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March 5, 2007
GM in a Box: Omar Minaya, Part I
Given the lack of information you really hear about general managers, especially when it comes to tendencies, I have loved The Hardball Times’ GM in a Box series, which has delved into the pasts of Walt Jocketty and John Schuerholz. Unlike those two, Omar Minaya is not one of the longest-tenured general managers in the game, so there won’t be quite as much information to use; and some of the information we have is a bit tainted since Major League Baseball was really calling the shots when he ran the Expos. But what you will find from Omar’s profile and background is this: GM’s, like players, can grow on the job. Record and Background Age: 48 Previous organizations: Texas Rangers, 1985-1997, a scout under Scouting Director Sandy Johnson and General Managers Tom Grieve (1985-1994) and Doug Melvin (1994-1997). New York Mets: 1997-2002, Assistant General Manager, International Scouting under Steve Phillips, given Senior Assistant General Manager title in 2002. Montreal Expos: 2002-2004: General Manager Years of service in current organization: Two, but five more as an assistant GM before taking the Expos’ job. Cumulative Record: 413-397 (Statistical oddity: Minaya has presided over three different 83-79 finishes) Did he play professional baseball, and if so, what type of player was he? Minaya played a bit of professional ball after being drafted as a catcher out of Newtown High by the Oakland Athletics. Wikipedia cites injuries ending his career, but he was never considered to be much more than an organizational player. Think of a younger Joe Hietpas. Personnel and Philosophy Any notable changes from the previous regime?
Going even further back, to the Phillips era—the last true “regime”—the biggest difference in policy was immediately pursuing impact talent on the free agent market, such as the signings of Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez. Phillips had been gun-shy on big free agents for the most part, Robin Ventura and Kevin Appier being the only signings with an average annual value of seven million dollars or more. Phillips much preferred to do business via trade, bringing in most of the impact talent (Mike Piazza, Al Leiter, Mike Hampton) by cashing in prospects. In terms of actual philosophy, not much has changed. Minaya definitely has increased the club’s emphasis on international scouting, but looking at their shared penchant for frequent trading, I think it’s pretty clear that he was a Steve Phillips understudy. What characterizes his relationship with ownership? What types of people does he hire to work under him? Is he more collaborative or authoritative? Ownership in general for the Mets has had a huge problem over the last eight or so years: like an insistent young child attempting to help Mommy make dinner, they bring nothing to the table but demand to be involved anyway. With Minaya on board, things have changed quite a bit, although Fred Wilpon’s “We need an answer before the Winter Caravan” dictum to Carlos Delgado in the 2004-2005 offseason was one example of them burning the pot roast. Minaya has forged good relations with the ownership group while preventing them from interfering for the most part, which might be his best quality as a GM. A huge example of this was when he convinced the Wilpons to let Al Leiter and John Franco walk, when both were well past their prime but were on such great terms with ownership that it seemed to create a country-club atmosphere in the clubhouse. Jeff Wilpon was quoted as saying about the Leiter situation that “It was difficult for me personally…But Omar and the baseball guys made their decision based on the baseball facts. When that came down, I stood behind them. They wanted to go hard after Pedro. Omar was very firm in what he thought was the right thing to do” (New York Magazine 3/7/2005). The only front office protégé that really gets mentioned in connection with Minaya is Tony Bernazard, although he has also hired his former employer Sandy Johnson to help with the scouting. Omar seems to be portrayed as a general manager who closely listens to everyone around him and takes into account what they say, but I don’t think I’d classify him as collaborative. He seems to take a route somewhere in-between the two, where he doesn’t just pay lip service to those around him but also has a strong conviction in what he thinks is the best thing for the Mets to do. What kinds of managers does he hire? How closely does he work with them? Minaya has hired two minority ex-All-Star players as managers: Frank Robinson and Willie Randolph. He has been very hands-off with both managers, to the point where many Mets fans were incredulous with Randolph that Jose Reyes was still leading off in the latter part of 2005, but his conservative approach seems to have paid dividends. With Robinson, one could probably surmise that Minaya was so busy trying to deal with MLB’s constraints that he did not establish a deep relationship with him. Randolph and Minaya appear to be close, but not to the point where Minaya calls him in-game to tell him what to do. Randolph does not use the press to air most of his issues, making it somewhat hard to tell how much the two collaborate with regard to roster composition. The aura around it seems to be one of “I’ll do my job, you do yours,” with occasional meetings to discuss certain aspects of each other’s job. Player Development How does he approach the amateur draft? Does he prefer major-league ready players or “projects”? Tools or performance? High schools or college? Pitchers or hitters? Minaya’s drafts have fluctuated over time in terms of position players versus pitchers. In his first draft (2002), and also in the 2006 draft, he focused on college pitchers early with six of his top ten picks in both years. In the other 3 years, he has played it pretty diverse in the top ten, but the overall focus is still on college players. It’s worth noting that he rarely drafts high school hitters early; only Ian Desmond and Hector Pellot are the only ones Minaya has ever taken in the first five rounds of the draft. Minaya’s first round picks have been Clint Everts, Chad Cordero, Bill Bray, and Mike Pelfrey—this seems like a solid enough record to me. Cordero I’d classify as a good pick, and Pelfrey has been one of the top fifty prospects in baseball for some time now. Bray, while not stunning like the other two, has turned into a serviceable enough major leaguer. Everts has been a humongous and unequivocal bust, which I think has actually played a part in Minaya’s drafting; he has taken a college pitcher with his first pick four years in a row now. Beyond the first round, Minaya has found a number of players who have gone on to reach the majors or otherwise develop into notable prospects, including Darrell Rasner, Mike O’Connor, Jay Bergmann, Dan Rueckel, Jerry Owens, Kory Casto, Richard Campbell, Collin Balester, Jon Niese, Pedro Beato, Kevin Mulvey, and Joe Smith. In general, Minaya seems to find at least two or three interesting prospects per draft. However, most of Minaya’s top prospects at this point are the result of his international scouting ventures. Fernando Martinez, Deolis Guerra, Carlos Gomez, Alay Soler, and Michel Abreu are the highlights of the Mets’ heavy emphasis on Latin America. The Mets have also been active in Asia, bringing over Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Takashi Kashiwada, and Dae Sung Koo among others, and he narrowly missed out on Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kei Igawa this offseason. They are also on the forefront in Ghana, which may not be worth much now but may become a big deal someday. Does he tend to rush guys to the majors or let them marinate? Minaya has been very aggressive with his top prospects who perform well. While he was at the helm in Montreal, Chad Cordero debuted the year he was drafted, Brad Wilkerson was starting from Minaya’s first day with the Expos, and TJ Tucker was immediately handed a bullpen role. For the Mets, Pelfrey debuted the year he signed, and both of his top two picks from the 2006 draft were already in Binghamton as the year ended. Fernando Martinez and Carlos Gomez were among the youngest players at their level, while Lastings Milledge was pushed first to Norfolk and then to Shea in very quick order this year. He’s definitely not afraid to rush unpolished players up if he thinks they can adjust. It’s worth pointing out that with he does baby his young pitchers quite a bit more. Both Guerra and Niese were held in Hagerstown most of the year and only got to St. Lucie at the very end of the season. Beyond that, there are very few players he has let simmer. Of note, Zach Day did spend 17 starts in Harrisburg in 2002 despite the Expos rotation being in shambles, although that could just be dismissed as MLB being cheap. Generally, it’s difficult to know exactly how he handles prospects, because he’s rarely had any. The Expos system was not very talented when he arrived, and his early trades with the club didn’t help that any. 60 Responses to “GM in a Box: Omar Minaya, Part I”Leave a ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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did i miss something in 2005? explain.
No Milledge in the top 100
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/features/263445.html
There was a lot of talk in 05 that Jose wasn´t a good leadoff hitter because he had a very low OBP. Some people wanted to put anyone with a higher OBP in the leadoff spot and have Jose in the lower part of the order. Oh how things change…Thankfully, Willie has patience.
Good article!
Omar sounds like the definition of a good leader. Communicate a clear vision, hire good people, trust those people to do their jobs well (i.e. don´t micromanage), Give them credit when they deserve it, and back them up when things don´t work out every time. If necessary admit mistakes in hiring (or otherwise) and make changes.
Sounds like a boss I´d enjoy working for.
Great article. Those GM in the box articles in the hardballtimes annuals are usually one of my favorites to read.
Chris, very well done. Omar’s historic record is certainly hard to really put into context because of the strange situation he was in at Montreal. If anything, it was good for the Mets in that he got his feet wet and learned the position before coming here and then kicking ass.
Omar definitely has his own plan, and doesn’t let any outside factors dictate him. His first 2 offseasons here, he made the big and splashy signings. This past offseason, he passed on those when the market went nuts, and then he also held onto his prospects. He believes in his scouting ability, so I would be reluctant to trade for a certain player in our organization if Omar was pushing him.
I found the information on his draft record the most interesting. He got burned by a high school flameout and then didn’t go back there. I wonder if it just sort of played out that way, or if Omar consciously avoids them early. He certainly doesn’t mind picking toolsy high school guys in the later rounds with signability issues (Stegall and Woodall last year).
Hey all, I’m back from the Grapefruit League where I got an autograph from, among others, Jose A Reyes. Danny, someday I’ll give it to you. NH, but you’re pretty much the only reason I asked the poor guy. More info later.
Lister
hey danny
When do we have to paypal the money for the mets-philly tickets?
