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Another fine mess Mets' problems go a long way beyond GM PhillipsPosted: Wednesday May 07, 2003 11:33 AM
The New York Mets are falling apart, ripping right along the seams, and everybody in New York knows who to blame. It's New York. Everybody knows everything there. Now, nobody knows exactly when Steve Phillips, the team's slick, smart but suddenly ineffective general manager, is going to get canned. But everybody, by now, knows it's going to happen. Maybe this week, maybe next. Maybe he'll last into June. Sooner or later, though, the team's owners, the Wilpons, will say enough is enough and Phillips will get the word. He may get it through the Wilpons, or maybe it'll get leaked to one of the rowdy papers there, or maybe the New York Times will get a sniff of it first. Whatever, Phillips will go, barring the return of Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Tommie Agee, Cleon Jones and the rest of the Amazin's. Phillips will do a standup job in his goodbyes. And he and the Mets will move on. As everybody knows, it won't mean a thing. The problems with the Mets go a long, long way past Phillips' desk. The fact is, he's done a lot of good for the team in his six years with the Mets. Heck, he was instrumental in getting the Mets into the Subway Series in 2000. Lately, though, everything Phillips has touched has turned to pine tar. Roberto Alomar was such a steal for the Mets before the 2002 season that the people of Cleveland practically strangled their GM, Mark Shapiro, for giving the second baseman away in the trade. Yet Alomar has looked nothing like a future Hall of Famer since coming to Queens. Last year, he seemed confused at the plate and hit just .266, his lowest average since his rookie year. This year he's at .243. He's still waiting for his first home run. Then there's Mo Vaughn. The Mets traded for Mo (getting cash, which they already had, and giving up pitcher Kevin Appier, whom they could use now) before the 2002 season -- even though Vaughn missed the entire 2001 season with a ripped biceps tendon. Vaughn hit .259 in '02. This season, he isn't hitting his weight (he's at .190 and 250ish). The slimmed-down Vaughn is on the disabled list with a bad knee. Phillips signed Roger Cedeno, too -- man, that hasn't worked out -- and Jeromy Burnitz (.215 last year) and helped lure longtime Mets nemesis Tom Glavine to Shea Stadium this year. But the Mets remain the poster boys for overpaid, underachieving baseball teams. They have a $117 million payroll. They are in last place. That doesn't make for good job security. "I know there's been a lot of speculation involving Steve, which I'm not happy about," owner Fred Wilpon told The Daily News of New York the other day. "But there's nothing I can do about it other than to say I still believe in these players and I still believe in this team." Wow, that doesn't make for good job security for Phillips, either. Phillips will go, no doubt, but the Mets aren't going anywhere. Not this season, and probably not next. Whoever takes over for Phillips -- early speculation is assistant GM Jim Duquette will be the man -- will have to deal with the expensive and crippled Vaughn, whose bad knee is beyond surgery. (Vaughn is due some $30 million in the next couple of years.) Whoever will have to find a way to get something out of Alomar, and Cedeno, and Cliff Floyd, and to get Armando Benitez to quit blowing so many saves. Whoever will have to get Mike Piazza ready to play first base, because he's clearly not helping the team by playing catcher. Whoever will have to turn the attention back toward baseball -- good baseball -- instead of where it is now, on a lame duck GM, on the possible bad-blood rematch between Piazza and Dodgers reliever Guillermo Mota, on Vaughn's knee or Rey Sanchez's haircut (oh, brother) or the mole on Piazza's stomach. Sometimes, it's just better not to know everything. The biggest problem the Mets have now is finding a way to win despite all those soap opera subplots. Because, if there's one thing the Mets absolutely have to do, it's win. Looking bad compared to the Yankees is one thing. Heck, the Mets are used to that. Looking bad compared to the Devil Rays, though, is another thing altogether. That just won't do. The Wilpons won't have it. So Phillips will go, certainly by the All-Star break, and the Mets will start to rebuild this broken team. No one knows quite how that will happen yet. But everybody knows this. It's not going to be pretty. John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here. |
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