GM acknowledges talks, but Mets decline to discuss contract

NEW YORK — As the Mets strained to move closer to a berth in the postseason, the man most responsible for shaping their roster and their future has moved closer to being rewarded for his work. Omar Minaya, appointed as general manager and executive vice president of baseball operations nearly four years ago, is in position to have his contract extended.

Minaya acknowledged as much Tuesday night, hours after several reports said he had agreed to a contract extension or that he was on the verge of doing so. And a person in position to know the Mets’ maneuvering acknowledged to MLB.com that Minaya and the club were close to a new agreement, and said he would be surprised if the deal were not completed this week.

Announcement of an extension is another matter. Minaya said if an agreement were in place, it wouldn’t be announced until after the Mets’ season was complete. Mostly, he talked around the information in the reports and spoke of his relationship with chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon.

“I do have a contract through next year,” the GM said, “so it’s not a big thing. Me and Jeff have a great relationship, and there’s been lots of dialogue about a lot of things.”

The club declined to discuss publicly a report by ESPN early Tuesday evening that stated the club was working on a four-year extension of the five-year contract Minaya signed Sept 30, 2004. The report didn’t say whether the contract would take effect immediately after it is signed or whether it will cover the four-year period beginning next September. But if the agreement is consistent with the existing contract, it probably would expire after the 2014 season.

The Mets have produced a winning record in each of their four seasons under Minaya’s general managership, winning 83, 97 and 88 games under the GM’s chosen manager, Willie Randolph. New York has an 87-70 record, achieved with Randolph managing 69 games before being replaced by Jerry Manuel. Minaya reiterated that Manuel’s contract situation will be addressed after the season. The manager said the topic never was broached during his meeting with owner Fred Wilpon before the game.

Under Minaya, the Mets have spent lavishly to bring in players such as Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana. They reached the threshold of the World Series in 2006, but a collapse last season denied them a return to the postseason. Injuries have undermined them this year, but they lead the National League Wild Card race and are 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Philliies in the NL East.

Marty Noble is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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NEW YORK — The demands of the playoff races had winning essential Tuesday night, and Johan Santana’s presence underscored the importance.”We had our pitcher going,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said.

Because of their 6-2 victory, the first in four games against the Cubs this season, the final five have retained full consequence for the Mets. New York was victorious for the first time in four games, maintained its one-game lead in the National League Wild Card race and reduced its deficit in the NL East to a more manageable 1 1/2 games.

The Mets never put in words what losing would have meant. But it was clear when Jose Reyes said, “This is the biggest win of the year for us,” and Manuel said, “We had to win tonight.”

The Mets couldn’t afford to lose another Santana start. They had lost his start against the Braves 10 days earlier. The margin for error had begun to narrow for another misstep.

Santana seemed intent on avoiding that outcome, particularly after a four-run rally — which included Reyes’ three-run triple, his 200th hit this season — against losing pitcher Chad Gaudin in the sixth produced the lead. Santana had allowed two runs — one in the second inning and one in the third — on four well-struck hits, three of them doubles. He allowed a walk in the sixth. But he struck out two in the clean seventh and two more in the eighth — he finished with 10 strikeouts — before he allowed his seventh hit and second walk.

“He got nasty when we got ahead,” his catcher, Ramon Castro, said. “Like he was meaner. I didn’t worry when he had runners on base. He wanted to win so much, I knew he wouldn’t let them score.”

Santana threw 125 pitches, the most in his career.

“He wound up about 100 short,” Manuel said.

There was no thought to starting him on short rest Saturday against the Marlins. And now there’s less of a chance. But when he does pitch Sunday — if the Mets need a victory to secure a place in the postseason, there will be no pitch count.

“I didn’t even know I had that many pitches, to be honest with you,” Santana said. “All the intensity in the game and everything that we went through, I was just out there trying to help. But you do what you have to do to do your job. This was the game I was supposed to pitch and win. That’s why I’m here. I hope the next one is the same way.”

The victory, his 15th, was the Mets’ ninth in his 10 most recent starts. He hasn’t lost in 16 starts and the team has won 12 of them.

Mets heroes were many in the victory that moved their season from the brink. And they were hailed heartily by those who gathered at Shea Stadium in hopes of witnessing that needed reversal.

