Mets Say Mickey Callaway Is Safe
No Matter What Next General Manager Thinks
Wallace Matthews writes what I've been saying for nearly a decade.
I took a break from this narrative when Sandy Alderson assumed office. Otherwise I first broached this subject back when Omar Minaya was still general manager, then again last year when he is rehired by the organization.
We joke with little amusement of the three-headed general manager. But the real three-headed monster is Fred, Jeff, and silent Saul, and their collective inability to venture far off campus for sake of effectively seeking out a qualified independently minded executive - someone so blatantly confident as to either demand they stay clear away from baseball operations, or tells them to stick it.
PON and Son of PON have proven repeatedly how their various insecurities and paranoia prohibit them from trusting an unknown executive. Proof positive is Fred spending his entire Mets career relying solely on executives provided by Frank Cashen and Steve Phillips.
Think about it ...
Cashen populates his front office with Al Harazin, Jerry Hunsicker, Joe McIlvaine, and Steve Phillips. Upon his retirement, Cashen inexplicably names Al Harazin as his replacement. Jerry Hunsicker and Joe McIlvaine rightly blow their tops, and bolt the organization (Hunsicker to Houston and McIlvaine to San Diego). When Fred Wilpon finally grasps the magnitude of Al Harazan's ineptitude, he first asks Hunsicker to return and is rebuffed. Fred then calls Joe McIlvaine begging for his return. Unlike Hunsicker, McIlvaine agrees. Fast forward - Fred exhausts his patience with McIlvaine's irreverent behavior. Fred executes his next in-house hire, this time appointing Steve Phillips as new general manager. Phillips in turn brings into the front office fold both Omar Minaya and Jim Duquette. However, Omar would soon accept the general manager's position at Montreal. When Steve Phillips earns his pink slip, Fred Wilpon turns to his lone remaining in-house executive, Jim Duquette. Before Jim is allowed to complete his second season on the job, a panicked Fred Wilpon is back on the phone begging for Omar Minaya's return. Like McIlvaine, Minaya agrees and assumes the office of general manager. Omar brings in John Ricco. Minaya gets fired.
By this time it becomes crystal clear how repeatedly hiring enablers; mutually familiar predisposed sympathetic executives; only fuel Fred's and Jeff's penchant for meddling in baseball affairs. It was during Omar Minaya's tenure as general manager that I finally deem Fred Wilpon's Mets a lost and inbred organization in dire need of a commanding outside influence.
Enter Sandy Alderson, who I view as an anomaly. Ownership's search for a general manager to replace Minaya as far as I'm concerned was farcical at best. It was to be COO Jeff Wilpon's first effectual hire. But even after seeking out professional consultation, Jeff's search goes nowhere until then Commissioner Selig makes Alderson available. Wink, wink; nudge, nudge; ownership's search comes to a screeching halt. Sandy Alderson is hired on the spot.
When health issues necessitate Sandy Alderson stepping down, Wallace Matthews suggests COO Jeff Wilpon may have already been contemplating mutual separation. Sandy Alderson is not Frank Cashen, and Jeff is not his father. Although Cashen answered directly to ownership, it's abundantly clear Cashen operated autonomously, and completely free of interference. Every general manager since, to varying degrees, had Fred looking over their shoulder. Whereas Omar maintained a working relationship with both PON and Son of PON, Sandy on the other hand answered directly to Jeff.
It's rather ponderous to me that Son of PON would be so motivated as to actually fire Sandy Alderson after tasking him with shielding ownership from a constant onslaught of slings and arrows. Surely Jeff wasn't going to blame another two straight 90-loss seasons on Alderson, was he? I would like to think that at some point during his tenure Sandy tried telling Jeff to butt out. An unlikely scenario, as Jeff would not have allowed that being as both he and his father refuse to look themselves in the mirror and humbly admit they themselves are the overriding problem. Circling back, we'll never know if Jeff really had it in him to fire Alderson, as the former general manager wound up making that decision for him. This much is certain, throughout Sandy Alderson's time as general manager, ownership's meddlesome decisions are wildly dictated by their own financial distress. Their sole focus is and has been protecting gate receipts versus smartly building a sustainable winner. They've done just enough to elicit a ray of hope from the paying customer, nothing more. In the end, they let Sandy take the fall, as they themselves maintain the club is financially stable.
Many years ago (pre-Madoff) Fred Wilpon told us very plainly with regards to payroll that he aims to break even. Meaning, if we pack the place, they spend more; if we don't show up, they spend less.
Former general manager Steve Phillips is rather emphatic when it comes to defending the Wilpon's.
Now for a more detailed credit check ...
I wrote an article Feb. 18, 2018, wherein I list my sources: FINANCIAL FOLLY
By late summer 2002 Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon have the terms of their divorce settled by an independent party. Fred must pay Doubleday 50% up front, and the remaining balance over the ensuing three years. At the same time, Steve Phillips leaves behind a last place team with the highest payroll in the National League. Fred then orders puppet Jim Duquette to cease spending. Minaya takes over, and convinces ownership to reopen their wallets. They acquiesce, but today we better know the reason why. Just as they had done in order to raise Nelson Doubleday's money, and just as they had done with deferred money owed to Frank Cashen, Fred Wilpon relies on Madoff accounts to fund Minaya's expenditures. All the while, Fred Wilpon is seeking financing for the construction of Citi Field. As fans pack Shea Stadium in its final years, Fred Wilpon sways lenders with promises of 3.5 million in sustained annual attendance.
When the Madoff ponzi scheme is revealed, the Wilpon's world comes crashing down all around them. Without delving into every bit of minutia, they are forced eventually into selling upwards of 25% of the club to outside investors. In 2015, they refinance $750 million dollars of interrelated SNY and club debt due over a five year period (this being year three). This past off-season, Jeff Wilpon announces he is shaving $20 million dollars from the previous year's opening day payroll. An unrelated report by FORBES, perhaps reveals the underlying reason why.
One can only conclude that financially and operationally, we are being told one thing, while ownership does another.
Just ponder this exceptional mess the Mets are in ...
Just look at the organizational backtracking ...
John Ricco is presently the face of the front office, while Omar Minaya mentors Jeff Wilpon. Then there's J.P. Ricciardi, an Alderson guy. As such, I feel he is mentally checked out, and will make his exit no later than season's end.
Ricco said Jeff Wilpon instructed all three to be creative heading into the trade deadline. Then the plan suddenly changed, then changed again. The results speak for themselves.
More proof of continued meddling ...
Last September Newsday reveals how principle owner Fred Wilpon shields (then) manager Terry Collins from general manager Sandy Alderson and from his own son COO Jeff Wilpon, both of whom it is speculated sought Terry's dismissal for some time. One month later, Newsday informs us how Mickey Callaway becomes the number one choice to replace Collins after spending a long lunch with principle owner Fred Wilpon. This past Sunday, Newsday completes the trifecta by reporting Mickey Callaway is expected to return as manager in 2019, and that even if the team brings in a new general manager, Callaway would remain in his position.
Said another way, the next general manager already has his/her first precondition.
So much for autonomy!
And so I ask: what supremely qualified and respected executive would accept a Mets general manager's position riddled with stipulations?
This is exactly why the Mets need a President of Baseball Operations - an astute baseball executive whom will ensure ownership's priorities are met to their satisfaction. A person who in turn will oversee the entire baseball operation. A new general manager should be hired by and made to report to said president, not ownership. Until that happens, Fred and Jeff Wilpon will continue exercising their executive decision making powers with negative effect.
Because that's what meddlers do.
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