I don't get it. I really don't. Willie Randolph's job supposedly hung in the balance before the Mets lost three of four, and now his job is safe?
His controversial comments got him in trouble, but Willie Randolph must have said the right things to keep his job on Monday.A marathon meeting with New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya, principal owner Fred Wilpon and chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon resulted in Randolph keeping his managerial job. "Willie has my support. He has the support of our ownership," Minaya said. "Willie's job was never in danger going into this meeting." ... After the two-hour session, Minaya said: "There is no limbo period. Willie is the manager." So, was he told he'll definitely manage the Mets for the rest of the season? "No, they didn't say that," Randolph answered. In other words, he probably needs to start winning. That didn't happen in the first game after the meeting. Randolph and the $138 million Mets fell to 23-26 after a 7-3 loss to the NL-East leading Marlins on Monday.
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Yeah. Winning would be good. You can't read anything about the Mets these days without seeing a reference to their payroll: $138 million. And it's worse than 23-26. Over their past 162 games -- Randolph's past 162 games -- the Mets are 79-83. The Mets, with the largest payroll in the National League, have a losing record over their past season's worth of games.
I know that's cherry-picking. It's not arbitrary cherry-picking; 162 games is not a meaningless number. But I'll bet I could find a 162-game stretch when Joe Torre's Yankees lost more games than they won.
Well, maybe not. But close, probably. Usually, I would acknowledge the possibility that Randolph's team simply has gone through a 162-game stretch of tough luck, and anyway it's the general manager's fault for not spending that $138 million on the right players.
But last year Randolph presided over one of the worst collapses in major league history. His team is losing again this year. With the exception of David Wright (who's unflappable) and Ryan Church (who wasn't around last year), nobody on the roster is doing anything extraordinary and a lot of guys are struggling. Jose Reyes, now in his sixth major league season, seems to do something silly on the bases every other game.
Publicly, the players complain that Randolph shouldn't be held accountable for their struggles. But if not him, then who? The owners aren't going to fire themselves or Omar Minaya. They can't fire the players. But a message must be sent to the players, somehow.
Unfortunately, the owners seem to have decided to send exactly the wrong message, which is that nobody's accountable for this mess.
Rob Neyer
