Posts tagged WillieRandolph at FanHouse

Though the Mets became the first team in major league history to fail to make the playoffs despite holding a 3 1/2-game lead in the standings in September, they appear to have no problem with the people running the team.

Less than a week after GM Omar Minaya moved toward a four-year contract extension, sources in New York are indicating that interim manager Jerry Manuel will have that tag lifted and return to the Mets dugout next year.

From the New York Post:

A formal announcement is expected by GM Omar Minaya no later than Tuesday. "Jerry did a very good job in a tough situation, overcoming injuries to [John] Maine and Billy [Wagner]," Minaya said after today's 4-2 loss to the Marlins ended the Mets' season. "I just talked to Jerry and told him I will sit down with ownership tomorrow and give my recommendation. But I was very pleased with the job he did." Owner Fred Wilpon also strongly endorsed Manuel while talking with reporters during today's game.

Minaya might not have deserved his extension, especially when you look through the prism of back-to-back September swoons, but it's hard to say the same for Manuel. He guided the Mets to a 55-38 record down the stretch after taking over for Willie Randolph in mid-June. Considering the hand he was dealt -- a very, very bad bullpen -- Manuel performed admirably as skipper

Indeed, had Billy Wagner not gotten injured, this would probably all be a moot point, and New York might be celebrating an NL East title. Here's to a few more years of Manuel describing Johan Santana as "gangsta" and threatening to "cut" Jose Reyes.

With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

Reyes Rises to Occasion: Life isn't easy for baseball players in New York. Just ask Jose Reyes. The shortstop has taken more blame than anyone this side of Willie Randolph and his teammates in the bullpen for the Mets' collapse last season.

Some of the criticism has been fair. Reyes hit .205 last September and his mental lapses always seem to occur at the worst time. But much of it hasn't been fair. He's been slammed for being unprofessional, for being carefree -- his elaborate handshakes and big smile the sign of someone who didn't care enough to stop New York's free-fall.

The truth? Reyes is a terrific player who went cold at the wrong time last year, but the Mets wouldn't have gotten as far as they did without him in the lineup. Tuesday night's win over the Cubs must have felt especially good to Reyes. His bases-clearing triple gave the Mets a bullpen-proof lead.

Johan Santana was the hero, but Reyes got the big hit. He ensured that the Mets would get a reprieve from all the collapse talk, kept them atop the wild-card race and helped them pick up a game on the Phillies. Has Reyes been vindicated? Not yet. But if the Mets do grab a playoff berth, Reyes' bases-clearing triple will be a big part of it.

Carlos Delgado opened the year slow, but in case you haven't noticed, he's been raking the ball lately. Before the All-Star break, Delgado hit just .248 with a .748 OPS. Ever since then, he's been hitting .286 with a .972 OPS. Does his revival have something to do with Jerry Manuel replacing Willie Randolph? John Harper of the New York Daily News and Mets assistant GM Tony Bernazard seem to think so:

No player seemingly has benefited more from change than Delgado. His return to form as a feared slugger, after looking ready for retirement early in the season, already had been so remarkable you couldn't help but wonder if he was somehow lacking motivation under Randolph.

[...] "Delgado is such a student of the game," said Bernazard. "If you're running a good game, he knows. When you're running a bad game, he knows."

It's an interesting theory, I suppose, and hey, everybody is entitled to an opinion. But is Delgado's resurgence even that surprising? Part of the reason his early struggles were magnified was because of his strong finish last year. When you look at the numbers, Delgado has consistently improved his OPS after the All-Star break each of the last five years. With few exceptions, it's a trend that's existed his entire career.

To ignore that trend and instead attribute Delgado's current success to Randolph's absence is both mean-spirited and ignorant. If the two developments are at all related, it's the opposite that's true: Randolph is no longer around because Delgado wasn't hitting.

The Mets have no reason to second-guess their decision to replace Willie Randolph. Since putting Jerry Manuel in charge, the Mets have been one of the hottest teams in baseball and are in sole possession of the first place in the NL East. That said, owner Fred Wilpon does regret the way Randolph was fired, in the dark of night just one game into a west coast road trip. From Bloomberg News:

``I know I screwed up,'' Wilpon told reporters at SportsNet New York's Manhattan studios. ``I should have said, `wait a second.'''

[...] Wilpon said he regrets not speaking up when Minaya told him the next day that he was going to fly to California and tell Randolph in person after the game. Because of the three-hour time difference, the announcement of Randolph's firing was left out of New York newspapers.

``I wasn't smart enough to say, `you are going to cut the New York press out?''' Wilpon said. ``I didn't even think of it.''

This won't make Randolph feel any better -- in other words, all Wilpon is saying is that he regrets not being able to tell the world sooner that he canned his manager. But reading between the lines -- which is always dangerous but so, so fun -- am I the only one who thinks it's interesting that Wilpon is pinning all of the blame on Minaya? It's one thing to say, "I know I screwed up," and it's another thing to say, "I know I screwed up by not reining in my GM." It wasn't all the long ago that Minaya was on the hot seat -- is this Wilpon's way of telling Minaya not to get too comfortable?

