Who was the worst Mets GM?

[Centerfield]

Inspired by JCL's post in the other thread.



Who was the worst GM in recent Mets history?



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Suspended for IL Manipulation GM





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DUI GM





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Dick Pic GM





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Jeff Wilpon PR Guy GM





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Was not at all expecting to get the job GM

[batmagadanleadoff]

After this,we can have a poll to determine which of these recent GM's was the best base-runner. Tournament! It's a tournament! I can't wait.

[Centerfield]

For those inclined to write in.



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I traded Kazmir GM





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Sexual Harassment GM

[Benjamin Grimm]

Is this about their character? Or about their performance as GM? Jared Porter wasn't around for long, and his character is certainly questionable, but he did swing the trade for Francisco Lindor.

[Centerfield]

Similar to the TCD, the reader should apply their own criteria.



It just struck me how many idiots we've had heading our ball club.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I went with Brodie.

[Fman99]

Steve Phillips gets negative points for violating the vows of his marriage in order to doink a fat Star Wars fan and then get caught with his hands in her "Death Star."

[rchurch314]

Modern times it's probably Phillips or Minaya. I can't really demerit some of the short term guys because they likely were just following orders and/or working with established protocols set in place by their predecessors. Although honorable mention for the 'GM' group of the second Alderson run.



But Phillips and/or Minaya were specifically old-school in a rapidly changing environment that put the Mets behind the 8-ball for years and years to catch up. Although those things always look worse in hindsight because you can sort of see the whole trajectory of how things ultimately worked out. Like a world where the Mets actually just "pay the man" to A-Rod, who put up 8 more rWAR than Ordonez in 2001, a season the Mets lost the division by 6 wins.



In retrospect, 2002 feels like a "fake rebuild" year, with Alomar meant to be a "star" to tide us over. Jives with the ownership shuffling happening. Maybe none of that happens with a successful 2001 and a playoff berth. Maybe they keep rolling. With A-Rod here and Reyes looking promising, they probably don't trade for Alomar, OR sign Matsui.



A-Rod had 27 fWAR in 2001-2003. The Mets totaled 4.9 from ALL their SS. 2.2 of that from Reyes' 2003 debut.



It's hard to imagine a singular decision having as big as swing as that.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I see Jim Duquette on SNY all the time, but I can't say I remember anything specific about his time as the GM. What were his signature deals? I'll have to look it up, unless someone posts something here before I get around to it.

[Centerfield]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I see Jim Duquette on SNY all the time, but I can't say I remember anything specific about his time as the GM. What were his signature deals? I'll have to look it up, unless someone posts something here before I get around to it.

Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. It's bad, not just for the trade in itself, but severely undervaluing the value that Kazmir had around the league. One of the biggest undersells in Mets history.



Every once in a while you will see a Jim Duquette trade proposal and you'll realize that the trade was no accident. If left in power, he would have done something worse.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Okay, I looked it up.



Here are some of Duquette's most "high-profile" deals:



Free agent signings include Mike Cameron, Kaz Matsui, Braden Looper, Todd Zeile (second time with Mets), Scott Erickson, Ricky Bottalico, and James Baldwin.



Notable trades:

New York Mets traded Timo Perez to the Chicago White Sox for Matt Ginter.

New York Mets traded Roger Cedeno to the St. Louis Cardinals for Wilson Delgado and Chris Widger.

New York Mets traded Scott Kazmir and Joselo Diaz to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato.

New York Mets traded Ty Wigginton, Jose Bautista and Matt Peterson to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger.



Not a whole lot to brag about.



He was GM from October of 2003 until he was replace by Omar Minaya twelve months later.



Omar certainly made some big impactful deals, bringing in (off the top of my head) Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Moises Alou, Johan Santana, and others.

[smg58]

It's not an easy call. Eppler's 75 wins with the ludicrous payroll was impressive in a bad way, but the team won 101 games on his watch the season before.



I'm going to go with Zack Scott, because trading Pete Crow-Armstrong for two months of Javier Baez when it was clear that DeGrom wasn't coming back still has the potential to be the most regrettable move the team has made since the Kazmir trade, if not even worse.

[Benjamin Grimm]

And Eppler should get some credit for the way he restocked the prospect list when he traded Scherzer and Verlander.

[Edgy MD]

Is the team supposed to hire a general manager this offseason?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think I read that they're not planning on doing that, but I may be remembering from last year.

[MFS62]

We heard later that Duquette thought he was getting Carlos Zambrano in the Kazmir deal.