John, I will be sending out the requests today. It will go to the email you all provided to me. So look for the subject: METSGEEK in all caps from dannymetsgeek@yahoo.com!
Lister, you are the man. Once I stop hugging the autograph, I will frame it. And then I will probably sell it as Jose B Reyes to some unsuspecting kid with a rich Dad for a bunch of money when I need some.
Matt Kemp loves feeling famous more than any big leaguer I’ve ever seen. He was absolutely hysterical with the attention he gave ALL fans on Saturday…
James Loney seemed like a really cool dude. As much as I hate the Dodgers, I have to admit it’s hard not to at least admire a guy with such a classic left handed swing.
I respect people who have an entrepreneurial spirit!
Good morning boys and girls,
Danny, I will look for your paypal request. Thanks again for taking care of this. I hope Geeks everywhere had great weekends.
If anyone has an inside line on who might pitch on Wednesday I need to know. Also any thoughts on which staff the Mets run out on the field. I have a proposed wager with my boss. The deal is I am already off half a day on Friday, if the Met’s win I get the all day. If the Sox when I will work until 3:00. Thoughts . . .
waddup lister!
ha, you got Ariel’s john hancock, that’s awesome. Danny gonna go YH on yo ass ;)
Danny i emailed ya something at that metsgeek account.
Virginia, I look for more info, but i know ollie (today) and glavine (tomorrow) wont be pitching wednesday.
el duque may throw wednesday per delcos:
i also got willie, omar, EDDIE COLEMAN! (that was the best story actually), joe smith, mulvey, and carlos gomez (and kemp and loney and andy laroche).
fernando! looked like he didn’t know what an autograph was. kid seems mad shy at least at age 18. not true of gomez.
the defense behind humber was sickening yesterday
but then he didn’t do much to right the ship
that being said i think he had to pitch to 5 outs that inning
Trachsel is a delusional punk. that is all.
I wanted so badly to love Ollie. I sure hope things get better with this kid the rest of the month. Either way, I’ll do the deal because if you can’t put 3 hours on the line for your team even in a meaningless ST game - what kind of fan are you?
yea i could care less about humber yesterday, it doesnt reflect poorly on him at all.
it was a bad inning for him and the D, but I chalk it up to nerves and nothing more.
its gotta be hard for these guys to throw almost all fastballs when your best pitch isnt your fastball.
lol lister, i said fernando! looked like a nerd next to Gomez in that picture a few weeks ago
no doubt virginia, and you know what it really wouldnt matter who was pitching for us, ST games are so up in the air, you can have Adkins giving up 5 runs in the 9th to screw ya, or vice-versa on the red sox side.
good luck!
Virginia…take the bet…go for it! We’ll all root extra hard to help you along. It’s the least we can do!
Thanks Dep, I’m hoping he’ll go easy on me anyway and give me the day. I know I was off last Friday, but I’ll argue that’s didn’t count because we were in so much pain after all we went through to go to Who-ville to watch the Hokies choke Thursday night. I think I deserve a do-over on that day off.
Thanks Shea - the good news is it’s an XM radio game. I almost through my XM radio at the wall yesterday. Those O’s announcers where getting on my last never. I guess a 3 game winning streak in March is something to get excited about???
in BP yesterday at Ft Lauderdale, Milledge and Carp were just crushing pitches to right. Milledge cleared the opposite field bleachers (probably about 400-415 ft) maybe three or four times and Carp (pulling the ball) the same.
Fernando! was just raking line drives gap to gap.
Endy and Milledge pretty much worked exclusively on putting the ball into the opposite field, which was interesting and made me happy.
Milledge had I think 6 at bats this weekend and hit the ball without authority only once on a week groundout. Literally every other at bat, he got a very good swing on the ball and produced an “OHHH!” crack of the bat
He looked damn good at the plate…
I think the biggest thing to take out of the Humber start was that he pitched second. So obviously he has an uphill battle and Pelfrey is ahead of him from the start.
We all pretty much agree that Humber needs to start at AAA anyway.
What did you think of Pelfrey, Lister? Is the tilt on his pitches even more impressive in person?
What did he say?
per delcos, trachs being trachs and delusional:
Here’s what I had this morning in The Journal News. Please take a read and feel free to rip away.
I didn’t have great seats to judge pitching on Saturday but there were more than a handful of off-balance swings against Pelfrey. Literally the only guy who looked ok against him was Loney, who hit the ball sharply but right at Green.
Pelfrey’s bodywork and arm action are really, really smooth to watch. It’s like he just slings that fastball with such ease.
