team, something I always though Randolph lacked.
Best of all, Manuel shows no favoritism to big contracts or veteran status. Players perform and they play, period. I hated the way Randolph made young players “earn” a move up in the batting order based on Major League tenure, not performance (e.g. David Wright).
I’m going to put my opinion out there that barring some dysfunctional collapse (e.g. 2007) I’d like to see Jerry Manuel get a contract with the Mets beyond this season. As the SNY crew mentions ceaselessly, Manuel is very self-aware and at peace with himself. What a great contrast to the paranoid Randolph, who became obsessed with denial of the 2007 “Collapse”.
Bring back Jerry!

Stephen A. Smith- The Brothers Manuel

I’m not a big Stephen A. Smith fan but I thought that I’d link to this article that he wrote for ESPN The Mag. The subject is the relationship between Mets manager Jerry Manuel and Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. Apparently, they’ve known each other for more than 20 years which isn’t a big surprise as the baseball circle is pretty small.

It sounds like the two have a lot of respect for each other and a good relationship:

“Charlie and I have known each other for more than 20 years. And every time he sees me, he says, ‘Jerry, you know the only thing good about you is your last name.’

I thinks it’s probably obvious that I can’t stand the Phillies but it seems like Charlie Manuel does a good job of maximizing the talent that he’s given. That’s all you can ask of a manager. He does a much better job of setting rules and expectations with his players than Willie Randolph did while he was with the Mets. That’s evidenced by his benching twice this season of reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins. Randolph was criticized for having two sets of rules: one for veterans and the other for younger players. Jerry Manuel’s seems to have done a good job of evening the playing field for the team and setting expectations.

It’s an interesting read as much as Stephen A. Smith could be.