Will the Sun Come Up On Monday?

According to various sources (first reported by Matt Pignataro on 7 Train to Shea), the Mets will announce that both manager Jerry Manuel and GM Omar Minaya will be fired on Monday.

This in direct opposition to what Fred Wilpon insisted in early August. For those who forgot (or weren’t paying attention), from the NY Post:

… as Wilpon walked away, a Post reporter asked if Minaya would remain the team’s GM beyond this year.

“Is the sun going to come up tomorrow?” Wilpon answered.

Now I’m thinking, maybe it won’t. Perhaps the end of Daylight Savings Time has something to do with the sun not rising, and Wilpon firing Minaya.

If indeed Minaya is fired, and Wilpon believed what he said to that Post reporter, then the Mets are more inept at management evaluation than we ever imagined. Did something change between August 5th and October 5th? In other words, what happened in August and September that would change the Mets’ perception of Omar Minaya’s performance as a General Manager? Did they think that their mediocre MLB roster was good enough to compete with the Phillies and Braves, and simply underperforming? Or, did they think that Minaya would somehow, some way, find a half-dozen gems from the rubble of the waiver wire to rescue the season?

One might consider the fact that Wilpon was lying — that he had considered the possibility of relieving Minaya of his position, and was simply giving Omar a public vote of confidence to prevent a media nightmare of questions and rumors that might affect the final two months of the season.

You know what? That’s an even WORSE consideration — because it means that the Mets have been thinking about fixing their management issues for two months, and have done absolutely nothing. In the meantime, other teams in similarly terrible condition have made steps toward righting the ship. While the Mets sat on their hands wondering what they should do next, strong leadership candidates have found employment elsewhere. More importantly, the team floundered without direction nor meaning under a lame-duck manager and a lame-duck GM — both of whom had motivations other than the Mets’ future in mind.

While it’s true that Jerry Manuel played a number of youngsters in September, what good does that do for the next Mets manager and GM? Those men might have preferred to see Justin Turner at second base instead of Ruben Tejada. Maybe the new management doesn’t see Dillon Gee, Pat Misch, or Raul Valdes as candidates for next year’s pitching staff, and would’ve preferred to see other arms used in September starts.

Who knows, maybe the sun WILL come up today and Omar Minaya will still be the General Manager in 2011. Or maybe Fred Wilpon was lying — again.