Wednesday, both the New York Times and the Daily News reported that the Mets were going to fire Special Assisant to the General Manager Ramon Pena, who was described as the “top official in charge of signing international talent” in the News. Minor League Field Coordinator Luis Aguayo, who ran much of the instruction in Spring Training, XST and fall instructional league in Port St. Lucie has also been let go.
There are a number of ways to view this episode in Mets personnel management, focusing on Pena’s dismissal:
1.The simplest is that this is another sign of an organization that is simply not healthy.
2. It is a warning shot across Omar Minaya’s bow from the owners who sign his paychecks. General Managers do not generally fire their special assistants willingly. Minaya has been unable to protect Willy Randolph, Tony Bernazard and now Pena from the media and ownership. If ownership stands by their word to bring back both Minaya and Manager Jerry Manuel, surely, some of Manuel’s coaches will be gone before November as well.
3. This should be the end of the Pedro Theory. Remember, all the way back in 2005, when the Mets believed that signing Pedro Martinez was about more than baseball and that his presence would lure young Latin, especially Dominican ballplayers to the Mets? In truth, young ballplayers care about money and opportunity, not a player twice their age.
4. Will the Mets Front Office be understaffed this winter as they deal with a very tricky redesign for 2010? Adam Rubin reports that VP of Scouting Sandy Johnson plans to retire, although “the Mets are apparently trying to persuade him not to.” Of Minaya’s top five lieutenants on Opening Day 2009, with Bernazard, Johnson and Pena gone, only AGM John Ricco and Special Assistant to the GM Bryan Lambe remain.
5. Was Pena simply fired for poor job performance? Rubin:
“Pena’s dismissal signals displeasure with the performance of a number of high-caliber Latin American prospects signed as teenagers.”
David Waldstein in the Times:
“The Mets had hoped that Minaya’s management team would produce more major league talent from Latin America, and it appears the pressure is on to have better results.”
These quotes might well be an accurate portrayal of upper management impatience, but they do a major disservice to how baseball players develop. It is simply unfair to expect a an executive whose business is largely to bet on 16 and 17 year old players to produce Major League results in just over three years.
Do the math. Pena was hired on July 18, 2006. The international signing period begins on July 2. Pena’s first full class, for which much of the actual legwork, including scouting and negotiations, was the 2007 group.
At
SNY.tv, Ted Berg takes issue with the idea that the Mets Latin signings have underperformed. As Ted points out,
Deolis Guerra, who was signed pre-Pena, was used to acquire Johan Santana, which means he’s been extraordinarily valuable at the MLB level.
Fernando Martinez joined 71 other players in the last 50 years to make his MLB debut at age 20 or younger and have at least 80 plate appearances in that first season.
6. Evaluating Pena’s job performance from the outside is very difficult. What were his precise responsabilities as a special assistant? What kind of budget was he given annually? Where did his responsabilities end and Director of International Operations Ismael Cruz’s begin? Which players did he want to sign but could not because the Mets were outbid by other teams? Moreover, the majority of young players signed out of Latin America will not reach rookie-ball in the States, let alone become become big leaguers. Because of unpredictability of results, process must take on greater import.
7. Busted – The Real Reason. Rubin:
“A source said he worked as a high-level executive for
Gigantes del Cibao, a Dominican winter-league team, without permission of the Mets last offseason, which irked team officials.”
This certainly sounds like a nearly fireable offense. If I was paying someone a yearly salary, and they took another high-profile job while on my payroll, I’d let them walk too. Did Pena take the Cibao job for money or experience? If it’s money, shouldn’t the Mets be paying their top executives enough that they don’t have to moonlight in the Domincan in the offseason? If it’s experience, what does that say about Pena’s regard for his colleagues and bosses?
8. Who’s Next?
Waldstein:
“The departure of Pena, whose responsibilities included international scouting, is expected to be part of a larger shakeup in scouting and player development.”
Just to get everyone up to speed on the names, Rudy Terrasas is the Director of Amateur Scouting. David Lakey, his sole National Crosschecker, is second in command. Tim Fortugno (West) and Steve Barningham (East) are the Regional Crosscheckers.
On the minor league side, Adam Wogan is Director of Minor League Operations and the acting Director of Player Development. Rafael Perez oversees International Player Development. Wogan now oversees the Coordinators, including now former Field Coordinator, Aguayo. Other coordinators include: Kevin Morgan (Coordinator of Instruction/Infield), Rick Waits (Pitching), Lamar Johnson (Hitting) and Bob Natal (Catching).
Obviously, 2009 has been an extraordinarily disappointing year on the field for the Mets. But is the team working on fixing its structure or dispatching scapegoats?
4. Someone signing international talent has little role with remaking the big league team in the offseason. Not to mention that the Mets tend to have too many voices in the decision making process. Paring that down to who they really trust is not a bad thing. Now they just need to sign his replacement before next June so they have a 2010 international class…
5,6. Clearly not. Although they didn’t really bring anyone in this year who stood out. Javier Rodriguez and Aderlin Rodriguez have not exactly performed like Flores and Marte did last year. But in all he did a fine job bringing in top talent, presuming he had a big say in most of the signings.
8. Should they really be targeting the minor league personnel and scouting department. I think the real problem is the co-ordinator of this information in many cases. The coaches who fail to develop a game plan based on the scouting info. Manuel and Warthen primarily, HoJo some as well. The person who makes the call based on what the doctors and trainers are telling them about hurt/injured players. If only it were so simple as to be bad scouting, that’s a simple fix.
If the Mets owners and FO think that firing a couple scape goats while keeping the problems (Manuel, Warthen, and Minaya) will satisfy the ticket buying fan base… well sadly they are probably correct. Most of them were in line at the Shake Shack and didn’t see the problematic play anyway…
re: 4. Pena’s job wasn’t just signing international talent. He also did stateside evaluations as well. I personally saw him at Cyclones games this summer.
I think it 100% falls on the GM and the overall strategy he sets in place.
Omar’s was if we lose draft picks signing top flight free agents we can supplement them with international signings.
The overall problem with this is when you Draft a player 1 of 2 things happen:
1. he went to college and is 2-3 years away from making it to the Majors
2. he went to high school and is 4-5 years away from the majors.
When you sign a 16 year old international free agent, unless they are so stupendous they make it and are successful by 20 they are typically 6-7 years away from being ready for the big leagues, when they will be 22 or 23.
This is why the mets are pushing their IFA’s more then they do they do the drafted players IMO. They want these 16 YO’s to be ready in 4-5 years (F-Mart) like an 18 year old drafted kid out of highschool or a 19-21YO out of college.
When they flipped and went vice versa(with some 1st round picks) in the draft they got some good players (ike davis and reese havens, and missed on Kunz). Davis looks like he’ll be in AAA within 2 years and probably pushing for a MLB job in 2.5-3. Havens had some success this year, but keeps getting nicked up, even he could be near the majors within another 2 years(would be 4 years from drafted). Meanwhile Players like Flores have been with the team 2 years is still in A ball, which isn’t a bad thing for his age. But the Mets keep Throwing him up a level every year, even though he hasn’t conquered the previous league. Still he’ll be in A ball his 3rd year with the team and still be another 2 level away from AAA and possibly 3 years away from MLB readiness. Which isn’t a bad thing as he’ll still be extremely young at 22.
So i think it’s the flawed thinking that if we miss on top draft picks cause we made some Type A signings, we can supplement with IFA’s. You won’t reap the rewards for the better part of a decade. You have to try to make sure that the Type A’s are good and productive players. Because the Top Talent in the draft is closer to the MLB then signing 16 year old international players, no matter how fast you push them.
Excellent stuff Toby.
Pedro made the Mets relevant in the D.R. but the baseball academy they built has probably been a better recruiting tool, and of course money always does atter the most.
One thought on a replacement for Pena is that they do not replace him at all but that Omar takes on most of Pena’s job responsibilities. If the let Ricco handle more of the administrative end this could free up Omar to get out more to the D.R. Also less layers of management in the short term.
The cynical person would also say that Pena will not be replaced so the Mets could save his salary.
Of course I don’t believe Omar is actually going to get fired and leave the organization.
I think by the end of next year he will be kicked upstairs given a different title and spend most of his time in scouting and be a Gene Michael for the Mets Organization.