Time to woo Sweet Lou

Mets GM could save his job by landing the M's skipper

Steve Phillips has made some bad calls recently -- Roger Cedeno leadoff? Mo Vaughn in shape? Jeromy Burnitz a quick enough bat? Shawn Estes reliable? -- but there is one move the Mets GM needs to make today to get New York back on the right track. He needs to get on the phone with Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln immediately and ask for permission to talk to Seattle manager Lou Piniella. Phillips must know that when it comes to the right choice for the Mets, there is Piniella and then there is everybody else.

Mets owner Fred Wilpon said Tuesday upon firing Bobby Valentine that he wants to find a replacement as soon as possible. Wilpon is leaning, he said, toward a manager with experience. Phillips will conduct the search for the skipper who is likely to outlast him in New York, while Wilpon will do the actual hiring. Make it easy on yourselves, men. Make it a one-horse race.

Piniella does have one year left on his contract with the Mariners. A problem? Yes, but one that can be solved. If Piniella would rather manage in New York, is Seattle supposed to hold him hostage for a year? Why keep a hostile witness?

Piniella said yesterday he met with Lincoln on the final day of the regular season, calling it "a nice meeting, very nice." However, people inside baseball know that Piniella has seethed the past two seasons over the Mariners' refusal to make significant additions to a pennant-worthy team. Seattle believes in a corporate philosophy that it is better to remain competitive on an annual basis than to extend payroll to put the franchise in its first-ever World Series. That philosophy has frustrated Piniella. Despite a flood of fans pouring through the turnstiles at Safeco Field, the Mariners have been content to make only minor midseason additions, such as the forgettable Al Martin in 2000, when the Yankees snagged David Justice, and Ismael Valdes this year, while Bartolo Colon went to Montreal.

"They must know he's not going to be there for more than one more year, anyway," one AL source said, when asked if Seattle might permit the Mets to talk with Piniella.

Piniella chose not to comment on the Mets job. However, he is known to still have a soft spot in his heart for New York as well as an affinity for being closer to his Florida home. For the Mets, here's why Piniella makes perfect sense:

1. He's a winner. Let's start with the fact that he's one of the three best managers in the game. That should be reason enough to go after him. He has been successful with the Yankees, Reds and Mariners, and his managerial style has always had a National League flavor to it.

2. He knows the New York landscape. He won't be blindsided by tabloid headlines or passionate second-guessers.

3. He is perfect for taking on the Yankees and George Steinbrenner. Let's face it, the Mets don't just compete against the Braves. They also compete against the Yankees. Piniella is obsessed with Steinbrenner in a friendly, competitive manner. He would thrive on the comparisons to the Yankees, not shrink from them.

4. He would give the Mets immediate respect and could shepherd in needed professionalism, qualities the organization has seriously lacked over the past decade, from the Bobby Bonilla-Vince Coleman-Bret Saberhagen shenanigans to Phillips' own transgressions to Valentine's occasional tortured soliloquies to Potgate. Valentine seemed to change after his World Series appearance, placing tremendous confidence in his veterans while giving the team more latitude. That change seemed to be reflected in the Mets' unfocused play.

The front office didn't help, either. Why Tony Tarasco was kept around remains a mystery. (Tarasco was with reliever Mark Corey in June when Corey suffered a seizure after smoking marijuana. Corey was later traded to Colorado.) The Yankees would have booted Tarasco in a minute, the way they did Ruben Rivera in spring training. (Rivera stole Derek Jeter's game glove and a bat and sold them to a memorabilia dealer. After the theft was discovered, Rivera fessed up and returned the items.) Said one Met last month, "Too many things are allowed to go on here unchecked that [another manager] would never put up with."

What would the Mariners do without Piniella? Ironically, Wilpon may have hinted at the answer himself. At his news conference Tuesday, when talking about the relationship between Valentine and Phillips, Wilpon mentioned that one playoff team has a manager and a general manager who "don't even talk to each other.'' Anybody in the Bay Area catch the reference? Dusty Baker is not signed for next season. He would be a perfect fit in Seattle, one of the only jobs other than San Francisco that best fits his profile. It's West Coast, it's a competitive team, it pays well, it has none of the East Coast scrutiny -- heck, it even has the great outdoor activities Baker, an avid fisherman, relishes. Signing a winner like Baker certainly would cushion the blow of losing Piniella, as would some cash and/or minor league players from the Mets.

The first step is up to New York. It is Steve Phillips' call. It is a chance for him to start saving his own job.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Check out his Insider column Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the postseason.

 

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