There are plenty of people to blame for the Mets’ misfortunes over the past 18 seasons. Pl🎉ayers. Managers. General managers. Scouts. Doctors. Trainers.
But the issues always started at the top, where the Wilpons’ ownership — CEO Fred Wilpon and son and COO Jeff — has been defined by micromanagement of subor💛dinates.
With Steve Cohen set to take over as the team’s majority owner in no mo꧅re than five years, here’s a look at some of the worst mo𒊎ves made on the Wilpons’ watch:
The managers
The Wilpons’ first managerial hire, Art Howe, was fired two years into his four-year deal — and paid $4.7 million for the remaining two years on the contract — after💛 going 137-186. The Mets’ most recent manager, Mickey ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚCallaway, was also fired after two seasons. Willie Randolph carried the best win percentage (302-253, .544) under the Wilpons and took the team within one win of the World Series in 2006, but was shamed midway through the 2008 season after being fired around 3 a.m. Eastern Time, while the team was in California.
The closers
Edwin Diaz is just the latest disaster. Before moving into Citi Field in 2009, the Mets signed Francisco Rodriguez to a three-year, $37 million deal. Coming off setting the single-season record for saves (62), Rodriguez posted one of his worst ERAs (3.71) in his 16-year career and was then placed on the league’s restricted list after assaulting his father-in-law at the stadium. Frank Francisco arrived in 2012 and recorded a 5.36 ERA, before being released during his second season with the team. Diaz, the league’s reigning saves leader in 2018, was the 𝕴reason the Mets were willing to also acquire Robinson Cano and the $100 million remaining on his contract in the same trade. Before his first season in Queens was done, Diaz was demoted from the closer’s role, finishing with a 5.59 ERA.
The busts
How much time do you have? Jason Bay signed a four-year, $66 million deal before the 2010 season, then batted .234 with 26 home runs 🍌in three injury-shortened seasons — he hit 36 homers with the Red Sox in 2009 — before taking a $21 million buyout. Kaz Matsui moved Jose Reyes to second base, but could never live up to the hype of his threeꦇ-year, $20 million deal in 2004.
Players who’d🏅 already been with the Mets burned them, too. Luis Castillo earned a four-year, $25 million deal after a strong finish to the 2007 season, but hit .245 the next year, created one of the worst moments in team history with his drop of Alex Rodriguez’s pop-up in the Subway Series and was released before the 2011 season, with $6 million remaining on his contract. Oliver Perez signed a three-year, $39 million deal in 2009, then suffered numerous injuries and was demoted to the bullpen early in the 2010 season, before being released with $12 million left on his deal. Yoenis Cespedes sparked the team’s run to the World Series in 2015, but has appeared in just 119 games since signing a four-year, $110 million contract before the 2017 season.
The ones who got away
There are too many to count. Particularly following the 2012 settlement requiring the Wilpons’ repayment of $162 million they’d received from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the Mets passed on countless high-end free agents to keep payroll down. But few stung more than letting Daniel Murphy walk to a division rival — a three-year, $37.5 million✤ deal with the Nationals — after an all-time postseason run, in which the second baseman hit home rಞuns in six consecutive games and was named the NLCS MVP in 2015. Murphy was named an All-Star the next two seasons, while the Nationals won back-to-back division titles.
Few blunders are more infam𝄹ous than one of the Wilpons’ first big moves in 2004, when the Mets traded prized prospect Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano, whose injury issues were overlooked and limited him to three games during the postseason push he was acquired to spark. Kazmir became a three-time All-Star and helped Tampa reach the 2008 World Series.