Reyes was saluted in the sixth after his key triple. David Wright had been toasted an inning earlier when his bases-loaded single performed CPR on the Mets’ postseason chances. And, of course, Santana was embraced as he walked to the dugout, having pitched effectively for eight innings and fiercely in his final three.

But the player whose turn at-bat — and two-out base on balls — in the fifth inning were so critical to the Mets’ get-well win was lustily booed almost throughout the otherwise rousing evening at the ballpark.

Luis Castillo was a hero, too, though his contribution went virtually unrecognized by the masses who had come to Shea to scorn, not praise, him.

After the game, Manuel spoke of the need to do “the little things” when the opponent is particularly challenging.

This opponent already had clinched the best record in the National League and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Cubs qualified as a genuine challenge, and Castillo had done the little-big thing that afforded Wright the opportunity to be a hero. Regardless, Castillo was jeered as he approached the plate for his at-bats in the sixth and eighth innings and after he was retired.

“Nobody noticed” what he had done in the fifth, he said later, his expression a sad smile.

Castillo now is in a class with Doug Sisk, Armando Benitez and — earlier this season — Carlos Delgado, a near anti-hero despite his uniform. He is booed on general principle.

“I’m getting better,” Castillo said Tuesday. “But they boo me.”

Without his walk, Wright would have led off the sixth inning. And who knows what that would have prompted? Instead, Wright pulled a soft-line drive to left field for his first hit in 12 at-bats with the bases loaded and the runs that overcame the inertia that had suffocated the batting order for four innings tied the score. The Mets had three baserunners in the first four frames against left-handed Sean Marshall, and they were jumping at his offspeed pitches.

“You can’t score the third and fourth runs before you score the first two,” Santana said, seemingly troubled by the treatment afforded Castillo. “That was a big walk.”

“I was begging for a chance to hit,” Wright said. “I wanted the bat in my hand with the game on the line to help this team get to the next level.”

His swing produced the 121st and 122nd RBIs of his season. Among Mets players, only Mike Piazza — 124 in 1999 — had driven in more runs in a season. And Wright’s campaign has five more games remaining.

Before Wright’s clutch knock in the fifth, before Castillo’s walk, came Santana’s bizarre infield hit that put runners on first and second. Reyes struck out for the second out, and that’s when Castillo worked a walk to extend the inning. With Nick Evans on first base, Santana hit a broken-bat ground ball to the first-base side of the mound. Marshall might have initiated a double play. But the bat head came between him and the ball and, 25 feet farther, the bat hit the ball and made it unplayable.

It was rightfully scored a single and appropriately seen as a signal.

“He must be living right,” Ryan Church said.

But Pedro Martinez was certain it had greater significance.

“You get a ball like that,” he said, “and you better win that game. You get that ball and it’s a good sign. But you have to win the game.”

Marty Noble is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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New York 2 1/2 games behind Philly after Niese struggles.

NEW YORK — At this juncture of the Mets’ uneven 2008 season, optimism may be hard to come by. They aren’t playing well, their bullpen is struggling, and they are compromised at second base, in the outfield, on the bench and in their rotation.

And yet a thread of optimism was quite evident after their latest defeat, on Monday night. After a 9-5 loss to the Cubs, the Mets spoke as though their final six games would be played in accordance with the tenets of their best-case scenario. But the best-case scenario has been an infrequent visitor to Shea Stadium this month, as it was last September.

“If we win the rest of our games, nothing else makes any difference,” one player said late on Monday after the impact of the third straight defeat already had been calculated. The arithmetic offered hope in one area only — the National League Wild Card race, even though the loss had undermined the Mets in that pursuit as well.

And yet, the optimist said, “The Brewers can win the rest of theirs and we’re in anyway.”

Monday’s loss, the fifth in nine home games this month, combined with the Phillies’ victory, put the second-place Mets 2 1/2 games behind the NL East leaders. And worse, it reduced the Mets’ margin over the Brewers to one game in the Wild Card race. And by losing to the NL Central champions, the Mets allowed the Cubs to clinch the best record in the league, and made it likely that if they do win the Wild Card, their postseason opponent will be those same Cubs.

The Mets, though, painted a better picture for the rest of the week.

