Author: Greg Pomes
The 2009 season is (thankfully) over. The Mets have started work for the 2010 season. Today CEO Jeff Wilpon, General Manager Omar Minaya and Executive Dave Howard joined Mike Francesa on WFAN to talk about this awful 2009 season and what's ahead of them for 2010. They addressed the budget for next year, the state of the Mets finances, the injuries, the lack of Mets history at Citi Field and Omar's responsibilities for the upcoming season.
2009 Season: Jeff Wilpon, Omar Minaya and Dave Howard all agreed that the 2009 season was "unacceptable." They threw that word around a lot while discussing 2009. They said like the fans and media who predicted that the Mets would be playing this week in the playoff's they are disappointed in how the season turned out and will be working in the off season to make sure 2009 does not repeat itself again. Wilpon said the most frustrating thing this season was the team’s inability to drive in runs even though they were one of the best team’s in batting average and on base percentage.
Omar Minaya: Jeff Wilpon says Omar is the GM. He has 100% faith in him and his responsibilities have not been taken away from him.
Jerry Manuel: Jeff Wilpon said that the decision to bring back Jerry was all up to Omar. Omar said that this season's turnout was not Jerry's fault, the injuries the Mets had gave him no chance to have a winning season for 2009. Part of the decision Omar said to bring back was Jerry's success in 2008 and his body of work throughout his coaching career.
Citi Field: The Wilpons consulted with Omar for their plans to build Citi Field and the impact that it would have on their offense and pitching staff. They feel that the park didn't get into David Wright's head. Dave Howard said the lack of homerun production from Wright was due to the lack of protection in the lineup with all the injuries. Omar said that this is the first year David did not have that kind of protection in the lineup and feel that with everyone healthy David will be back to hitting 30 HR's next year. Dave Howard said that the lack of team homerun's was due to having Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado out of the lineup. On the lack of Mets history Jeff Wilpon says "I don’t think we did anything to slap anyone in the face. It’s not like we said, gee, let’s honor the Brooklyn Dodgers and not honor the Mets. Those claims are unfair, but we’re gonna make those changes and correct it, because it is a proper criticism." Wilpon said that they will also be naming different areas of the ballpark with something associated with the Mets.
Budget: According to Jeff Wilpon the Mets have not yet set their budget for the 2010 season. Wilpon said that the Madoff scandal had no affect on the Mets, saying "what happens this year between free-agents and trades and whatever Omar wants to do to get us back to a Championship-caliber team will be up to Omar." He also said the Mets are committed to having one of the highest payrolls in the major leagues. Asked why they don't spend the same as the Yankees he said "Yankee-economic structure are unto themselves, they have their own structure and we fall much more in line with the rest of the league." Asked if they were going to cut payroll Wilpon responded by saying "Whether it ends up being more or less I can’t tell you until Omar makes suggestions. We’re going to be aggressive, we have to be, whether it’s in trades or free agents." Wilpon doesn't understand how the fans can call the Mets cheap even though they have one of the highest payrolls in major league and currently have the highest payroll in the National Leaue.
The handling of injuries: the reason for the mishandling of the injuries was that most of the injuries happened while the team was on the road and that the team relied too heavily on other team doctors. This is without a doubt a big cop out. They could have easily put the injured player on a plane back to New York and got them looked at by their own doctors. Omar and Jeff said the team is "creating a protocol that will improve on how they communicate to media, players and fans the status of the team’s injuries."
Minor League System: Omar feels the Mets "I like to think in our minor-league system we have talent." Omar goes onto say Adam Wogan, who is the farm director will be taking on more responsibilities and have a more prominent role with the organization. Omar also said that the team will hire a Field Coordinator ho will be in uniform and traveling the system. He will be working with the minor leaguers and reporting to Wogan. Omar's assistant and the assistant General Manager John Ricco will be involved in working with the minor-league directors.
They also discussed how Daniel Murphy is still young and has the ability to be an everyday superstar. Omar defended Murphy saying that he's still a rookie and he is improving. He says he's a good kid who shows up and works hard. He compared him to Kevin Youkilis, saying "He was not the big, productive hitter that he is early on, but they surrounded him other guys who had power so when you put the team together, there are eight guys, and how are you going to balance that offense.” He defended his signing of Oliver Perez last year saying that pitchers have hot and cold season's much like Jonathan Verlander.
In the final analysis they didn't come off very well. You can hear them at a certain point getting annoyed with Mike Francesa as he was asking questions they weren't comfortable answering. I have to say I'm not a fan of Mike Francesa but he almost reminded me of a journalist. Omar stuttered his way through hard questions, kind of reminding me of the public defender in the film My Cousin Vinny. When asked about free agents, trades or any on the field decisions he said it was up to Omar and that it was on him. Jeff Wilpon made it clear that he expects the team to be a championship calibur team, so we will see what happens as the off season progresses.
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