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June 22, 2008

Every Given Sunday

Dropping the Axe

by John Perrotto

Nearly a week has passed since the Mets fired manager Willie Randolph, and egg is still being wiped off the organization's collective face. The Mets have been castigated inside and outside the industry for the way they handled the move, having Randolph take a cross-country flight from New York to Los Angeles after last Sunday’s doubleheader with the Rangers at Shea Stadium, then dropping the ax on him after a win over the Angels.

While general manager Omar Minaya’s reputation is taking a beating for his manner of execution, sources close to the Mets insist that the man who has gained the reputation of being one of the more likeable and approachable executives in the game was only carrying out the orders of owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon. The sources indicated that while Minaya wanted to keep Randolph, Jeff Wilpon planted enough media leaks suggesting Randolph would be fired that it turned up the heat on the GM. The reports reached such a crescendo by Sunday and caused such a distraction that the Mets' only move was to get rid of Randolph. Randolph certainly did not help his own cause by saying in May that SportsNet New York only showed shots of him passively sitting in the dugout during Mets’ broadcasts, and suggested that race played in a part in those decisions.

Minaya did not fly on the team charter on Sunday night, another indication he wasn’t ready to fire Randolph. Instead, he took a commercial flight Monday. While Minaya has publicly said the decision was his, Randolph isn’t so sure. "I don’t know. I really don’t know," Randolph told reporters the day after his firing. "I can only go by what I hear, what is coming out of [Minaya’s] mouth, or whatever. But if he says that, then I guess that’s the case. I don’t know."

The two met following the Sunday twin bill, and Randolph said he asked Minaya to fire him then if he wasn’t sure he wanted him to be the manager. Randolph said Minaya told him he would make a decision sometime during the six-game road trip. "At the time, I felt, the way he was talking to me, that I was pretty secure for the time being--whatever that means," Randolph said. "It could have been, in my mind, maybe the Yankee series [which starts Friday] or the All-Star break."

Randolph is owed the remainder of his $2 million salary for this season and $2.5 million in 2009. He would jeopardize being paid if he criticizes the organization, so he took the high road when asked about the way his firing was handled. "I can’t control how things are handled," Randolph said. "I can’t really get caught up in how it’s done. It is what it is and I’ll just move on. It’s not the way I would handle it, but the bottom line is that it is what it is."