The New York Mets: Destined To Fail? (Part 3)

Flashes of brillance, followed by much longer periods of darkness. It’s a cycle that the New York Mets have experienced throughout their existence. Since the turn of century, it’s never been more evident that the way this team is built, operated and maintained on a daily basis, is flawed. In a series of articles written exclusively for BaseballDigest.com, Online Editor Mark Healey, who has covered the Mets since 1998, tries to explain why.

”There are no quick fixes in this game and we must bring people from our minor leagues, we must scout them better, we must develop them better and we must have a pipeline to the major league club.  That’s important for this club and perhaps for any club. We’re going to work on that and stress that.” – Fred Wilpon, June 13, 2003

When Al Harazin was handed the keys to the New York Mets’ baseball operations following the 1991 season, it served as a template of organizational dysfunction that remains to this day.  From Harazin to current GM Omar Minaya, there has been one constant; ownership.  Their poor – and at times, incredulous – decision-making has been at the core of it all.

For the last few years of Frank Cashen’s tenure, then-team president Fred Wilpon – who had become a full partner following the club’s World Series triumph in 1986 – had exerted a growing influence on the team’s day-to-day operations.

From the decision to give the GM job to Al Harazin over Gerry Hunsicker to the hiring of Jeff Torborg (and a four-year contract, no less) without interviewing a other single candidate, the first seven years of the 1990’s were put in motion by one man; Fred Wilpon.  His co-owner, Nelson Doubleday, preferred the background and believed that a united front in all decision – publicly – would make the organization run smoother.

Unfortunately, both Doubleday’s shrinking influence and Wilpon’s insistence on building a winning “brand”, rather than a winning team, ultimately doomed the team’s chances of recapturing their mid-1980’s glory.

“Second-guessing by (Fred Wilpon) never made the papers,” A former Mets’ front office member said.  “It was constant … No matter what we tried to do, it went to a committee, and slowed up every single decision.”

The selection of Harazin to run the baseball operation should have been a clear indication that the team was taking its cues from ownership, rather than the baseball department.  A lawyer who had been primarily a contract negotiator after joining the Mets in 1980, his back page acquisitions all blew up in his face, as did the hiring of Torborg.

The team’s record over his two-year tenure was 93-137.

Yes, signing four All-Stars in Bobby Bonilla, Bret Saberhagen, Eddie Murray and Tony Fernandez, made a tremendous amount of sense – on paper.  Yes, Murray had 193 RBIs in a Mets uniform, including his last-ever 100 RBI season in 1993 (a year in which he hit 27 homers and batted .285).  But like his contemporary Carlos Delgado, the charming, charismatic man known to teammates and friends preferred to create a poisonous cloud of mistrust and disdain for the media in his clubhouse.  Rather than enjoy the All\-Star switch-hitter and Gold Glove-winner’s final Hall of Fame caliber season, instead the local media spent most of Murray’s tenure wondering what possessed the Mets to being this distasteful curmudgeon to the Big Apple in the first place.

The group, which included Willie Randolph, had starred in other uniforms and  had been part of winning, but thrown together under a manager ill-suited for the job, were an unmitigated disaster.

Though the driving force in nearly every acquisition, Wilpon did little to establish any accountability on his plate, instead pointing out it was his baseball people that had screwed up.

“When Al made all those moves, he was applauded as the great trader Al,” Wilpon told the New York Times. “Nobody questioned his abilities then. It hasn’t worked out. We’re all disappointed.”

His replacement, the longtime Mets assistant-turned San Diego GM and now “the baseball guy” who would turn the Mets around, would be Joe McIllvane.  A former trusted aide to Cashen, whom Wilpon had always admired, had just been forced to unmake the San Diego Padres, and was ready to  return to New York.

Sound familiar?  It should, because every GM the Mets have had since Frank Cashen has been the assistant of the guy that he either replaced, or a former assistant that had gone somewhere else, didn’t make the playoffs, and came back a conquering hero (for some reason).

One former employee called the Wilpons “well-meaning dopes” because they are decent people but “always start listening to someone else the minute the guy who was going to be a savior doesn’t make miracles instantly.”

For his part, McIlvaine might have had the best GM the Mets have ever had, especially when you consider the talented front office he had at his disposal.  Jack Zduriencik, now the Mariners’ GM , was with the Mets as farm director, and assistant GM.  Gerry Hunsicker, who left in 1995 to become the Astros GM (and recently helped rebuild the Tampa Bay Rays).  Too bad none of the three fit the “corporate suit” mold that the Wilpons had yearned for in their executives.

The passing over of Hunsicker so many times is perhaps the most inexcusable error made by the Wilpons during that period, but the dismissal of McIlvaine was equally poor.

“McIlvaine, on the other hand, is less regimented. Wilpon wanted McIlvaine to arrange regular conference calls to detail exactly what each branch of the organization was doing. Sometimes McIlvaine adhered to Wilpon’s request; sometimes he did not.” – Buster Onley, New York Times, July 17, 1997

Get that?  The guy who cleaned up Harazin’s (and Wilpon’s) mess of a farm system and major league roster was shown the door because he was too busy building a winning team.

Maybe he should have put the cover sheet on those TPS reports.

Topics: Baseball Operations, Brillance, Co Owner, Daily Basis, Frank Cashen, Fred Wilpon, Gerry Hunsicker, Gm Job, Insistence, Jeff Torborg, Mark Healey, Mets Baseball, Minors, Nelson Doubleday, New York Mets, President Fred, Quick Fixes, Team President, United Front, Winning Team

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