Minaya’s Midnight Massacre Claims Randolph

At each and every juncture, it was as if the Mets were trying to jerk manager Willie Randolph around—right up until the very end, when general manager Omar Minaya fired him early this morning, one game into a West-Coast road trip.

It was shortly after 3 a.m. back East (midnight in Anaheim, Calif.) when the Mets announced the shake-up—in which Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson, and first-base coach Tom Ñieto were dismissed—which is, undoubtedly, the way Minaya wanted it: quick and quiet, and too late to make the morning tabloids back in New York. Minaya flew to Orange County secretly as the Mets won the first game of their road-trip, a 9-6 victory over the Angels, and their third win in the last four games. After the game, when the team returned to its hotel in nearby Costa Mesa, he met with the three coaches. Bench coach Jerry Manuel was then named interim manager.

The team issued a bizarrely-worded press release after midnight to announce the move to the media. It was by-lined “ANAHEIM, Calif., June 17, 2008,” and entitled “Mets Name Jerry Manuel Interim Manager.” Talk about burying the lede.

The whole thing was sort of Nixonian. It is speculated that the Mets did not want to fire Randolph on Father’s Day. How they came to the conclusion that the following night, 3,000 miles away, was somehow more appropriate is baffling.

It was emblematic of how Randolph and his coaches had been treated during this entire process. For weeks now, as rumors swirled about his job status, the Mets allowed Randolph to twist in the wind, holding organizational meetings, and then refusing to guarantee his job security. The implication was Steinbrenner-esque: turn this around now, or you’re done. But the Mets—Minaya and his bosses, owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon—were too cowardly to come out and say that.

It created a peculiar situation in which the players and coaches were fighting to turn their season around while the guillotine hovered overhead. The Mets had just come off taking two out of three from Texas at home, and their win tonight moved them to 34-35, within a game of the .500 mark.

The timing of the move, of course, suggests that this decision had been made days ago, although a team source told Newsday that it wasn’t made until Monday morning. Still, perception counts for a lot, and, to a man, this move—at this time—seems classless, chaotic, and cowardly.

It also reportedly led to surreal scene in the lobby of the team hotel, as players were told of Randolph’s firing by media members as they returned for the evening. Carlos Beltrán and Carlos Delgado “seemed indifferent to the news,” reported Newsday. Ramón Castro told the paper, “I’m in shock. I don’t know what to say.”

The news was shocking only in its timing. The “Willie Watch” had been ongoing since Opening Day, especially considering the collapse last season, squandering a seven-game lead to the Phillies over the season’s final three weeks. It was clear that Randolph’s job would be threatened by a poor start to the season, and so it was.

Perhaps it really is the right move. Perhaps a shake-up will enliven the clubhouse. Perhaps Jerry Manuel—whom your humble diarist knows as a good, fair baseball-man—will speak to these players in a way that Randolph could not, though the importance of the manager in baseball is often overstated.

Looking at the situation, it is difficult to shake the unctuous way in which Randolph’s dismissal took place. Moreover, it wasn’t handled the right way throughout this entire process. And now the focus shifts to Minaya, the man responsible for this move, and for this aging, flawed roster. If the Mets continue to play inconsistent, uninspired baseball, he ought to be next on the firing line.