“We have to take advantage of where we are,” David Wright said, looking beyond the disappointment that filled the foreground. “We’re in the driver’s seat. We’re in control. All we have to do is play our game.”

His meaning was understood, but the Mets’ margin for error has been reduced to this — one more loss and one more Brewers’ victory, and they have no advantage. Two more losses, and the comparisons with 2007 will be more valid than they are now.

“I don’t like to group the two years together,” Wright said. “There’s a separation.”

But, he added, “One missed opportunity, you can learn from that. Two missed opportunities and, obviously, you have a problem.”

Wright wasn’t borrowing trouble, and there was no need to; the Mets had enough on Monday night. In their third loss in three games against the Cubs this season, they trailed, 8-2, after five innings, and never really endangered the Cubs’ lead thereafter.

The game turned in the fourth inning, when winning pitcher Jason Marquis hit a grand slam off losing pitcher Jonathon Niese. The Cubs scored six times in the inning and once in the fifth to take their six-run lead. The Mets, who led, 2-1, before the Cubs rallied, didn’t score again until Wright hit his 33rd home run, with a runner on base, against Marquis in the seventh. The Mets put two runners on after Marquis’ departure, but Neal Cotts retired Ryan Church on a popup to end the inning.

Niese (1-1) probably cost himself a chance to start the 161st game of the season, on Saturday against the Marlins, with his performance — seven hits, two walks in three-plus innings — in his third big league start. Half of the 18 batters he faced reached base, and a third of those scored. This, despite his pitching a clean first inning and retiring three of four in the third.

The Cubs started an exclusively right-handed batting order, aside from Marquis, and he drove in five of the nine runs. They adjusted quickly to Niese’s left-handed curve. Marquis hit a hanger for his second home run of the season and the second grand slam by a pitcher against the Mets this season. Felix Hernandez of the Mariners hit one against Johan Santana on June 23. The Mets have allowed three home runs by pitchers this season.

That the opposing pitcher had inflicted the damage made the damage seem worse, the Mets acknowledged, but their outlook remained positive.

“I’m feeling pretty confident we’ll get in [the postseason],” manager Jerry Manuel said. “I like what I see, [players] scratching and clawing. I think we’ll do real well from this point all the way till the end.”

He is taking nothing for granted, of course, but he was speaking of the postseason and how a team with zero margin for error and forced to play to the end of the regular season often prospers in the postseason. He thought that would apply to the Mets.

Marty Noble is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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NEW YORK — The Mets brought in Johan Santana to pitch in important games, and there is no question that a playoff-clinching win in the season’s last week would be of an appropriate scale. But with Santana scheduled to start on Tuesday, manager Jerry Manuel dismissed the possibility of giving his ace any more starts than necessary down the stretch. If anything, Santana, or even Mike Pelfrey, could come out of the bullpen, but that would be a “last resort” option, Manuel said on Monday.

Manuel also would not consider such a scenario for Wednesday starter Oliver Perez, saying that the rotation will stay in its current order, and nobody would pitch on three days’ rest.

“I think our guys have pushed enough, and we have to accomplish this with the people that we have and the rotation we have in place,” Manuel said. “I would not feel comfortable in asking those guys to do that at this point.”

That does not mean, though, that anything is guaranteed for Jonathon Niese after Monday’s start against the Cubs. Manuel said that the Mets could make the necessary “adjustments” for a scenario in which they do not feel comfortable starting Niese if he put up a poor performance.

“If he really, really struggled or something like that, we could make the adjustments,” Manuel said. “There are other guys, but we don’t really have that much flexibility.”

Jon Blau is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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BY ADAM RONIS | adam.ronis@newsday.com
July 13, 2008

Most New York baseball teams seem to come up empty when they play in the Cooperstown Dreams Park Tournament for youth baseball teams. No New York team had won a championship in the 12-year-old division in the 14-year history of the tournament.

In the first three weeks of the tournament this summer, Florida was represented by four teams in finals and won two championships.

The New York Outlaws of Commack competed in the tournament the week of June 28 and coach Phil Sparacino’s goal was to get to the final day, which meant a top 16 finish.

