Mets Bring Back Omar Minaya. Is This Real Life?

Let’s briefly recap the current state of the Mets before diving into the latest shenanigans:

  • The Mets went 70-92 in 2017 and were one of the worst teams.
  • They traded 1/5 of their roster at the trade deadline (Lucas Duda, Neil Walker, Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, Addison Reed) primarily for salary relief (roughly 60 million in total salaries came off the books).
  • The Mets “fired” Terry Collins and then immediately hired him in a front office role.
  • The Mets hired new manager Mickey Callaway and basically put all the pressure on him to turn around the pitching staff.
  • The media reported that the Wilpons will be slashing payroll and the Mets will have roughly 30 million to spend on the roster.
  • The Mets signed some reliever named Anthony Swarzak for a 6 million dollar salary in 2018.
  • Sandy Alderson spent most of the offseason serving as the GM on a volunteer basis without a contract (definitely not strange at all) and yesterday he received a contract extension (after doing basically nothing to improve the team).
  • The media is now reporting the Mets only have 10 million dollars left to spend. (Had 30m, spent 6m, and now have 10m left? That’s some Wilpon math).

And to top it all off, today the Mets announced that they are bringing back former GM Omar Minaya to serve in a player development role. That’s right folks. Fred Wilpon has decided to put a nice poop cherry on top of this shit sundae of an offseason by bringing back his old buddy Omar despite the objections of the current front office.

With this move the Wilpons have brought the franchise full circle. We had Omar Minaya during the Madoff era, Sandy Alderson during the post-Madoff years, and now Fred Wilpon has decided that it’s a smart idea to create a two-headed GM monster comprised of Sandy AND Omar. Genius move! This is definitely something that a well run organization would choose to do. I can’t envision any scenario where this new dynamic fails.

This move once again confirms that it doesn’t matter who sits in the front office as long as the dysfunctional Wilpons make the final calls. The only thing that seemingly hasn’t come full circle is the Wilpons’ bank account. The economy is currently booming yet they still act like we’re in the middle of the financial crisis and they have no money to invest in their beloved Mets. Whatever money they do have they’ve been pouring it into the stupid New York Islanders hockey arena and that damn e-sports team that they recently bought a stake in.

Remember in 2015 when the media talked non-stop about the Mets championship window? Well in 2016 the window started to close and that last minute wild card playoff appearance helped keep it open just a crack. In 2017 the Mets were among the worst teams and the window basically slammed shut. And today Fred Wilpon grabbed Omar Minaya and smashed him head first through Sandy Alderson’s championship window. The window has completely shattered.

The media recently reported that Fred Wilpon was furious when the Yankees traded for Giancarlo Stanton. He gets “pissed” when the Yankees are successful and the Mets struggle. Ummm welcome to the goddamn club Fred. If only you could do something to make your own team better but alas, you’re just a powerless owner. 

He also supposedly doesn’t think the Yankees economic model is “sustainable”. Fred Wilpon, a man who emptied his bank account and confidently gave his money to Bernie Madoff (the biggest fraudster in the history of the world), doesn’t think the Yankees formula for winning championships (the most successful formula in the history of professional sports) is sustainable?!? Is this real life? Just reading that makes me feel like I’m on an acid trip. My brain is melting just trying to comprehend that Wilpon logic.

The Yankees model for success is to let smart baseball people make the baseball decisions and to spend more money than any other team on talent. It definitely works. They have 27 championships to prove that it works.

What’s the solution to fix the Mets? There is no solution as long as the Wilpons refuse to spend any money on the team. You can’t add 25 wins to a 70 win roster without spending money on new talent and you certainly can’t fix the problems with 10 million dollars. The Mets could turn this roster into a playoff contender tomorrow if they decided to spend money commensurate with the market they play in. The Wilpons are CHOOSING not to do that. So I choose not to show up.

I’m not starting a full blown boycott. I’ll stop buying team merchandise. I already have a Jacob deGrom jersey and a 2015 NLCS t-shirt. I don’t need anything else. I’ll accept free tickets if people want to drag my lazy ass to the games. But I’m not handing the Wilpons my hard earned cash anymore. 

Plus, you don’t really need to actively boycott a garbage team. That takes care of itself naturally. If the Mets don’t spend another dime on the roster before the start of the 2018 season the once populous Panic City will transform into NobodyGivesAShitVille by the end of May.

I’m sure I’ll wind up torturing myself and watching this stupid team again next year. My head is already filling with delusional scenarios that lead to the Mets making another playoff run. In my head Dominic Smith and Amed Rosario are immediately studs and Michael Conforto fully recovers from his injury and Yoenis Cespedes wins MVP and Noah Syndergaard/Jacob deGrom battle for the Cy Young and Matt Harvey has a big contract year and Jeurys Familia revives the bullpen and Wilmer Flores breaks out with an OPS over .800 and hits 30 homers.

I may be a delusional die hard fan, but don’t let my baseless optimism fool you. This Mets ship is sinking. Sandy Alderson, the Wilpons, and now Omar Minaya may not believe it’s happening. But this ship is made of broken pitchers, injury-prone position players and cheap middling talent. I assure you, she can sink. And she will. ‘Tis a mathematical certainty.

One thought on “Mets Bring Back Omar Minaya. Is This Real Life?

  1. Jack Strawb

    “The Mets could turn this roster into a playoff contender tomorrow if they decided to spend money commensurate with the market they play in.”

    –Almost word for word my own thinking. For $175-180m in payroll the Mets could field a team projecting to 88-89 wins in 2018. NY is baseball’s largest market, but after a 70 win season, trading 1500+ productive PAs and adding… no one, the Wilpons finally added a reliever and maybe Some Guy on a short deal at $10m a season–while apparently looking to get rid of Juan Lagares, whose WAR per PA was second on the team.

    “The Wilpons are CHOOSING not to do that. So I choose not to show up.”

    –Likewise. They won’t get a dime of my money. I’m not going to support incompetent businessmen running my team into the ground and who have no sense of a team as part public-utility and who believe they owe the fans nothing whatsoever. Screw those guys.

    Liked by 1 person

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