I’m glad you had a good time Lister.
awesome you got so many autographs, i am jealous! You should tell your Eddie Coleman story!! ;)
oh, and i think basically there is no way burgos isn’t with the big boys come april 1st… i used to think he’d be an AAA guy for a month or two but now i just don’t see that
Burgos has been unbelievably good.
control problems? what control problems? ;)
One day when I actually have sick time built up, i shall go down to ST.
our bullpen is gonna be so stacked its silly.
yeah burgos needs to make the 25 man roster
lol new orleans may have a pretty good team too…maybe pelfrey, humber, gomez, miledge
yea john, NO should have a sick squad, I smell AAA championship!
it was yesterday at ft lauderdale and i was on the home plate side of the mets dugout right in the front row while they took long toss and bp. i was with maybe 20 other met fans who were just yelling “willie” the whole time as he talked to the media. all of a sudden ed coleman (i’m a huge fan, nh, but seriously huge) walks across in front of me and i’m like “eddie! mr. coleman! will you sign some balls?” which is an admittedly awkward and weird thing for a 23 year old guy to say to a radio beat reporter, but whatever. he looked right at me and was like “1 second,” which is what everyone says when they really mean, “go to hell.” so he went into the dugout and i went back to looking at drew butera be crappy. about 5 minutes later ed pops out and makes a b-line for me (i swooned) and i fumble to give him a ball and a pen and he’s like really talkative and friendly. “where are you staying? how long have you been down here? you from the city? oh, isn’t pt st lucie scenic?” - that kind of thing (which is better than most guys, then again most ball players ain’t that smart). so i’m talking to him for a full 2-3 minutes or so (still swooning, nh, but that’s a while)… and um then he left. whatever.
it was exciting for me, ok?
point is, he seems like he’s the man. real friendly and has had some serious plastic surgery done.
omar signed autographs for a full 15 minutes probably too. i told him i thought he was super.
April 1st bullpen, assuming 8 pitchers
Wagner
Heilman
Pedro2
The Show
Burgos
Mr. X
Mr. Y
Long-Man
I guess Padilla and Adkins can both make it. I feel like I’m forgetting someone. I left Dirty off for now, i doubt he’ll be ready for 4/1
Since I live bout 5 mins from the wv power field, I used to go to alota A games when the mets were in hagerstown…..I wonder what the closest AAA field is to me…that might be a pretty good team to go watch.
if lastings keeps raking the way he’s raking, i think it’s very hard to not let him stay up. i don’t mean to get into this entire full argument that we’ve been having for months (i still think he’ll go to AAA), but he’s been probably the best offensive player on the team in this admittedly early-going.
ben johnson looks like me out there defensively. he’s fallen over more times than i can count…
lol, that story is awesome lister! i’m so jealous you got to talk to eddie c, i got YH for him too.
I’m so down with Milledge making the team.
the only sad part would be it probly knocks newhan off the squad.
I’m not high on BJ, i’d much rather have Newhan.
If Milledge makes the squad, that makes Green and Endy the extra OF’ers and then Easley is on this team, + Old Man Franco and Castro and that’s that.
Good story Lister.
Actually another person thats really friendly is Omar. I was in Washington last year and I was down by the dugout before the game watching BP and he came out and talked to us for a good 10-15 minutes. For some reason I found that very interesting. Im not sure theres many GM’s that take time out to talk to fans.
I agree. I mean, in a horrendous pinch, Old Man Franco can play all the defensive positions. He even played a little third last year.
Old Man Franco can play all the infield* positions.
Nashville
Castro, Franco, Nehawn, Endy, Easley = bench.
Newhan has gotten a ton of looks at least (he hit leadoff for the b-squad both times) and he’s getting the runners in from third at basically a perfect rate.
I think Newhan makes the team somehow, though I agree with your assessment of space issues. Maybe we take one less arm in the early going? Who knows.
Newhan has done everything they can ask of him thus far basically…
BJ is definitely AAA bound at this point
Haha weird is takes me 6 hrs to nashville…….it only takes me 8 to Atlanta. I coulda swore nashville was alot closer.
I tried to get opening day tickets for st.louis but i forgot to wake up early on saturday and they sold out so instead im making the trip down to Atlanta for opening day there.
bench = concern
Sorry, but I am a little worried. Okay, maybe I am overreaction. Someone tell me the bench will be okay. As good or better than last year.
Link dump is open. Cease hijacking.
The bench will be good. Although im not so sure we’ll get alot outta franco…..its kinda like hes taking a spot…..but they’d never drop……not after beltran was praising him and all.
She’s right, we’re doomed, our bench has now pop. Doomed I tell you!!
ooops sorry eric, you should move all these comments over.
sorry everybody, omar is great! how many times can we post that ;)
Gus, let’s not go crazy here. I’m not saying doom. Just voicing concern. I think if this team has a weakness it might be the bench. Just tell me I’m overreacting and I’ll feel much better.
Excellent analysis Chris.
The best part of Omar - he aint Duquette!