The Outlaws (51-4 on the season) went 12-0 and outscored opponents 159-15 to become the first New York team to win a championship in the 12-year-old group. The only other New York team to win a division in the Cooperstown Dreams Park Tournament was the North Shore Royals in 1997 in the 10-year-old division.

For 12 weeks, top youth teams from around the country compete and a new champion is crowned each week, alternating between 10- and 12-year-old divisions. At total of 98 teams participated from 27 states.

“We were underestimated a lot,” pitcher Justin Dunn said. “Once teams saw how good we were, they dropped their judgment about us being from New York.”

After the teams play seven games, they are seeded based on wins and runs allowed. The Outlaws went 7-0 and allowed one run per game to get the top seed. That enabled them to get three byes in the single-elimination portion of the tournament.

“It’s a very competitive tournament and very difficult for Northeast teams to compete with warm weather states that get to play all year round,” Sparacino said. “Most New York teams get knocked off early. I’m still shocked myself. I still have goose bumps going down my spine. I still can’t believe it. This is probably the most prestigious baseball tournament in the country for youth baseball.”

The Outlaws defeated No. 2 East Cobb (Georgia), 3-0, in the championship game. It was scoreless in the fourth when Matt Vogel singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Vogel was stealing third as Jonathan Tenaglia put down a sacrifice bunt and Vogel scored on the throw to first to give the Outlaws a 1-0 lead. Pat Madigan hit a two-run homer in the fifth. Dunn pitched the first 3 2/3 innings and Matt Vogel pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, striking out six to get the win.

“As long as we got one or two runs, we were fine,” Madigan said. “Matt was almost unhittable in the tournament. Our team was really good.”

Vogel hit .774 with 32 RBIs, Madigan hit .677 with 19 RBIs and Joe Sparacino hit .607 with 13 RBIs.

The Outlaws, who are ranked No. 21 in the country by travelballselect.com, have won nine tournaments in two seasons, including the Baseball Heaven World Series Qualifier, Triple Crown Memorial Blast (North Branford, Conn.) and Cal Ripken Father’s Day Classic (Aberdeen, Md.) this year.

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Not there’s any pressure, but if Florida Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla fails to make the National League All-Star team, he’s going to hear it from his father, John.

“One of his dreams is to see me play in Yankee Stadium,” Dan says. “That’s where he always used to watch games as a kid. He’s been ragging me all year about trying to make this All-Star team.”

Uggla, who leads the majors with 23 homers, should have no problem fulfilling his father’s wishes. Phillies second baseman Chase Utley leads all NL vote-getters, but an investigation will be warranted if Uggla is not chosen as a reserve.

The only NL players who have a higher OPS than Uggla are Lance Berkman, Chipper Jones and Albert Pujols. Not bad, considering that Uggla was batting .188 on April 19, looking nothing at all like an All-Star.

“It was over on the 15th of April,” John says. “I thought, ‘There goes the Yankee Stadium trip.’ But he never says die. He’s been like that his whole career. Something clicks. He gets the competitive juices going. And he finds a way to get it done.”

John Uggla, 61, lives in Columbia, Tenn., but grew up in Schenectady, N.Y., 145 miles north of New York City. His grandfather, John Ryder, was a huge Yankees fan. From about 1952 to ‘58, when the Ugglas moved to Indiana, the family would take a three-hour-plus train ride to Grand Central Station, then hop on the No. 4 train to Yankee Stadium at least twice a year.

A half-century later, the memories remain indelible.

“When you’re 6-, 7-. 8-years old, you’re just in awe, as we all are of these guys,” John says. “Just sitting there — Mickey Mantle, Bill Skowron, Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, Billy Martin . . . those are the guys you think about. I had a gazillion Mickey Mantle cards. That was the team.”

So, as Dan progressed from Columbia Central H.S. to the University of Memphis to the Arizona Diamondbacks as an 11th round draft pick — and then to the Marlins as a steal in the Rule 5 draft—John began to imagine him playing at Yankee Stadium.

John thought the moment would happen in 2006, Dan’s rookie season with the Marlins. But Dan suffered a right hamstring strain in Baltimore at the start of that trip and missed the entire series in New York. The Marlins have not returned to the Bronx since.

The All-Star Game, then, represents Dan’s last chance to play in “The House that Ruth Built” — unless, of course, the Marlins play the Yankees in the World Series, reprising their matchup from 2003.

