Cleaning up the Mets mess

Duquette in position to quickly turn around New York

Interim Mets general manager Jim Duquette is known around the game for his communication skills, his strong background in player development and his alacrity in remaining undamaged by New York's ugly breakdown over the past two years -- one that claimed the jobs of Bobby Valentine and Steve Phillips. But Duquette, 35, has no promises from Mets owner Fred Wilpon that the interim tag will be removed, even if some of Duquette's fellow Williams College alums may be counting on it. Almost a dozen of them contacted Duquette within three days of his of his June 12 promotion to congratulate him and, oh, by the way, ask for a job.

The Mets needed to let Phillips go when they did -- one NL GM said Phillips told him back in April that he saw the handwriting on the wall -- so that Duquette would have time to engineer trade-deadline deals. Wilpon could not allow Phillips to continue to chart the team's future when he knew Phillips was not long for the organization. An outsider would not have had adequate time to get up to speed on the organization in order to make sound deals.

So, Duquette, who's been with the team since 1997, and who had done a previous stint with the Mets from 1991-96, was the right man at the right time. But will the trades he makes in the next five weeks decide whether he keeps the job? Not likely. First, Duquette probably won't get major-league-ready players for Armando Benitez and Roberto Alomar, his best trading chips. It would be unfair to judge those kind of veterans-for-prospects deals in the near term.

"I have one or two proposals I could say yes to right now if I wanted," Duquette said. "But there's nothing that makes sense for us right now. I think we're in a period where teams are testing the waters, but I don't see anything coming to fruition just yet."

The Mets are betting that bullpen-starved clubs such as the Red Sox or Yankees can talk themselves into a deal for Benitez and his fragile ego because of the quality of his stuff, while forgetting that his breakdowns in critical games are legendary. For Boston, for instance, to even consider trading a left-handed arm like Casey Fossum to rent Benitez for three months is a risky reach.

Just about any deal for Benitez or Alomar, who may be re-energized by getting out of New York and onto a team with something to play for, would be slick work by Duquette. Duquette moves deliberately, much like Pat Gillick of Seattle, who can always find one more person to negotiate with before pulling the trigger on a deal.

Duquette's future, however, is tied more to whatever backchannel work Wilpon does over the next four months to see if he can secure a bigger-name GM. Oakland's Billy Beane, for instance, grew up in the Mets organization wanting to be Frank Cashen, and always had a soft spot in his heart for the Amazin's. That said, Beane is an extreme longshot for several reasons. First, he danced with and then dumped the Red Sox last year. Further, Wilpon would have to eat three years of manager Art Howe's contract and also shell out whatever it would cost to sign Beane. (Does anybody think those two could work together again?) Wilpon, though, must at least make the effort, and not the lame window-dressing, franchise-sabotaging attempts he put forth trying to land Alex Rodriguez and Lou Piniella.

San Francisco GM Brian Sabean will also be considered by New York, but he is unlikely to leave what's been a model organization for upper-middle revenue teams. Gene Michael has already parlayed media speculation about the Mets job into a deserved extension as the Yankees' special advisor.

The Mets will need either a veteran GM or somebody who understands the unique New York landscape. The team has suffered from a brain drain in recent years as the staff of keen advisors around Phillips -- chiefly Omar Minaya and Dave Wallace -- shrunk. (Wallace, who joined the Dodgers after leaving New York, wanted to be closer to his East Coast home and is currently the Red Sox's pitching coach. For his acumen, just check out what Glendon Rusch did for him with the 2000 Mets and what he's done before and since.)

The Mets need more baseball people with strong evaluation skills, whether that's the GM hire itself, assistants to the GMs, or coaches. What the Mets should do, for instance, is make a run at Oakland pitching coach Rick Peterson, a Jersey guy who's one of the best in his business, to see if the Athletics will allow him out of his contract.

The Mets need to get back to a pitching-and-defense mentality in order to win at Shea Stadium. Short of signing free agent Bartolo Colon this winter, nothing would make a stronger impact on reaching that goal than securing Peterson.

New York is still a plum franchise, despite the mess that is this year's team. The Mets are a brutally constructed offensive club, one that began this week 15th in runs, slugging and on-base percentage and dead last in hits, stolen bases and grounding into double plays. The pitching staff is built around two starters, Tom Glavine and Al Leiter, who will both turn 38 next year. Ominously, Glavine's strikeout rate (4.00), often an indicator of how well a pitcher maintains his stuff, is the lowest it's been since his rookie season in 1988. Leiter's strikeout rate (6.75) is the worst it's been in any of the 10 seasons in which he's made at least 15 starts.

That said, rookie Jae Seo has proved to be a reliable starter with terrific control, catcher Vance Wilson has hit enough to make certain Mike Piazza plays two or three games a week at first base next year, pitcher Aaron Heilman, whom the Mets wisely have resisted trading, will begin his major league audition this week, and shortstop Jose Reyes brings exactly the burst of speed, energy and enthusiasm this tired club needs.

The quick demise of this team may have been a blessing. Now the Mets can get on with their transition to becoming younger and more dependent on pitching in the same way Toronto quit spending on veterans just to try and match the Yankees and Red Sox and instead retooled around a younger, on-base percentage team -- a turnaround that the Jays have pulled off even more quickly than they anticipated. The Mets are in position to make a similarly rapid turnaround; they're a catamaran, not an ocean liner.

Duquette will make sure the transition continues over the next three months. The Mets would be hard pressed to find someone better from outside the organization than Duquette. If they need a model, they can look to the Dodgers, who hired Dan Evans on May 31, 2001 to assist Wallace, the interim GM, in the cleanup after Kevin Malone left. Wallace had no interest in the full-time duties. On Oct. 3, 2001, the Dodgers made Evans the GM. They've been winning with pitching and defense ever since.

Larry Doby (1923-2003)

Baseball lost a class act and a true treasure with the passing of Larry Doby last Wednesday, whose uphill battle to integrate the American League was underappreciated because of the spotlight on Jackie Robinson, who beat Doby to the big leagues by just 11 weeks. Doby also happened to become the second black manager in the majors, further defining the John Adams second-to-arrive syndrome to his career.

Doby, however, should be remembered for one historic first. He was the first black man to hit a home run in the World Series, a blast that won Game 4 of the 1948 Fall Classic for Cleveland and pitcher Steve Gromek.

But that might not even have been his biggest first. After the game, photographers snapped a picture of Gromek hugging Doby in the clubhouse. The white man and the black man were cheek-to-cheek with enormous smiles of joy upon their faces. It was thought to be the first photograph ever to show a white athlete and a black athlete hugging.

"When Steve Gromek and I embraced in that picture,'' Doby once said, "it showed from a social standpoint how things should be.''

His smile ought not be forgotten.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send a question to his Mailbag.

 

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