Tag: Omar Minaya

Mets Billy Wagner Claimed By Red Sox

Wagner
Image by phillenium1979 via Flickr

The Mets have an opportunity to come out from under a total of $3.7 million of Billy Wagner‘s contract. The reports are that he was claimed on waivers by the Boston Red Sox. I’m sure the Mets were shocked that anyone would claim Wagner after coming off Tommy John surgery and only pitching in one game on Thursday night.

The Mets now have until Tuesday to: 1) work out a trade with the Red Sox 2) let Wagner go to the Red Sox for nothing 3) pull Wagner off waivers and keep him for the rest of this season. Of course, option 1 is ideal but it will depend highly on how much of Wagner’s remaining salary ($2.7 million) and next year’s option buyout ($1 million) that the Mets are willing to eat. It also depends on Wagner allowing a trade because he has a full no-trade clause in his contract. The reports are that he wouldn’t allow a trade back to the Phillies but would go to a contender.

The Mets should just let Wagner go for nothing and have the Red Sox pick up the rest of his contract. At this point, the Mets are bordering on becoming one of the worst teams that money can buy in the history of Major League Baseball at almost $2 million per win. The only worse team was the 2008 Seattle Mariners, and that cost almost everyone in the front office and the manager their jobs.

For the sake of his reputation and legacy, Omar Minaya needs to drawn down the Mets financial exposure as much as possible. He’s already responsible for one of the worst trades in MLB history and now he’s on the verge of spending the second most money per win in history. Minaya could very well become known as one of the worst general managers in baseball’s 140 year history.

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Mets David Wright On Disabled List

David Wright
Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

The Mets finally got something right yesterday when they put third baseman David Wright on the disabled list with post concussion symptoms. As you know, he suffered a head injury in Saturday’s game after getting hit in the helmet by a Matt Cain pitch.

After a trip to the hospital, Wright was at home during yesterday’s game. It looks like they learned something after Ryan Church‘s concussion, then being flown around the country, then playing poorly for the rest of the season.

It’s possible that Wright could miss the rest of the season according to Jerry Manuel’s comments. Not that it matters anymore because the team is out of the playoff chase.

You can hear Mets GM Omar Minaya’s press conference announcing the move below:

Infielder Andy Green will replace Wright on the Mets roster. He’s a 32 year old that was hitting .270 in 35 games for Triple-A Buffalo.

Basically, there’s no reason to go to Citi Field now unless Johan Santana is pitching. If you’re thinking about buying tickets for a game, don’t bother. The team that the Mets are fielding isn’t competitive anymore with the injuries that they’ve sustained this season.

If you need a Mets fix, stay home and watch them on TV. This team isn’t worth paying the price of a ticket for.

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Mets Have Plan To Replace Omar Minaya

NEW YORK - APRIL 08: General manager Omar Min...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Here’s an interesting story from Adam Rubin of the Daily News. Basically, he writes that the Mets have a plan to replace GM Omar Minaya with assistant GM John Ricco. Rubin goes on to write that the Mets haven’t decided to execute that plan… yet.

Beyond the story itself, you have to look at the reporter that wrote it. Rubin is the one that broke the story of Tony Bernazard’s bizarre behavior. Then Rubin was blistered by Minaya at his press conference announcing Bernazard’s firing. And then Minaya apologized for killing Rubin in public.

Now that we’re caught up on the whole drama, it gets even more interesting that Rubin writes about the Mets plan to replace Minaya with three years left on his contract. Jayson Stark was on ESPN Radio this morning and said that he believes that the Mets need to think about whether they want Minaya as the face of the franchise after his very public meltdown.

Personally, I have a hard time believing that the Mets would eat three years of a contract for anyone other than a player. You just don’t do that for front office people. I don’t have a problem with replacing Minaya. Having a GM that’s responsible for one of the worst trades in MLB history has always bothered me. Think about it. In 140 years of baseball, Minaya made one of the dumbest player moves ever. How can you trust him to control the future of the Mets?