“For him to play, to get on the field, play an inning at Yankee Stadium . . . I get all teared up thinking about it now,” John says.

“Even if he someday ends up with the Yankees, he’s not going to play in Yankee Stadium. He still has a shot at playing at Fenway. Of course he has played at Wrigley. But this is it. Either he makes it, or it’s never going to happen.”

Uggla, 28, currently ranks fourth among NL second basemen in the fan balloting, behind Utley, the Cubs’ Mark DeRosa and the Astros’ Kaz Matsui. DeRosa, though, is more of a super-utility player than a regular second baseman. Matsui, meanwhile, went on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with a strained right hamstring.

Neither compares with Uggla, who is third in the NL with 24 doubles and on pace to hit 48 homers, a total that would break Davey Johnson’s record of 42 by a second baseman in 1973 (Johnson also had one home run as a pinch-hitter that season).

Uggla says the chances of the record falling are “pretty realistic” — for Utley, whose 22 homers also put him on pace to surpass Johnson.

“He’s a way more consistent hitter than I am,” Uggla says. “Chase when he gets on one of those runs, he can pop off five, six or seven in five days. He’s already halfway there. I’ll put my money on him.”

Uggla’s own chances?

“I don’t know,” he says. “I’m so damn streaky, who knows?”

For now, the All-Star Game is a more reasonable goal. Uggla’s family would fly in from all over the country. His parents are divorced and re-married. His brother, Mike, 31, lives in Chicago. His sister Jane, 24, lives in Benicia, Calif.

John Uggla, who worked 30 years as a technical instructor for General Electric and still teaches as a part-time contractor, keeps telling Dan, “Hang in there. Let’s go now. You’re on track. This is our chance, this is it.”

Not that there’s any pressure, Dan …

“It’s on the top of my mind,” John Uggla says. “If you didn’t grow up in that era, you may not understand.

“It would be the ultimate . . . the pinnacle.”

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NEW YORK (AP) – Carlos Delgado and the New York Mets kept piling up hits, delaying their trip home for the second half of a rare two-stadium Subway Series doubleheader. They didn’t seem to mind spending a little extra time in the Bronx.

Delgado set a Mets record with nine RBIs and Luis Castillo scored a career-best five runs in a 15-6 rout over the New York Yankees on Friday.

“I got lucky,” Delgado said. “Every time I came up it seems like they had a lot of guys on base so I got some good pitches to hit and I was able to drive them.”

Delgado hit a two-run double off Edwar Ramirez in the fifth inning and his 12th career grand slam in the sixth, a drive against Ross Ohlendorf that landed in one of the last rows of bleachers in right-center. Delgado added a three-run homer in the eighth off LaTroy Hawkins, a drive into a corridor beyond the right-field wall.

“To have this type of game on this type of stage is very impressive,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said.

Delgado’s nine RBIs were one better than Dave Kingman’s total for the Mets in an 11-0 victory at the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 4, 1976. Delgado’s 44th multihomer game gave him 444 home runs for his career, breaking a tie with Kingman for 34th on the major league career list.

Delgado, who turned 36 on Wednesday, entered with just 11 homers and 35 RBIs this season. He hit a drive off the bottom of the left-field foul pole in the second of the Mets’ two victories in the Bronx last month, but it was mistakenly ruled a foul ball by umpires.

There were no such problems with either of his drives Friday, and the Mets are hoping the big game was enough to get the aging slugger back on track.

“When he gets hot, he gets kind of stupid hot where he can put a team on his shoulders and carry them for a week or two at a time,” said David Wright, who tied a career high with four hits. “He’s got the ability to be one of the best run producers, RBI machines, in the league when he swings the bat the way he’s capable of.”

Carlos Beltran hit a two-run homer and scored four runs as the Mets completed their first three-game winning streak and series sweep at Yankee Stadium.

The Mets and Yankees were rained out May 16, leading to the two-borough commute in the last year of both ballparks. The Mets got ready at Shea Stadium and their bus got a police escort to the Bronx. Both teams got the same treatment for the trip back to Queens.

The Mets arrived back at home just over an hour before the night game, with most players still in their gray road uniforms and carrying equipment as they made their way to their clubhouse. The Yankees arrived a little later, dressed in street clothes.

