Fire Omar
It became official in just two hours and five minutes on Wednesday night in Washington.
The New York Mets are the worst team in Major League Baseball.
I know what you’re thinking. It just isn’t possible. No way a team that comprises Johan Santana, Fransisco Rodriguez, and David Wright can be the worst team in baseball. The Mets are only six games under .500, right? They are only eight games out of the Wild Card! And then of course there’s always the Nats. The Nats are 38 games below .500. They’ve already fired their manager this season and they’ve gone 2-5 since. They’ve only got one legitimate pitcher and their best player is Christian Guzman. They can’t be better than the Mets.
Well guess who just took two of three from the Mets? The Nats. And guess who threw a complete game shutout against the Mets? That one legitimate pitcher. Those two wins the Nats have had since their new manager took over? Both against the Mets.
Not that John Lannan will spend much time celebrating his second career complete game (both against the Mets). He’s just the latest pitcher to spend a leisurely evening dismantling the worst lineup in baseball.
The Mets have been shut out in six of their last 15 games. They’ve scored 12 runs in their last seven games, and 35 runs in their last 16. If their abysmal offense weren’t enough, the Mets are pitching Oliver Perez, Tim Redding, and Livan Hernandez in the back of the rotation, sporting 7.68, 7.16, and 4.93 ERAs respectively. Other than Johan Santana, the only starting pitcher currently on the team with an ERA lower than 4.52 is Fernando Nieve, and he of course is on the DL.
It isn’t just about the stats. It’s the countless on-field and off-field embarrassments. It’s Luis Castillo’s dropped pop-up in Yankee Stadium. It’s Carlos Beltran’s bizarre non-slide. It’s Tony Bernazard launching expletive-laden tirades behind home plate and then challenging Binghamton to a fight. This team has become completely unwatchable. They are the laughingstock of the league.
So go with the San Diego Padres and their standard-setting .230 team batting average, or the Cleveland Indians and their league-worst 5.32 staff ERA. I’m taking the Mets.
More daunting for the Mets than their status as the worst team in baseball though, is that they have no pieces to sell and no future to build on. I couldn’t help but laugh when Omar Minaya recently told the New York press that the Mets would not be sellers at the trade deadline. Who are they going to sell? They could have traded J.J. Putz to a contender looking for a proven closer or late-inning guy, but he’s injured. They could trade Feliciano (he has one more year and he is eligible for arbitration), but he’s been relegated to a lefty-specialist role and won’t be worth much more than a mid-level pitching prospect. Also, if the Mets trade him, they won’t have a lefty of their own, and the rest of the season against the likes of Howard and Utley could be disastrous.
The bottom line is that the Mets can’t become sellers and expect to fill their new stadium down the stretch, and they have nothing to sell that anyone wants anyway.
What does all this mean for the future of our beloved Mets? Some fans will hang their hat on the return of Reyes and Beltran next year. They might even delude themselves into believing that Perez will become the 2-starter we all wish he could be, and that Maine will figure out how to navigate a complete inning in under 20 pitches. Perhaps they think that the same team that blew late-season advantages in two consecutive years, then spent a whole year on the disabled list, will be the answer to our prayers.
It’s all nonsense. Any good general manager wouldn’t have counted on Delgado’s hip staying healthy this season. The Mets got stuck with Tatis, Murphy, and Evans at first. Any good general manager would have been reluctant to sign up for three more years of Oliver Perez. The Mets gave him $36 million. Any good general manager would have had at least one major-league ready prospect in the event of a spate of injuries. The Mets don’t have one.
I could go on and on about Reyes’ established propensity for injury and Beltran not being 28 anymore and the Luis Castillo 4-year-contract fiasco. Baseball has to be about building an organization, not just winning a championship or playing favorites. For the money they pay, Mets fans deserve to watch a competitive team on the field.
The Mets must fire Omar Minaya and his entire staff at the end of the season. And they should part ways with Jerry Manuel – who deserves his own full post of incompetence – at the end of the season as well. It’s time to clean house. It’s the only way the Mets can cure the stench that hangs over Citi Field.
This is not a hindsight is 20-20 situation. This is a proof is in the pudding situation. To Omar and Jerry: don’t let the wrong cliché hit you on the way out.