That is unforgivable for a GM.



Later

[Bob Alpacadaca]

I voted "Other."



Joe McDonald was general manager from October 1974 until 1978, possibly the worst era in Mets history. The expansionn era doesn't count. I know he was a longtime team employee serving in every role possible. And he was working with an ownership group that was, at best, antiquated and out of step with reality. But the June 15 massacre occurred on his watch, and those late 1970s teams were abysmal. Give him points for being a good soldier, but he was at the helm with the team became a disaster.



I don't think Brodie gets a little bit of a bad rap. Not perfect by a long shot. But not the worst.

[Chad ochoseis]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: He was GM from October of 2003 until he was replace by Omar Minaya twelve months later. Omar certainly made some big impactful deals, bringing in (off the top of my head) Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Moises Alou, Johan Santana, and others.

Omar made brilliant trades and signed dumb contracts, which was probably why he was such a success with a team where he couldn't sign big contracts.



The trades that brought in Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez were inspired. Particularly the Perez trade. The Duaner Sanchez freak accident had left the team desperate, and Omar managed to turn Xavier Nady, who didn't do much for the Mets and did even less after, into Perez and Roberto Hernandez. They were both key contributors in 2006.



Signing Perez and Castillo to big contracts after the season was, of course, less inspired.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Omar also traded Brian Bannister for Ambiorix Burgos, so not every trade he made was brilliant. But his signature move was taking on Adam Rubin "has lobby." That really should have embarrassed the organization every bit as much as a drunk-driving incident.



I voted for Brodie but hadn't given it much thought. Smg makes a convincing argument for Zack Scott.

[Frayed Knot]

=MFS62 post_id=179134 time=1731683401 user_id=60]
We heard later that Duquette thought he was getting Carlos Zambrano in the Kazmir deal.

That is unforgivable for a GM.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't believe that for a minute either.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Omar also made the very stupid JJ Putz trade, giving up Heilman, Jason Vargas, Joe Smith and Endy Chavez, among others, for an out-of-shape injured reliever and two other worthless players (Jeremy Reed and Sean Green)

[metirish]

JJ didn't like the 8th inning as I recall

[Edgy MD]

What do you do when your veteran name-brand closer gets hurt and your team collapses down the stretch?



If you are Omar, you try to go out and get two name-brand closers for the next season.



I look at a lot of the Mets in first decade or so of the 21st century as putting too much focus on trying to solve last year`s problem.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Wilpons were more concerned with the appearance of addressing problems than addressing problems.

[TheNextMetsManager]

Edgy MD wrote: What do you do when your veteran name-brand closer gets hurt and your team collapses down the stretch? If you are Omar, you try to go out and get two name-brand closers for the next season. I look at a lot of the Mets in first decade or so of the 21st century as putting too much focus on trying to solve last years problem.

At least they tried something. Current iteration just shrugged and went 75-87 instead.

[ashie62]

Joe McDonald here



I know his hands were tied but no one else has something even close to "midnight massacre" attached to their



I thought Eppler was unusually clueless. I thought he was filling a spot in advance of Stearns



I thought Minaya was largely pretty. I have to admit I don't really understand the consequence of what happened with Adam Rubin



Scott was a DUI guy without the conviction. That bothers me



The used to call Bill Virdon "style master" I could apply that to Brodie

[Edgy MD]

Edgy MD wrote: What do you do when your veteran name-brand closer gets hurt and your team collapses down the stretch? If you are Omar, you try to go out and get two name-brand closers for the next season. I look at a lot of the Mets in first decade or so of the 21st century as putting too much focus on trying to solve last years problem. At least they tried something. Current iteration just shrugged and went 75-87 instead.

And the team that doubled-down went 70-92. It's tough out there.



See, I don't think the two choices are shrugging or doubling down on solving what looks like one of the previous year's problems.



If you do the systemic work, there's always someone to step in when a guy gets hurt. It may not be enough — it usually isn't — but over-investing in one area can be downing a poison pill for years to come, quite possibly to avert the wrong crisis. Joe Smith went on to pitch (and pitch well) for 14 or 15 more years. Jason Vargas had 94 career wins ahead of him at the time of that deal.

[Lefty Specialist]

We need a choice of 'All of the above'.



Boy, there have been a lot of dipshits running this team.

[Edgy MD]

Well, for some, it was hard to make a full judgment on the time and mandate they had.



It's easy to wonder how deeply Sandy Alderson was able to engage after the cancer fight.