“It’s wonderful for fans,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, whose team got back to New York after midnight following a rainout at Pittsburgh. “Two games in one day, and one at each stadium, you know it’s very enjoyable for them.”

The Yankees placed Hideki Matsui on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Monday, after the loss and activated right-hander Sidney Ponson, who was scheduled to start the second game. Matsui has been bothered by a sore left knee.

The sellout crowd of 54,978 was split pretty evenly in the opener, with chants of “Let’s Go Mets!” followed by rounds of boos from Yankees fans. There was nothing but cheers when a security guard tackled a fan who ran on the field in the sixth.

Alex Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with a long home run for the Yankees, who swept the previous three doubleheaders between the two teams. Rodriguez’s 15th homer of the season landed in Monument Park in the sixth.

Derek Jeter led off the Yankees’ three-run third with his 400th double, extending his season-best hitting streak to 14 games. Dan Giese (1-3) allowed six runs and five hits in four-plus innings.

“Some days you throw it and it goes where you want,” Giese said. “Some days it goes over the plate.”

Manuel improved to 5-4 since he was promoted from bench coach to manager, replacing Willie Randolph, a former Yankees star.

Mike Pelfrey (5-6) struggled through five innings but managed to get the win. He gave up four runs and eight hits.

Notes

Andy Phillips joined the Mets before the game and flied out to right as a pinch hitter in the ninth. The Mets claimed the former Yankees infielder off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday. … Knicks first-round draft pick Danilo Gallinari is scheduled to throw out a ceremonial first pitch before Saturday’s game at Shea Stadium. … A squirrel ran through foul territory behind the plate and into the Mets dugout in the fifth inning, drawing some cheers from the fans sitting along the first-base line. … Mets 1B Fernando Tatis made two nice plays in the field – and two errors trying to throw to pitchers covering first.

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Willie Randolph, fired as manager of the Mets in the early hours of the morning Tuesday, said he was “stunned” by the decision to let him go nearly three months into another disappointing season.

It was just 17 months ago that Randolph received a new multi-million dollar contract as a reward for invigorating the franchise and guiding the Mets to their first division title in 18 years, coming one win away from the World Series.

But he has since presided over one of the greatest collapses in baseball history, from which this year’s team has yet to recover.

“To the fans, I’m really sorry that I wasn’t able to fulfill what I really said I wanted to do here and get this team to a world championship,” Randolph said to reporters in the lobby of his hotel in Costa Mesa, Calif., where the team was staying during its series against the Los Angeles Angels. “That’s what I’ve been about. It’s just very difficult right now but I’m ready to move on.”

Randolph, the first African-American to manage a baseball team in New York, was replaced by the bench coach Jerry Manuel, who Randolph hired to serve as his first-base coach, but promoted him to bench coach before the 2006 season. Manuel, 54, managed the Chicago White Sox from 1998-2003, leading them to a 95-67 record in 2000, when he was selected as the manager of the year by The Associated Press.

The Mets also gutted their coaching staff, firing the pitching coach Rick Peterson and the first-base coach Tom Nieto, while promoting three coaches from the minor leagues.

Peterson told reporters Tuesday that he appreciated the opportunity the Mets’s owner, Fred Wilpon, and his son, Jeff, the team’s chief operating officer, gave him to come to New York five years ago. “I appreciated the opportunity and they welcomed me into their home, and homes go through renovations,” Peterson said. “I’m the hardwood floor that’s getting ripped off and they’re going to bring in the Tuscany tile.”

Peterson, saying he will “walk out in peace,” added: “hopefully, the Tuscany tile will do a lot better than the hardwood floor.”

Peterson will be replaced by Dan Warthen, the Class AAA New Orleans pitching coach, who worked in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization with Peterson in the 1980s. He said he considers Peterson and Randolph friends.

“I’ve been fired before and I’ve had somebody else take the same spot that I’ve been in,” Warthen said. “It’s tough. It’ll happen again somewhere down the line, guaranteed.”

As far as the Mets’ pitchers are concerned, Warthen said he knows Aaron Heilman and is familiar with Mike Pelfrey. “What can you do with Pedro and what can you do with Santana,” he asked rhetorically about veteran Pedro Martinez and ace Johan Santana.