Willie Randolph will be attending the All-Star Game tonight. This wouldn't be news if someone told you this a month ago -- Randolph was originally expected to serve as one of the National League's coaches -- but since being unceremoniously canned by the Mets, it seemed like the only way he'd get through the gates would be if he bought his own ticket.

But as it turns out, Randolph won't need to scalp a ticket after all; he'll be in the buidling as the personal guest of the Steinbrenner family. It's no secret that the Yanks' ownership still has an affinity for their former player and coach -- Hank offered Willie a job just days after Omar Minaya's axe came down -- but this is still a bit unexpected. From William C. Rhoden of the New York Times:

"George invited Willie Randolph to the All-Star Game," said Howard Rubenstein, the spokesman for George Steinbrenner. "George urged him to attend and he accepted."

[...] "George had some great things to say about him," Rubenstein said. Then, referring to the entire Steinbrenner family, Rubenstein added: "They truly love him."

Should this be interpreted as some kind of snub to the crosstown rival Mets? Probably not. Randolph has a long history with the Yankees, winning a combined six titles as a player and coach. And besides, while some feel that Randolph was unfairly branded a scapegoat for the Mets' troubles, the decision to fire him seems to have paid off: the Mets have gone from two games under .500 before his dismissal to seven games over now, thanks largely to their nine-game winning streak heading into the break.

In all likelihood, this is just a nice gesture being extended to an old friend -- though I wouldn't be surprised if the Yanks still hope to convince him into returning in some capacity down the road.

How bad are we really supposed to feel for managers who get the ax? True, sometimes they're fired when they don't deserve it, but it's not as though they're suddenly destitute.

Well, except for in the Dugout universe. In order to conjure up any empathy for recently fired managers Willie Randolph and John Gibbons, I had to manufacture it.

Today's Dugout is after the jump.

When Willie Randolph got fired as manager of the Mets, it created an opening on Clint Hurdle's coaching staff for next month's All-Star Game. The New York Post reports that he'll do so with a move that kills two birds with one stone. Lou Piniella, skipper of the NL-best Chicago Cubs will get the call.

Not only does Piniella deserve it based on his record this season, he also replaces Randolph as a NL manager with close ties to Yankee Stadium. The two men were teammates with the Yankees from 1976-1984 and Piniella managed Randolph for two seasons and change after that. The Post reports that MLB is trying to find a role that enables Randolph to still play a role in the festivities. Pitching batting practice has been suggested but I wouldn't spend too much time trying to figure out a spot for Randolph.

Sure, he's a Yankee notable but so are dozens of other former players who won't play any part in the Midsummer Classic. He wasn't going to be there because of his Yankee ties, he was going to be there as manager of the Mets. Even that seemed a courtesy extended to the other New York manager given the way the Mets were performing under his tutelage. It's too bad that he won't get to take part but, well, so it goes sometimes. If not for the way he lost his job, I doubt there'd even be much hand-wringing about Randolph's absence.

(H/T Metsblog)

There are some pressing questions surrounding the now unemployed Willie Randolph. Should he walk the dog and then catch up on the stuff that's piled up on his Tivo or vice versa? Is he still going to coach in the All-Star Game? Once he settles those, he can move onto deciding if he wants to go back and work for the Yankees.

Hank Steinbrenner says that the team would find a place in the organization for Randolph if that's something he'd be interested in discussing. Not as manager, of course, but something to get him out of the house every day. Furthermore, Lil' Stein says that there's no ill will because Randolph left the team to manage the crosstown rivals.

"If he had left to take over the Red Sox maybe I would have had a problem with that. He's a Yankee. He'll always be a Yankee. Even the Mets never completely accepted him because they thought he was a Yankee."

I'll assume he's joking, it's hard to know with Hank, because I've rooted for the Yankees since I first discovered baseball and, for the life of me, I can't figure out why it would matter if Randolph went to manage the Red Sox. I get it, they are pure evil, but was he supposed to forgo opportunities to advance in his career because it might rankle the team that had no place for him to advance? That's the kind of ambition that would really warm the cockles of my heart.

"It's your fault. It's all your fault."

Later, Willie, John, John, and not Ozzie. You were all bums.

It's funny how something as universally reviled as the way the Mets fired Willie Randolph turns out making the guy who got canned look like a prince among men. It's like The Shawshank Redemption, Willie crawled through a river of s--- and came out clean on the other side.

The latest salvo in one of the most one-sided public relations battles ever waged is a first-person account of the final days from Randolph in today's Daily News. Randolph recalls asking Omar Minaya to fire him before the road trip if that was the decision, laments his decision to inject race into the discussion and somehow manages to stay well above the belt in his comments while still painting the Mets as buffoons.

In the whole thing, there's only one part that doesn't come across as believable.

Call me naive if you want, but I never saw it coming. I was sitting on a sofa across from Omar Minaya, the Mets' general manager and the man who hired me.

OK, I'll bite. You're naive. Never saw it coming? You asked the guy to fire you.

Because the actual firing was handled so badly, it has completely obscured the fact that there were real and reasonable reasons to fire Randolph. The obliviousness to the world around him exhibited above lent itself to too many of his in-game decisions and played a part in the team's failure to stem last season's collapse. He's handled the firing better than the job which has, oddly, served to make him look better.