Conspicuously absent from this list is Carlos Beltran, whose seven-year, $119 million contract was so egregious that it puts him in the same breath as legendary busts like Mike Hampton and Barry Zito.
However, Beltran was only 28 at the time of his signing with the Mets, so the move was not quite as indefensible as some of Minaya's other signings. Then again, giving a guy who would turn 29 by the start of a season a seven-year contract for any amount of money is a risky proposition in itself.
Carlos Delgado is also aging and overpaid, but his contract was not of Minaya's design. Delgado came to the Mets in a trade for first baseman Mike Jacobs, who has hit 13 home runs as of this writing, and prospects Yusmeiro Petit and Grant Psomas.
Delgado has a no-trade clause in his contract, which called for him to earn $48 million over three years at the time he was dealt to the Mets.
The Mets' situation is not much better in the rotation, either. With the exceptions of their ace, Johan Santana, the Mets have the injury-riddled Pedro Martinez, John Maine, the horribly inconsistent Mike Pelfrey, and Oliver Perez, who sports a 5.70 ERA.
By the look of it, the Mets have an ace in Santana, two No. 3 starters in Maine and Martinez (if he's healthy) and two borderline No. 5 starters in Pelfrey and Perez/Hernandez.
The problem is not that Omar Minaya is uncommitted to pitching, far from it. After all, he owes Martinez, Perez, and Santana a combined $41.5 million this season. The real problem here is that Minaya has the nasty habit of picking the wrong guy to fill holes in the rotation.
The worst part of the Mets' pitching problems is the fact that the three busts that he signed were not expected to be worth the money that Minaya spent, even at the time of the signings.
Pedro Martinez was suffering a steep decline in productivity when he left Boston, Oliver Perez has been a mediocre player for his entire career, and Orlando Hernandez is nearing the age of 40 and has had widespread injury problems.
The Mets' collapse last season was not a fluke. It was a byproduct of a poorly constructed and aging team wearing out at the worst possible time. Last season's woes were a premonition of things to come, and while the Santana trade was a clear win for the Mets, one pitcher cannot fix the aging of an entire team.
Minaya did little to get younger in the offseason, despite the fact that his team was clearly aging. Willie Randolph deserves criticism for his moronic and inflammatory racial comments, but a manager can't make his team younger.
If you polish a turd, it's still a turd, and that's the bottom line. Unrealistic expectations were placed on a team that seemed to be in decline. Despite the fact that lead-off man Jose Reyes has regressed noticeably as a player, the Mets were not a contender before the Santana trade and they didn't become one after it.
Unfortunately for manager Willie Randolph, however, he seems to be in line to go to the guillotine for a crime that he did not commit, while the real culprit, Omar Minaya, emerges from the wreckage largely unscathed.
12 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete