The Mets fired Manager Willie Randolph very early Tuesday morning. Randolph led the Mets to mediocrity this season, a year after faltering down the stretch with the NL East lead, allowing the Phillies to win the division on the last day.
Bench Coach Jerry Manuel will take over as manager. Pitching Coach Rick Peterson and First Base Coach Tom Nieto were also dismissed.
The news came at 3:15 a.m.
I feel pretty bad for Randolph, especially given the time of the dismissal. They couldn’t do it at 9 a.m.? Randolph aside, the move and the timing of it shows General Manager Omar Minaya is trying to send a cold message to the rest of his team. But how will the Mets respond?
Well, speaking of responses, Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog.com “feels dirty” being a fan the way the whole thing went down. He says he’s being mocked by fans of other teams for the dismissal:
“Nevertheless, the Mets took so long to make this decision that it made them look foolish, classless and disorganized.”
They needed a shakeup, absolutely, but was Randolph the right fall guy? I don’t think so.
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