“I’m probably going to work with Santana with his changeup tonight,” Warthen joked. “I’ll work with him before the game and let you know how he does afterwards.”

Ken Oberkfell, the New Orleans manager, and Luis Aguayo, the organization’s field coordinator, will also join the major league staff in roles to be determined.

General Manager Omar Minaya is to meet with the media at 2 p.m. Pacific time (5 p.m. Eastern) on Tuesday afternoon at Angel Stadium, and Manuel is scheduled to speak afterward.

The announcement was released to the media at 12:12 a.m. local time — 3:12 a.m. in New York — slightly less than two hours after the Mets defeated the Angels, 9-6. That victory, the Mets’ third in four games, improved their record to 34-35 but had no bearing on Minaya’s decision. The organization plotted the firing on Monday morning, and Minaya arrived here Monday night but did not attend the game.

As Randolph managed the game, answered postgame questions and drove back to the hotel separately from the team bus, Minaya waited. He fired Randolph, Nieto and Peterson when they returned.

Minaya had been Randolph’s strongest ally within the organization, but his patience, and that of the owners, had worn thin. They were tired of watching their team, loaded with All-Stars such as Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran, underachieve.

Randolph’s fate may have been sealed last October, when the Mets kept him dangling for 48 hours before taking the odd step of holding a press conference to announce that they were retaining him.

It was an awkward and uncomfortable tableau, Randolph standing beside Minaya, and it was duplicated on May 26, after Randolph met with the team’s owners for two and a half hours to explain and apologize for comments he made to The Record of Hackensack, N.J. suggesting that SportsNet New York had portrayed him differently on its television broadcasts because of his race.

The Mets won seven of their next 10 games, taking some of the pressure off him, but their maddening inconsistency revealed itself yet again in last weekend’s series in San Diego. The Mets were swept in four games, losing the first three by the same 2-1 score, and then lost two of three to Arizona at Shea Stadium.

On Friday, when speculation that Randolph’s job was in danger again began to intensify, Minaya refused to guarantee that Randolph would remain as manager, saying only that he had his support and the support of the team’s owners. By the end of the weekend, Minaya would not say that. During his three-minute interview with reporters after Sunday’s doubleheader, Minaya did not use the word “support” once and was more noncommittal about Randolph’s future and that of the coaching staff than he had been at any time.

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By Danielle Sessa

June 23 (Bloomberg) — Omar Minaya is doing a “great job” of running the New York Mets, team owner Fred Wilpon said less than a week after approving the general manager’s decision to fire manager Willie Randolph.

Wilpon, in his first public comments since Randolph and two coaches were dismissed June 17, said he was satisfied with the switch to interim manager Jerry Manuel. The Mets are 3-2 under Manuel, a former American League Manager of the Year with the Chicago White Sox.

“I think Omar has done a great job,” Wilpon told reporters at a news conference announcing a Major League Baseball fundraising campaign for U.S. military veterans. “Anybody who makes decisions is not going to make all right decisions, but he’s made some great decisions.”

The Mets, whose $138 million payroll is the second-highest in baseball, are 37-37 and trail the first-place Philadelphia Phillies by 3 1/2 games in the National League East.

Wilpon said Minaya informed him of the decision to fire Randolph during the club’s doubleheader against the Texas Rangers on June 15. Minaya thought about the move overnight and confirmed the change with Wilpon on a conference call at 9 a.m. the following day.

Minaya then flew to California where the Mets were starting a series with the Los Angeles Angels. After the game he dismissed Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto. The changes were announced at 3 a.m. New York time, leading to criticism from fans and the media for the club’s handling of the situation. Wilpon backed Minaya’s methods.

“He took a lot of time listening and thinking about it,” Wilpon said. “He wanted to respect Willie and that’s what he did.”

Welcome Back Veterans

Wilpon and Mets third baseman David Wright appeared at baseball’s New York headquarters to release details of Welcome Back Veterans, a charity that aims to provide jobs and counseling for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Players will wear caps with a stars-and-stripes themed logo during games over the July 4 holiday weekend and on Sept. 11.

Wilpon, who created the campaign, said the organization has secured almost 50,000 jobs, and plans to raise $100 million and offer free mental-health care to veterans and their families.

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