Mets' ownership, front office are MIA over K-Rod

To Squawker Jon's dismay, I've been paying a lot of attention to the train wreck that is the Mets of late, with the Francisco Rodriguez arrest situation. So  I watched Wednesday's SNY postgame, and also watched the pregame for Thursday's game.

And I was appalled by Jerry Manuel excusing his closer's arrest as being "not baseball related," and for him saying that he would actually use K-Rod in a game that day. How outraged was I? I actually uttered the words "Joe Torre would have handled this better" to Squawker Jon. And you know how often it happens that I ever say anything positive about Torre!

According to media reports, the K-Rod fight with Carlos Pena, his common-law father-in-law, supposedly took place after Pena told Rodriguez to "man up." I don't know if that's what happened. But that advice is something the Mets front office ought to do.

So far, their behavior has been abysmal. Aside from Manuel acting like a befuddled Mr. Magoo, insinuating this is a private matter (a private matter doesn't involve an arrest report, dude), the rest of the Mets' management haven't exactly been profiles in courage here.

What did general manager Omar Minaya have to say about the closer he signed turning the family lounge into the stage of "Jerry Springer"? A whole heap of nothing. Here's the story, from Bob Nightengale of USA Today:

Minaya declined comment on the charges against Rodriguez, saying he didn't have enough information. Yet the Mets suspended Rodriguez for two days and placed him on their restricted list, costing him about $125,000 in salary.

You're the GM of the team and you refuse comment? Unacceptable.

Jeff Wilpon, the guy his father Fred Wilpon insisted was doing such a great job, had a little more to say than Minaya, but not much: He issued this statement:

"Ownership and the organization are very disappointed in Francisco's inappropriate behavior and we take this matter very seriously."

Well, the Mets did suspend Francisco for a whole two games. Whoopee.

And why the heck didn't Wilpon speak to the media personally? It was one thing when an aging, addled George Steinbrenner would have his press agent issue statements for him. But why is the COO of this team pulling the Greta Garbo act all the time?

As for the storm of stories about what really happened to spur on K-Rod pummeling his in-law, it doesn't really matter to me what was said, and what caused it. What matters is that Rodriguez, who will get paid over $11 million this year to pitch, used the hands that the Mets pay him so much money for to pummel somebody so badly that he was sent to the hospital. And that he did it on Mets property, in front of Mets family members.

What if Rodriguez had hurt his pitching hand in the fight? I wonder if the Mets would have punished him more for potentially missing games.


Anyhow, the Mets fans who pay their money for tickets and support their team deserve more accountability than they've been getting from their team. When will this nightmare end?


What do you think? Tell us about it!

Why are the Mets passing on Manny Ramirez?

While the Yankees' front office may be moving today, there are plenty of free agents out there who haven't moved to a new team. And Manny Ramirez, of course, is the biggest name.

So where will he end up? I still think - and hope - he'll be a Yankee this year. But it looks like the Mets' David Wright has a "Man crush," as the New York Post calls it, on Manny. He told this to the media yesterday after his poignant visit to a children's hospital:

"I know what (Ramirez) has done on the field, and that's impressive," Wright said. "When you can single-handedly take a team and carry it into the postseason, and then once you get into the postseason the numbers speak for themselves, that's impressive.

"I would be on board with Manny 100 percent, assuming that he comes in and puts the team first and wants to be part of this thing and wants to win."

But the Mets' Jeff Wilpon quickly threw cold water on the idea of Ramirez as a Met, telling Bloomberg News:

“I know the perception out there again is that ownership said no,” Wilpon said yesterday at Citi Field, the Mets’ new ballpark. “I don’t have the opportunity to say no because Omar hasn’t brought it to me as an option. Omar and the baseball staff aren’t interested.”

And this, Squawker Jon, is why your Mets will always play second fiddle to the Yanks. Omar Minaya has openly coveted Manny Ramirez for years. And now that he's available, all of a sudden Omar's not interested? What, Fernando Tatis was just too good to take out of left field for Manny? Gimme a break.

Jon, you can criticize the Yankees for overspending, but at least they're willing to do what it takes to assemble the best team. Both teams have shiny new ballparks, and cable networks, yet while the Yanks signed three top free agents this year, your team is picking up the likes of Alex Cora, Tim Redding and Freddy Garcia, and passing on Derek Lowe.

In fact, the only big-name free agent the Mets have picked up was Francisco Rodriguez, and that was back in early December, before the Bernie Madoff scandal broke. (The J.J. Putz trade was before Madoff as well.) Heck, your team hasn't even re-signed Oliver Perez.

So how much money, exactly, did the Wilpons lose with Madoff? No wonder they're hanging on to that CitiField sponsorship for dear life!

Where do you think Manny Ramirez will end up? Leave us a comment!