Ownerslips
If Wilpons want to win, they must get out of the way
IF YOU are a Mets fan, an unpopular sentiment is about to follow: The Wilpons want to win. They are like many owners of major sports teams who do not possess the self-awareness to see how their behavior and tactics impede winning. Really, it is not uncommon. Folks with money and/or power tend not to see themselves as others do and tend to think the accruing of the money and/or power gives them license to follow their instincts and belief systems, even in fields in which they lack expertise.
Consider George Steinbrenner’s arc. There was great initial success in the late 1970s, as the Mets had in the late 1980s with the Wil- pons (albeit with Nelson Doubleday as a mitigating factor). What followed was a sustained period of failure for the Yankees sparked by Steinbrenner’s irrationality and impetuousness. You might remember he was being laughed at, not with, on Seinfeld.
A quarter-century-plus of Yankees success was built on Steinbrenner being suspended for 2 ¹/2 years beginning in August 1990 and his installing of Gene Michael as GM as his exit strategy. You can believe the wacky-uncle image that has come from the haze of time and the cleanse of the YES Network, but Steinbrenner — who did badly want to win — deterred success as much as cultivated it.
To succeed Sandy Alderson, the Wilpons need their Stick Michael, who not only had a savantism for judging baseball talent, an open mind to information and a way of making those who worked for him feel good, but a thick spine to stand up to the biggest bully in sports when necessary. Who knows how many actual times, for example, Michael withstood threatening “or else” orders to trade Bernie Williams in the center fielder’s apprenticeship phase.
To best deal with ownership, the Mets probably need to hire a president of baseball operations, who would name a GM with whom he is in simpatico. The GM would run the day-to-day baseball while the president of baseball operations deals with the big picture, mainly insulating the GM by being the one who tussles with and counsels ownership. I have been told the Mets are open to such a dynamic, in part, because they know if they want to land a current GM they probably would not even be granted an interview request without offering a greater title than that person already has.
For example, Brewers owner Mark Attanasio may not let native New Yorker and former Met employee David Stearns interview for the position under any circumstances, but it would be near impossible unless the Mets were proposing a title above Stearns’ current GM.
As for a Wilpon disappearance similar to Steinbrenner’s suspension, let’s face it, if this ownership remained intact during the worst of the Madoff debacle, then it is going nowhere. Perhaps surviving has hardened the Wilpons in their operating style. Again, there is a disconnect between how Mets ownership sees itself and the insights offered by those who have worked for the Wilpons.
So, I suggest this ownership look in the mirror and consider a few modifications that would make life better for the next head of baseball operations:
1. Plan better for catastrophe
I once asked Tony La Russa why he was a good manager, and he said that before every pitch he considered what the worst outcome could be, which meant he was never caught off guard by bad circumstances. Buck Showalter constantly runs through his “what ifs” — what if we lose our second baseman, not only who is playing, but who becomes his backup and who becomes next in line at Triple-A?
The best leadership prepares for the worst because in a long season it will occur, it seems, especially to the Mets. I sense the Wilpons, Fred in particular, want to hear the rosiest scenarios: This pitcher will stay healthy this year, this prospect will blossom, this guy will rebound from a bad year. It has led to not having enough fire extinguishers around when the wood house goes up in flames (see the lack of contingencies the past two seasons).
Perhaps this is a mechanism that allows ownership to avoid spending more, but the Wilpons have to be willing to listen to candidates who don’t just sell the most positive forecasts of the organization’s current state.
2. Be open-minded
I do believe Fred Wilpon thinks that under Alderson the Mets became too analytical. It reminds me of the “Crocodile Dundee” scene in which the title character and his girl have a switchblade pulled on them and the girlfriend advises the relinquishing of wallets because the thieves “have a knife.” To which, Dundee says, “That’s not a knife” pulls out a gigantic blade and adds, “That’s a knife.”
The Mets’ three-man analytics department is a switchblade. If Fred thinks that is an analytics department he should see the machete-sized groups many of his competitors are operating. Again, this could be about cost-containment or just Fred’s hopes of baseball returning to a quainter time of bunts and sizing up players by looking in their eyes.
But he should know the research and development being done by the Astros, Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees and many others into areas as diverse as launch angle to sleep to brain activity to eye- sight to projecting out teenage talent from Latin America comes from large staffs. Either you keep up and innovate in your own shop or you die.
3. Failure is part of the game
If I were a GM candidate I would come in with a piece of paper that showed Theo Epstein invested 32 years at $658 million on Edwin Jackson, Jason Heyward, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Yu Darvish. Jeff Luhnow drafted Mark Appel rather than Kris Bryant, waived J.D. Martinez and turned Josh Hader into Carlos Gomez. Brian Cashman has imported a litany of failed starters: Think Jeff Weaver, Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa and Javier Vazquez (twice). Here is the thing: I think Epstein, Luhnow and Cashman are all great at their jobs. There is no way to be in these positions, especially for a big-market club, and not swing and miss on a large scale. But my feeling is what begins as Wilpon trust in their baseball operations head dissolves quickly upon mistakes. If Mets ownership believes in their hiring process, then they must not lose faith upon the first negative outcome or loud tabloid back-page or sports-talk barrage. The best are going to make mistakes. They also are going to bluntly tell you their opinions of what is best for the organization. Trust the person you hire if they say trading Noah Syndergaard now is the proper path or that Mets 2025 is more vital than Mets 2019. Be prepared to get out of the ownership comfort zone that has not had sustained success, brace for some hard times, trust the process. That is, if I am right, and you really do want to win.