Wayne Krivsky is not Branch Rickey or Frank Cashen, and should not be looked at as the anointed, brilliant successor to Omar Minaya. Met fans looking at him as some sort of savior should take a closer look.
Yes, Krivsky has a good reputation, he brought in Arroyo and Phillips in fine trades, yet also made a pretty poor trade of Kearns (when he was still productive) and Felipe Lopez for very little; this last deal is still lamented by Red fans.
He has spent the last few years bouncing from the Reds to the Mets to the Orioles and now back to the Mets, so this is not someone the Yanks, Red Sox, Angels, Phils, or any top team has come racing for with a long-term deal in a top position. Krivsky has a well-deserved reputation in player development and especially in contract negotiation, and it seems as though this last area is where his skills may be the most utilized. Perhaps his main duties will be to inject some respectability to the disheveled minor league situation following the Bernazard Era of Error, and to help Omar show restraint when he is ready to award the next Castillo/Ollie-style contract.
There is a lot in Krivsky’s career to show that he is an intelligent, responsible man who should be a fine assistant to Omar, but those expecting him to be Omar’s sure-fire successor might do well to examine his career and record. His record as GM consists of 2 decent years with the Reds before being fired. It is his time with the Twins as an assistant to the GM—where by all accounts his main role was as a contract negotiator—where his positive reputation was largely formed.
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Terry Collins was a respected manager, whose major league record looks very similar to Jerry Manuel’s—without the one playoff appearance and Manager of the Year award. Collins led his teams to second-place finishes 5 of his 6 years, and resigned during a less successful third year with the Angels, while players were apparently petitioning for his removal.
Collins’ previous team, the Astros, immediately went to the playoffs the next 3 years after Larry Dierker replaced him, and Mike Scioscia, while taking a few years, eventually led the Angels into their run as one of the more successful franchises in the game.
Collins is regarded as a hard-nosed leader, a possessor of the legendary baseball quality of “grit†and he has indeed had success as a minor league manager. But, like Krivsky, his record is very much a mix. Collins’ Astros and Angels did show improvement in his first season, but his aggressive style apparently helped him last just three years in each city, and the promise shown in his first year in each stop was not fulfilled until a successor had been hired.
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This space has consistently shown a respect for Omar Minaya, and a huge disdain for Jerry Manuel, and this has not changed. Omar simply does not have the poor record his rather annoying detractors credit him with. We have yet to reach the World Series, but Omar’s reign has been—by any reasonable evaluation—the fourth best roughly 5-year period in Met history, training only 1969-73, 1984-88, and 1997-2000.
Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. Has Omar awarded a couple of really bad contracts? Sure has. But Omar took a team which was absolutely buried in washed up overpaid players and weak, uninspired play for three years, and instantly turned them around. Omar has brought us Pedro, Beltran, Delgado, Wagner, Santana, and KRod, and his timely extensions of Wright and Reyes clearly saved the team money and stress, by tying up the franchise’s two young stars for years. Every time someone whines about Slappy and Ollie, they should try to remember all of this.
Omar has yet to put together another team as complete as the 2006 squad, who might have missed a title due to one great curveball. The next week is indeed a huge one for Omar’s future and for the 2010 team. But again, a reasonable, fact-based review of Omar’s Met tenure shows that he will almost certainly reward us with either John Lackey or Matt Holliday, or that he might surprise us with a trade for Roy Halladay. He has done it before, again and again. Fortifying the catcher position with Blanco, re-signing Cora, and bringing in the experienced Coste to be a tutor at AAA show that he may indeed be concerned with the secondary positions as well, which shows promise for 2010.
As for Jerry, his weaknesses have been pointed out more than enough, and a discussion of his strengths would be most welcome, as this is beyond the baseball ken of this writer. Jerry does not seem to get the most out of anyone, he does not appear to be well-liked or respected by his players (one or the other would be nice), he constantly plays tiny-ball with his incessant bunting, his bullpen strategies are questionable at best, and his admitting to playing Tatis over Murph at the end of last year to try to save his own job was pretty disgraceful. Possibly most distressing for a team coming off of two horrible finishes and the complete disaster of 2009, Jerry is always willing to throw blame at others, be it Ryan Church or the catchers’ pitch-calling. This is not a strategist and not a leader.
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However, if we are looking at a braintrust of Krivsky and Collins replacing them at the first sign of distress, Met fans should not feel very positive. These men—very much like Jerry Manuel—seem like decent people, and experienced baseball hands who have worked with various franchises with some success, but there is nothing in the records of either of them to suggest that they are the ones to lead us back to an era like the second half of the 1980s or the Bobby Valentine years.
From right here, these men seem like very valuable parts of an organization if, and only if, they serve in the capacities for which they are best suited. For Krivsky, this would be as an assistant GM whose role is to advise on young talent and to aid a possibly overburdened GM in contract negotiations. For Collins, this would be as a professional minor league coordinator, as he has had success at that level, and his intense personality could very well help youngsters when they are not under Collins’ tutelage long enough to become burdened by the overbearing character he seems to become in large doses.
