Why Andrew Friedman is the Man to Fix the Mets

Over the past few days or so, we have heard a number of conflicting reports on the future of our embattled General Manager Omar Minaya. This season has been especially tough on Omar in terms of fan backlash to due a rash of injuries that allowed other areas of the franchise to become open to ridicule and scorn.

The farm system, not exactly known to be strong before the season started, is now looked at more as a graveyard with a few flowers trying to grow from nothing but the dead and buried.

The entire medical staff that was brought in for the team has been just downright awful, leading to setback which in turn has forced Omar to try to defend them and try to explain the injuries without tipping his hand as to how screwed the team really is.

To me there is one man who I know can step into this situation and would be able to fix the issues quickly and turn this team around for the better. That man is current Tampa Bay Rays General Manager Andrew Friedman.

Friedman has been able to, in only 3 years as the team’s General Manager, bring in a winning manager in Joe Maddon. He would draft guys like Andy Sonnanstine, Jeff Niemann, as VP of Player Development and as GM draft top guys like Evan Longoria, and David Price.

He has even made good moves on the trade front, picking the likes of Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, Ben Zobrist, Grant Balfour, Dan Wheeler (Remember him?), Willy Aybar, Gabe Gross, Edwin Jackson and Dioner Navarro.

Then to top it all off, he goes out and locks up Carl Crawford, the Rays franchise player and brings in Carlos Pena on a flyer to play first base, not a bad little resume for the 31 yr old now isn’t it.

To me, the one issue many people bring up is that Friedman has never really had to deal with a lot of money before and has worked with such a tight budget. In turn the one time he was able to spend a little cash, he got a guy like Pat Burrell who has been stinking it up. I think that is a fair point, and yet, I still think it’s a pretty stupid one.

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