1. In today’s Post I wrote this column about how the Wilpons need to listen to hard truths about themselves and their organization if they are going to hire the right person to be the Mets’ GM.
Color me suspicious about their ability to do this. Even yesterday, when they were trying their best to commiserate with fans and show their passion for the franchise, Fred and Jeff Wilpon still offered no understanding that ownership has been a contributing factor to failure. Yeah, they provided scripted mea culpas, but no specific areas in which they have been a detriment.
Instead, they continued to defend their ownership by essentially saying:”If we are so bad, why do we not have a mass exodus of employees?”
Really, that is their defense? Do you see multiple resignations from any franchise in any sport? Do the Wilpons think that means that everyone is happy in their jobs and loves the ownership for which they work? Heck, people are not fleeing from the Dodgers during the McCourts ugly divorce. No one is leaving the Marlins despite the polarizing leadership of President David Samson. Donald Sterling has run the NBA Clippers into humiliation for decades and people do not flock away from that team. At George Steinbrenner’s imperious and mean worse, he did not hemorrhage employees.
I am pretty sure I hear a lot of moaning and whining in the pressbox about where people are working and the editors for whom they work. Yet no one leaves their job.
Memo to the Wilpons: Jobs are hard to find. Jobs in a closed world such as major league baseball are harder to find. If you leave a job because you don’t like ownership you will probably get a reputation that you have trouble getting along with ownership.
If you are judging the effectiveness of your ownership based on long-term tenures of employees, well, you just might be delusional.
2. The good news yesterday was that Fred Wilpon attended the press conference alongside his son, Jeff. In fact, he dwarfed his son. Maybe Jeff will still grow into it. But he lacks his father’s gravitas and ability to communicate effectively.
It was interesting right at the beginning of the press conference when both men offered versions of accountability. Jeff mentioned ownership, but he also talked about the failures of the manager and GM, among others. Fred simply said the buck stopped with him. He is in charge of hiring and failure is a reflection of his leadership. I thought it was a perfect note on this day.
Also, I think Fred did an excellent job of transmitting his passion for the franchise. I do believe he bleeds with losses and horrible seasons. I do believe he cares about trying to do the right thing and trying to commit strong resources for success. The Mets are lost on the wrong path of how to get to be a consistent organization and annual championship contender. But I do think the Mets are in the blood of the Wilpon family. The question is whether they can find the right path.
3. The Wilpons also continued to suggest that they don’t meddle. Fred Wilpon went as far as to say he cannot remember saying no to something a GM wanted. If that is true, then Omar Minaya should have been fired long ago. Because if Minaya was not asking, for example, for Matt Holliday rather than Jason Bay or was not asking to be able to draft the best prospects available and not to follow the financial slotting guidelines of the Commissioners Office then he was more overmatched then even the perception.
The Wilpons said at the press conference yesterday that no one in baseball operations came to them and asked them to even consider swallowing bad contracts this season, such of those of Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez. Again, if that is true, then the Wilpons should have fired Minaya in July. Really, they think it was OK not to even have this discussion? Really, they think it was OK for the Mets to be playing, at times, with what amounted to a 23- or 24-man roster?
The perception around the sport is that Jeff Wilpon, in particular, has a disruptive, interfering reputation when it comes to baseball operations. The Wilpons can keep saying that is not true or they can try to work feverishly to look internally at why that is the perception. It is an important step to healing the organization.