Omar & Jerry Gone; The Inevitable Confirmed

As reported by Jon Heyman at Sports Illustrated, the Mets will announce the removal of Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya from their present positions.

Minaya was replaced Jim Duquette as General Manager in the closing days of the 2004 season. He made a huge splash his first off-season hiring Willie Randolph as manager, signing free agents Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran, as well as giving ownership and the fanbase that he was going to make the Mets competitive.

Talking with friends, co-workers, and anyone who wants to discuss, many now think Omar was a terrible GM. That assessment is grossly unfair. Omar made mistakes; many mistakes. But, he had an eye for valuable players taken off other teams' scrap heaps:

Remember Darren Oliver? How about Endy Chavez? Jose Valentin? What about John Maine as a throw in?

Then there was locking up Reyes and Wright through their arbitration years.

There was also the bad:

Luis Castillo's 3 year $24M contract
Oliver Perez 3 year $36M contract

Some believe that Beltran's contract is bad. I don't. He has been a quality Met, who had some great years for the orange and blue. But, which has been much of Minaya's MO, the contracts are back loaded, thus making players in the closing years of their contracts un-movable.

The last two to three years Omar has been nothing more than a glorified marionette. Jeff is making all the moves, and Omar is taking all the heat.

Does Omar need to go. Yes. But on his way out, instead of bashing the guy, just remember where the Mets were before he took over. They were 71-91. Although their record isn't much better this year, they still made the playoffs in 2006, and played "meaningful games in September."

As for Jerry, it was a nice fix after the Willie Randolph fiasco; he handled the press well, and he showed he was in charge. Unfortunately, that was too few and far in between. He is a nice guy, but he absolutely abused his bull pen. He was not very good at double switches, and it appears he never lit a fire under his team.

Jerry to needs to go.

As of now, it is not known if the Mets have spoken to possible candidates for either position. It is widely believed, and rightfully so, that the Mets need to hire a GM first, then work towards manager.

All we know is that the Mets are in such disarray from ownership on down. They need a strong baseball person to right this ship, and Jeff needs to but out.