Should Jerry Manuel Take The Fall For A Slow Start In 2010?

Mets Blog

By Joseph Pascullo

Monday, January 18, 2010 10:50 AM EST

     Hello everyone and welcome back one more time! Well, the Carlos Beltran knee surgery soap opera got weirder and weirder towards last week’s end. He claims Omar Minaya gave him the green light to go for the surgery, while Omar says that he didn't and surgery at that point was only something they were considering. Whatever, the communication on this team is absolutely horrific, there's something that everyone in the organization can say is 100% factual. I wouldn’t even give them an ‘F’, I’d give them something lower, like a ‘G’, along with a ticket to remedial communications. I briefly touched upon this in the last post, but there is one man that may suffer more than any other thanks to this whole unnecessary fiasco.

     Jerry Manuel seems to be a decent manager. If he was at the helm for the entire 2008 season, the final result likely would have been an NL East crown instead of a second consecutive collapse. I'm not a guy who places all the blame for last season's horror show on Manuel's shoulders. The injuries absolutely killed us, that is more than a sufficient enough excuse. Had all the Mets big guns been around for full seasons last year, who knows what might have been? Certainly the final results would have been more desirable than a 70-92 record.

     But the talk surrounding the team seems to suggest that if the Mets don't hit the ground running in 2010 and they get off to a lackluster start, Manuel is as good as gone. In all likelihood, Carlos Beltran shunned this fact completely last Wednesday when he underwent his surgery. This is no small matter. The Mets depend on Beltran for a lot of things. His defense in Citi Field's centerfield is spectacular, and I'm sure the team was counting on him covering a little bit of ground in leftcenter to help out Jason Bay. His bat is uber-important, he hits for power, he steals bases, he's simply one of the most important pieces of this Mets team. Now that he's gone and is likely to be replaced by someone inferior - like Angel Pagan for instance - the Mets can't get off to that quick start that they'd be able to get if Beltran was around.

     I like Jerry Manuel, I really do. The Mets seemed to respond to his hiring well in 2008, going 55-38 with Jerry as opposed to the 34-35 record they posted with Willie Randolph. He doesn't crack under the pressure of the New York press and media; in fact he deals with them quite affably, slinging a joke here and there. Sometimes the jokes are a little overdone, but in the end I like that he's got an A+ personality. He's a guy that knows how to do things in this pressure-filled city. Last season was going well until...well you know. I know New York sports fans are impatient people but come on, it wouldn't be fair if Manuel got his marching orders due to Beltran's stupidity just to extinguish impatience. If anyone deserves to be sacked it's Carlos Beltran, but of course that'll never happen due to the necessity we have for him, and due to his virtually immovable contract. Beltran obviously knows this, so he took advantage of the lavish situation he's in to do whatever he wants to do at his job without any type of discipline.

     It's an absolute disgrace, and if it costs Jerry Manuel his job, I personally will never forgive Beltran. I feel that if the Mets can have a full season of both Jerry Manuel and injury-free baseball – and maybe some upgrades in the rotation as well - that is a solid formula for victory. Unfortunately the 2010 season isn't going to kick off that way with Beltran on the shelf. If the team starts slowly, the fans will get edgy, and management will likely make a change for the sake of just shaking things up, and the easiest way to do that is to fire the manager, who is not behind the scenes and is out on the field where everyone can see the change night after night, even though he is an innocent man. In the event of a less than stellar start to 2010, I hope that management can wait until Beltran returns to make a complete evaluation of the job Manuel's doing with the team, otherwise they may wind up making a large mistake, punishing an innocent man for a self-satisfied man's insubordination.

     What do you guys think? Will Manuel get canned if the Mets don't start 2010 on the right foot even though Carlos Beltran isn't going to be available until sometime after April? Do you want Manuel to stick around, or would you not mind it if he was fired? Sound your opinions off in the comment section below, and as always my good friends, thanks for stopping by to read!