In the stealth of early Tuesday morning, the New York Mets brass fired manager Willie Randolph after weeks of speculation. Also canned were pitching coach Rick Peterson and and first base coach Tom Nieto (hey, what'd he ever do to anyone?). The New York Post claims Randolph and Co. were terminated at about 3 AM (Eastern). Hilary, want to take this one?
Bench coach Jerry Manuel has been named the interim manager. As for the other slots, they will be filled as described by the article linked to in the above paragraph:
Triple-A New Orleans manager Ken Oberkfell has joined the Major League
staff, presumably as the new bench coach, and New Orleans pitching
coach Dan Warthen has assumed that same role with the Mets. Field
coordinator Luis Aguayo has also joined the Major League staff.
The Mets had slain the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the series opener, 9-6, about two hours prior to Randolph's firing. The win seemed simple enough, though starter Mike Pelfrey struggled, allowing six earned runs in six innings. The bullpen pitched three scoreless innings, but Pedro Feliciano allowed two of the runners he inherited to score.
The timing of the firing is questionable and the way the Mets organization handled the execution is sketchy. It's bad enough that they chose to fire Randolph when a large majority of the country -- including some people who have a legitimate hand in the operation of the Mets franchise, people who might talk some sense and keep Randolph around -- is sound asleep.
Couldn't they have fired Randolph prior to the series, instead of forcing him to fly from the East coast to the West coast? Why fire him after a win? Why fire him after a game in which there's hardly anything to criticize him for? These questions, of course, assume that Randolph deserved to be fired, which he certainly didn't. That's a different discussion that has been had many times already.
Logically, it seems that if you fire a guy after he gets you the result you're after (a win) and doesn't do anything wrong en route to that result, then you planned to fire him before. So, why make Randolph travel from coast to coast to meaninglessly manage one game? It makes no sense.
As a lifetime Phillies fan, there's a part of me that is really enjoying the circus that is this whole situation, but the more rational part of me sympathizes with Randolph and loathes the cowardly and unorganized way the Mets' brass handled the situation. I have trouble believing that any other organization would even dare to fire their manager at 3 AM following a win a day after he traveled from one side of the country to the other.
No baseball fan deserves to have these kinds of irresponsible cowards in prominent positions with their favorite teams. When the dust settles, Fred Wilpon, Omar Minaya, and everyone else not only owe Randolph, Peterson, and Nieto apologies, they owe Mets fans apologies as well. And Minaya should lose his job for it.