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Mets In The News Aug. 10, 2009

The Mets won yesterday in San Diego, to salvage one of four games, so we all feel good about this team now, right? Maybe not. But they’ll be in Arizona for a few days and there’s still plenty to talk about.

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Mets In The News Aug. 9, 2009

Billy Beane's Parking Spot
Image by pursuethepassion via Flickr

The Mets are playing to avoid a sweep in San Diego this afternoon and the piling on continues. Kevin Kernan of the New York Post writes that the team should fire GM Omar Minaya and hire Billy Beane. Beane was the Mets first round draft choice in the 1980 draft and played 13 games in the outfield for the Mets in 1984-1985. I find it extremely difficult to believe that the Wilpons would fire Minaya and keep him on the payroll for three more years. He just signed an extension before this season. I don’t see it happening for financial reasons more than anything.

The New York Post Mets Blog notes that Billy Wagner threw another scoreless inning during a rehab game in Florida yesterday. The target date for him to come back to the Mets is Aug. 21. Wagner is scheduled to pitch back to back games for the first time on Monday and Tuesday. I have a hard time seeing Wagner pitching anything but the ninth inning. The Mets don’t want him back. They’ve already told him that they’re not picking up his contract option for 2010. Let him pitch a game or two in the bigs and then see if he has any trade value before the Aug. 31 waiver deadline.

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Mets 2009 Season Close To Oblivion

Carlos DelgadoWe’ve been waiting for months now for the injured Mets to heal and get back to help this team to a miracle playoff run. But if the current Mets can’t, at least, hang on there won’t be a chance at all. The Mets need to go 40-18 over their final 58 games of the 2009 season to reach the 90 win plateau. That’s the number of wins that it took the Milwaukee Brewers to beat out the Mets by one game in 2008 for the wild card spot in the National League. It should take about that same number of wins to take the wild card spot this year.

The Mets had a good little run going against Houston and Colorado over the last week. But that will come crashing down quickly if the Mets lose tonight to the D-Backs and Dan Haren. Losing three out of four games at home to a team that’s completely out of it, like the D-Backs, is going to hurt the Mets badly this late in the season.

Even if Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, J.J. Putz, John Maine, and Billy Wagner are playing for the Mets in September, will it really matter? September could be a very quiet venue for the Mets. And the season ticket holders that are trying to sell on Stubhub and eBay will be taking a big loss in the secondary market.

I understand why Mets GM Omar Minaya chose to stand pat at the non-waiver trading deadline. The team often looks dead and spending resources appears to be a lost cause. But it would have been nice to bring in some much needed offense that would be here next season too. Say a Victor Martinez. But that didn’t happen. So we’re still watching and waiting. Watching this impostor of a big league team. Waiting for the players to heal. The same high-priced players that are drawing their salaries from the pricey seats at Citi Field.

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Mets Stand Pat at 2009 Trade Deadline

Flickr photo courtesy of Eric Kilby
Flickr photo courtesy of Eric Kilby

I have to say that I’m surprised that the Mets didn’t even pull off a minor deal at the non-waiver trade deadline. Of course, there will still be trades for players that have made it through waivers until August 31. After the brutal week that GM Omar Minaya had, he could have used a trade to take the attention away from his lack of mass communication skills.

Victor Martinez going to Boston wasn’t shocking. But I had hoped the Mets would make a splash by landing him. The Mets will need a catcher and first baseman next season and nobody better than Martinez could fit that bill.

I thought that the Mets would have tried to land some Major League talent who is under contract for more than this season. Apparently, the Mets brain trust is married to their prospects. They better pan out. That’s all that I can say.

I haven’t seen anything from Bobby Parnell, Jon Niese, or Fernando Martinez that would prevent me from trading them for a proven Major Leaguer that’s under contract for more than half a season.

I’m not saying that the Mets should have gone all out to make the playoffs this year. But they could have tried to fill some huge holes in the lineup that they’ll have next season. Left field, first base, and catcher are all question marks for next season.

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