The conclusion here is that these guys are in fact excellent hires, as long as they are not promoted above their levels of expertise. The Mets have not discovered diamonds in the rough here—they have discovered good baseball men who have never shown that they are true leaders at a top MLB level, and in fact seem quite well prepared to assist Omar (or his successor) and the next Met manager (Backman? Teufel? Bobby V? Showalter?) in various capacities.
Here’s hoping that this debate is rendered irrelevant by a seriously successful season by the 2010 Mets, which would indeed leave us with a very deep front office.
25 comments
GravediggerHebner
12/6/2009-3:29pm at 3:29 pm (UTC -4)
I agree with your description of Krivsky and Collins as people who in their tenures as GM and field manager, respectively, made good and bad decisions, had highs and lows.
I also agree that it is likely that the best way they can serve the Mets is in their current capacities as opposed to as the next GM and field manager of the team.
But I am left to wonder, who are these GMs and field managers who don’t make mistakes, and are they available? It seems to me that with very select few exceptions, both positions throughout the major leagues are populated with men who have made good and bad decisions, and whose jobs hinge largely on a “what have you done for me lately” mentality.
In that respect, I think either of these gentlemen is seemingly capable of assuming those top jobs and performing adequately should it come to that. Am I eagerly waiting, practically hoping, for it to happen? No, but if it does, I’ll give them the same reasonable chance to succeed that I would any other new hire.
Kingman 26
12/6/2009-3:42pm at 3:42 pm (UTC -4)
Thanks for the feedback Grave.
For me personally, Omar is a good GM.
As for manager, I think that Bobby Valentine, Buck Showalter, and Tim Teufel would work for me. If I see success and maturity from Wally Backman this year, he would work for me. Davey Johnson is aging, but I would take him over Jerry anytime.
That’s five guys right off the top of my head who have either more successful pasts than Collins, or would be rookie MLB managers who I would love to see given a chance.
GravediggerHebner
12/6/2009-4:45pm at 4:45 pm (UTC -4)
I hear you.
Because I don’t think either Jerry or Omar is likely to be replaced in the next few months, and because I really want to concentrate on watching some Sunday football, I’ll spare you and any readers a salvo in a debate on the merits or lack thereof (in my opinion) of the gentlemen you name.
I think with the winter meetings starting tomorrow we should save our debate energy for player acquisitions, and I hope we’ll have some good ones (both acquisitions and debates) during the next week.
Kingman 26
12/6/2009-5:27pm at 5:27 pm (UTC -4)
Totally agreed.
And I think I concentrated so hard I actually may have helped the Fish beat the Pats!
Now, GO BIG BLUE!!
I hope Eli left some messages for those jackasses in their locker room….
stickguy
12/6/2009-7:36pm at 7:36 pm (UTC -4)
just needed a calendar with the month circled! Thank god for the special teams (on both sides).
stickguy
12/6/2009-4:55pm at 4:55 pm (UTC -4)
If he really, as reported, goes 2 full years at something like 16mill (or GF 3 guaranteed) to a 36 YO fat load declining catcher, will you change your mind?
Jerry should have gone already though. Of that, I think there is no rational arguement!
Kingman 26
12/6/2009-5:24pm at 5:24 pm (UTC -4)
Yes I will.
I do not think he is going to sign Molina, and if he does for those numbers, it will prove that he has in fact not learned his lesson.
fongy2
12/6/2009-5:31pm at 5:31 pm (UTC -4)
I agree(as you know) Stick, with this
continued Molina talk. Also, Omars
continued attempts to move CAstillo
are great BUT if as has been reported, if the goal is to then replace him with Hudson on a multi-
year deal, it would another bone-head nove. I hope everyone will keep
up their Holiday cheer if a week
or two from now Omar has signed
Molina and Hudson while moving Castillo in a long discussed 3 way
deal and Pat Burrell is our Leftfielder AND including the Blanco,Cora&Coste signings, Omar has
blown through 20 or 22 of his 28 or30
million dollar budget while still
not addressing any of our Pitching
needs.
Kingman 26
12/6/2009-5:50pm at 5:50 pm (UTC -4)
And when Omar does address our biggest need–as he does every offseason–I hope we are all cheery!
