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How the Mets became a mess High-priced busts, aging players did in New YorkPosted: Tuesday September 10, 2002 1:22 PM
New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon has made it clear that manager Bobby Valentine and general manager Steve Phillips will survive what's been the biggest bust season of any team in the big leagues, considering the money Wilpon paid his players and the expectation that New York could finally finish in front of Atlanta in the NL East. And if you rewind to November of 2000 when Wilpon and Phillips walked away from free agent Alex Rodriguez, who had wanted to play for the team since he was a boy, the Mets were 149-154 entering this week. Despite the eyewash of a good September run, New York will not finish in first place for a 14th consecutive season -- the longest such streak in club history and the longest current streak in the National League. (Milwaukee's 20-year drought includes 14 years in the AL.) What's amazing is how the Mets could be this bad when their key players suffered no major injuries this year. The starting rotation enjoyed near-perfect health, a rarity in baseball. "The pitching's been terrific," Valentine said. Perhaps if Wilpon had been more flush with cash after having bought out partner Nelson Doubleday in August, he might have made a change among his top two baseball men and eaten some or all of the $4 million or so he will pay them next year. Valentine and Phillips do deserve some rope for getting the Mets into the 2000 World Series as a wild-card team. But both men also deserve blame for making poor player evaluations and not getting the most out of the roster. So they should forget about extensions this winter and get used to a short leash. What's most galling is that Wilpon/Phillips (Wilpon said all decisions are run past his desk) paid $26.5 million to Roger Cedeno, Jeromy Burnitz, Mo Vaughn and Rey Ordonez this year. Would you trade those four players and $3.5 million for A-Rod? But wait. There's more, much to Phillips' regret. Next season he must pay Cedeno, Burnitz, Vaughn and Ordonez $37.75 million -- this to a group that so far has combined to hit 42 home runs this year. Phillips' winter will be spent desperately trying to move some of those contracts. "We never hit a spell where we really played that well," Valentine said. "Even in the beginning, when we were winning games, we were doing OK in the standings but not really on the field. We'd win, but we'd have seven hits and three errors. A few guys would be 0 for 4 or kick a ball in the field, so we never really felt good about ourselves. That makes it a little difficult. I don't know how many times I'd come back after a game and think, 'How the hell did we win that?'" What went wrong in this epic failure by the Mets? Browse the Cliff's Notes: CEDENO: Phillips signed him to be his leadoff hitter right after Cedeno -- while playing for a new contract -- was benched in his final month in Detroit. Cedeno came to camp with a home-run-hitter's body but not the equivalent bat. The lineup began to fall apart when it quickly became apparent that Cedeno could not lead off. Moreover, his defense in left field was atrocious, as are his 17 steals and .306 on-base percentage. For this the Mets are on the hook for another $14.5 million over the next three years. VAUGHN: Phillips and Valentine watched him take some batting practice at an indoor cage over the winter. Based on that, they decided to take a chance that Vaughn -- who was 34 years old, 275 pounds, had never played in the NL and had missed all of last season -- would bounce back as a fearsome middle-of-the-order hitter. It was a terrible miscalculation, even if the dollars they traded in Kevin Appier (whom the Mets regarded as a health risk) were about even. Vaughn struggled with NL pitching -- left-handed pitching in particular -- and Shea Stadium, a pitcher's park. (Watch teams overshift on him, something that never happened in his best years at Fenway Park and its inviting left-field wall.) Also, he might be the slowest runner and the worst fielding first baseman in the league. Meanwhile, Valentine kept running Vaughn out there with hardly any rest. "It's more mental than physical," said Vaughn, always a stand-up presence in the clubhouse. "It's been a grind. And all the time I'm out there to take the questions [from the media] while some guys hide back in the food room. I'm not complaining, because I've always been that way. But it did wear me down mentally this year." One day after a loss in early August to Arizona, Vaughn, sensing the season slipping away, said the Mets had put themselves in a must-win situation the next day. Hearing about the comment, Valentine dismissed it in an off-hand manner. Vaughn took it personally. Here he was trying to face facts and be a stand-up guy (turns out he was right about the critical point in the season) and his manager practically laughed it off. Vaughn's relationship with his manager was hurt by Valentine's response. For Vaughn, the Mets are on the hook for $32 million (including a $2-million buyout in 2005) over the next two years. ALOMAR: "If they come to me this winter about a contract extension, I'll talk to them," Alomar said. "I want to see what moves we make and talk to them about the direction of the team, but, yes, I would consider it." So there. Alomar is comfortable in New York. Or is he? He didn't look it in the early going, when his Gold Glove defense was so shaky he was seen dropping to one knee to field grounders. Alomar admitted his first National League season in 12 years was a big adjustment. "New stadiums, new pitchers ... especially hitting leadoff was different," the second baseman said. "It's hard to drive in runs in the National League hitting leadoff. It seems like every time I came up there it was two outs and nobody on base." Alomar took all but five of his at-bats last season in the third hole for Cleveland, driving in 100 runs. The Mets would have been a better team with Alomar in that spot. But when Cedeno couldn't hit leadoff, Alomar was moved to the top of lineup. He actually has hit better at No. 1 (.297) than 2 (.262) or 3 (.243), but most of his at-bats have come hitting first, so his production has been cut almost in half from last year. Moreover, after flourishing next to grinders Omar Vizquel, Cal Ripken and Mike Bordick in recent years, Alomar, a baseball lifer, did not gel in any way with Ordonez, the Mets' shortstop never known for his work ethic or baseball smarts. BURNITZ: The guy maintained his solid defense and effort, but he was so horrid at the plate and such a target of Shea fans that one sympathetic NL outfielder said last month it was cruel for Valentine to play Burnitz through a slump at home, knowing he was getting buried by the fans. Burnitz and Vaughn combined for 236 strikeouts and 111 runs. Ouch. ETC.: At age 34, Mike Piazza may be wearing down and Vaughn is blocking the catcher's move to first base, though the Mets wonder if the proud Piazza, hardly a graceful athlete, can play the position without embarrassing himself. Satoru Komiyama wasn't even the next Mike Maddux. Scott Strickland gave up 30 walks and seven homers in 60 innings. Al Leiter is 23-22 over his last 58 starts. Steve Trachsel, despite pitching well, is still a carrier of bad karma, going 36-56 over the past four years. The offense ranks 14th in on-base percentage and slugging. Well, you get the idea. Still, the Mets are banking on Vaughn, Cedeno, Alomar and Burnitz to all have bounceback years next season. That may be asking too much considering Vaughn and Alomar will be 35, Burnitz will be 34 and Cedeno turns 29. "I'd take my chances with this team again," Valentine said. Did he mean that? Does he really think the Mets can return next year with essentially the same key players and win the division? "Yeah, I think so," he said. He may get his wish. Alfonzo is a free agent, but otherwise Valentine might be stuck with most of this team because of immovable contracts. Unless the Rangers would like to move a certain shortstop ... nah, forget it. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his Baseball Mailbag. |