It is kind of nuts that so many of you are reaming Omar for a deal he has not even hinted at making.
stickguy
12/6/2009-7:35pm at 7:35 pm (UTC -4)
well, considering none of us (except for Metro) are actually connected at all to the network, all we can do is react (go off half cocked?) to the various rumors/reports that surface.
what would be the fun in waiting until a deal actually happens to start criticizing it?
stickguy
12/6/2009-5:47pm at 5:47 pm (UTC -4)
Piling on, and C update
stickguy
12/6/2009-5:56pm at 5:56 pm (UTC -4)
Oops. fingers still frozen from putting up the Xmas lights.
anyway, had XM home plate on for a few minutes this PM on the way to the store. Weekend live edition, but not sure who the talking head was.
heard just enough to know I didnt want to hear more! 1st, in their news roundup, they said Omar looking for C, and was “waiting out” Molina, since they felt their offer wasn’t going to be built. First I heard that they had one on the table, and I am assuming it was the rumored 2 years, but he was still trying to find a bigger sucker to go 3? Could also, I guess, bu a 1 year offer, and hes looking for 2?
bigger nonsense? The host was tackling teams with “no hope” (or something like that) for 2010, and lumped the Mets in with the Astros as teams that were DOA, with no hope of competing or even being 1/2way good.
He did ackowldege they had 5 of the top 60 or so players in teh game, but discounted them having any other talent, or that 20% core being able to keep them afloat, even if they added someone like Holliday. Then he pronounced a bunch of names wrong, and generally proved to have a very superficial (as in, he skimmed some on-line babblers for his “opinions”) analysis.
I really can’t decide if most of the media types like this just copy from a few sources on-line, or they intentionally slam a team like the mets (and cubs) knowing it will get a reaction, and boost traffic?
Kingman 26
12/6/2009-6:04pm at 6:04 pm (UTC -4)
How can you listen to someone who mispronounces player names and take it even remotely seriously?
You, my friend, are better than that.
Marty Noble, who while being an old-fashioned dingbat on stat issues for sure, probably has far better access to actual people in the Met organization than most, and on Firday he posted that he did not think Molina was a serious option for us.
Is there one word anywhere, from someone IN the Met organization, saying ANYTHING about Molina?
stickguy
12/6/2009-7:32pm at 7:32 pm (UTC -4)
honestly don’t remember how they cited (if at all) the Molina piece, but they pretty clearly stated that the mets felt like they could “sit on their offer since it was the best so far”. Not a lot of room for interpretation there.
At least the name he botched was Thole, not that I didn’t do the same thing for a while. Of course, I am not a “professional” that is paid to get stuff like this right.
Who know’s what the truth is, but I hope the organization has gotten smarter than that. I just worry that it isn’t so.
Kingman 26
12/6/2009-7:47pm at 7:47 pm (UTC -4)
Good points, especially the last paragraph.
And LOL on the idea of Eli just needing to leave a calendar with the month circled in the ‘Boys locker room!
Wade Phillips is kind of an NFL Jerry Manuel; good enough to finish 2nd, or, in the NFL equivalent, make the playoffs and lose right away, but not good enough to seriously challenge for anything.
wannybackstra
12/6/2009-7:57pm at 7:57 pm (UTC -4)
Eff Jerry Manuel.
stickguy
12/6/2009-8:06pm at 8:06 pm (UTC -4)
simple, concise and no the money.
I like it.
Kingman 26
12/6/2009-8:08pm at 8:08 pm (UTC -4)
Me too….I might ask Wanny’s permission to reprint this in its entirety as my next opinion piece….
stickguy
12/6/2009-11:37pm at 11:37 pm (UTC -4)
it is truly Omarlicious.
trs86
12/6/2009-8:25pm at 8:25 pm (UTC -4)
Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports says that a club engaged in talks with John Lackey indicate that the free agent righty is looking for a contract longer, and with a greater average annual value than A.J. Burnett’s five year, $82.5MM pact.
RUN!!!!!!
HIDE!!!!!
trs86
12/6/2009-8:37pm at 8:37 pm (UTC -4)
From a Phillies fan on MLBTR
“I hope the Mets sign him to a Burnett type deal. And I hope the the Mets sign Molina for 3 years. It would ALMOST make up for the Philies signing Polanco for 3 years.”
stickguy
12/6/2009-11:42pm at 11:42 pm (UTC -4)
sadly, I fear that he might get his wish.
Which will, likely, prove that Omar really was dangerous and should have been removed from the helm before this off season began.
Or maybe even worse, the “committee” running the show (aka Paris, aka Jeffy) makes this happen?
Argue all you want about whether the mets need a big bat or #2 starter worse, but if they are going to dole out 1 big contract, Holliday scares me less than Lackey.
stickguy
12/6/2009-11:45pm at 11:45 pm (UTC -4)
Oh man, the thought of Molina being the “big” acquisition this year, and being singed for 2 (or even 3) years, just gets my blood boiling.
Can’t we find someone (MC still got his ins?) to get the word to Omar that they are making more fat, old and declining catchers every year, so he doesn’t have to lock himself into this one?
trs86
12/7/2009-7:54am at 7:54 am (UTC -4)
No way will Molina be the “big” acquisition. That’s just not Omar like. If that is it then all it proves is Omar has no power.
trs86
12/7/2009-7:54am at 7:54 am (UTC -4)
What I mean by that is if you were Omar and knowing this could be your last year would your best signing be Molina if it was your choice?