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A Life In Baseball
Minaya was involved in the signing of other future stars such as Juan Gonzalez and Ivan
Rodriguez, and rose through the ranks to become the director of professional scouting for the
Rangers. "He was a go-getter," Johnson says. "I used him in all kinds of situations and kept
giving him more and more responsibilities. He thrived on it. He left nothing on the table. When
you gave him an assignment, the assignment would be taken care of in rapid order and in top
flight."
"In baseball you see a lot of great prospects," Johnson adds. "Omar was a great prospect to
become a general manager. He was a decision maker. He had guts and confidence in his own
convictions and that's the way you're successful in this business."
Before Minaya would realize that destiny, he would return to New York City, this time as the
assistant general manager of the Mets. In 1998, Minaya jumped at the job, not only because he felt
he had the front-office baseball skills to succeed, but because he knew the landscape. "The most
important thing that I brought to the table," he says, "was an understanding of baseball in New
York City and an understanding of the passion that a New York Mets fan has. For me, that goes back
to growing up in New York."
Minaya helped rebuild a Mets team that had fallen on hard times during the 1990s, finishing no
better than 18 games out from 1991 to 1996. By 1998, the Mets were back in the hunt, missing the
playoffs by a single game, before making them in 1999 as a wild-card entrant. They beat the
Diamondbacks in the divisional series before losing an exciting and emotional league championship
series to the Atlanta Braves in six games. In 2000, it all came together for the Mets. They
clinched the wild card, beat the San Francisco Giants in the division series, and defeated the St.
Louis Cardinals to win the National League pennant before losing to the New York Yankees in the
first "Subway Series" since 1956.
By this time, Minaya's market value as a baseball operations man was sterling and he wanted
nothing more than to become a general manager. He knew that to run an organization of his own he
would have to move on, so he began interviewing. But interview after interview failed to generate
an offer. "This business is a fraternity of people that need to feel comfortable with whom they
give the general manager's job to," he says. "Some will say the reason I didn't get that job was
because I was a minority. The fact is, not too many minorities have been given the opportunity,
but I had to be careful that I didn't go down that road and start believing that that was the only
reason. It's a matter of trust and that's a personal thing. The best isn't always hired. It's the
one they feel most comfortable with. At those interviews, I was recognized as a good baseball man,
a good talent evaluator, but I was told that I didn't have the administrative skills."
Minaya proved them wrong. Just before spring training in 2002, Bud Selig, the commissioner of
baseball, rang with an offer to take over as general manager of the Montreal Expos. But it was an
offer laden with potential pitfalls. At that point, the Expos were in a state of disarray. In
November 2001, Major League Baseball had announced that the American League and the National
League would be contracted by one team each. The teams marked for elimination were the Minnesota
Twins and the Montreal Expos. But a Minnesota court ruled that the Twins were bound by a contract
with their stadium to play out the games they had agreed to. The decision gave the Expos a
reprieve as well because their presence was needed to balance schedules for interleague play. But
the decision had come after MLB had already bought the team out from its owners. While the Expos
were saved, they were left with no scouts, no coaches and no front office, and a fan base that
couldn't fill a shoebox.
"Taking the position was a major, major risk," says Minaya. "It wasn't only about winning and
losing, it was about maintaining a franchise that the commissioner of baseball had entrusted to
me. The team was owned by Major League Baseball and there were a lot of issues regarding conflict
of interest, integrity and management."
Still, the opportunity was too good to resist. Minaya agreed to take the job and become the
first Hispanic general manager in Major League baseball history. "It meant a lot to me to be given
an opportunity that nobody from my heritage had been given," Minaya says proudly, "and I'm very
grateful to Bud Selig. But with that opportunity came the responsibility to go out there and do
the best that I could, because doing a good job meant others could get the same opportunity. I
wanted to open doors for others like me."
As dysfunctional as the Expos were, Minaya made the most of it. He worked long hours, played it
straight with the players and others in the organization—including the manager, Hall of Famer
Frank Robinson—and made bold moves and exciting trades, all of which resulted in a
second-place
finish for the team in 2002, its best finish since 1996. A year later, the Expos played 22 home
games in Puerto Rico, but still found themselves in the wild-card race at the end of August. Then
the hammer fell. Selig, citing budget concerns, stopped the team from calling up minor-league
players when rosters expanded. The team finished eight games behind the Marlins, who won the
wild-card spot and went on to beat the Yankees in the World Series. "People weren't expecting me
to win," says Minaya of the situation, "and some people think that when you're not expected to
win, you can't lose. That wasn't the case in Montreal."
The Expos, who would eventually relocate to Washington, D.C., as the Nationals, weren't the
only team struggling. After reaching the 2000 World Series, the Mets failed to make the playoffs
the next five years, finishing in last place twice. It was time for the team from Queens to
straighten the ship. Minaya, who had turned down the general manager position with the Mets before
the 2004 season because the organization wanted to split the responsibilities, received a call
from Fred Wilpon, the team's owner and chief executive officer, with a new offer: executive vice
president and complete control over baseball operations.
"The fact of the matter is, I was very happy in Montreal doing my job," says Minaya. "I enjoyed
my time there, loved the team and was looking forward to going to Washington with them. That being
said, when it opened up that I was going to have the ability to make all baseball decisions [with
the Mets], it was a great opportunity to come home to New York."
Minaya had his work cut out for him. He needed to build a winning team, and fast because, as he
puts it, you can't tell baseball fans in New York that the team is going to win in three or four
years. They want immediate results. Minaya's first step was defining what the Mets were going to
be about. Pitching? Stealing bases? Hitting for power? Defense? "You want to be all of those
things," Minaya says, "but the reality is you aren't going to have the funds to fit all of those
areas. The most important thing is communicating a plan to your manager, your players and your
fans: 'This is what we're about. This is our identity.'"
And Minaya's plan for the Mets? "We're going to run," he says, "and we're going to steal bases.
We're going to pitch, have a good bullpen, and we're going to catch the ball. We are going to play
hard and we're going to come at you every day.
"I always thought of this team as a combination of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York
Giants," he adds. "They were athletic teams and that is what I wanted to present with the
Mets."
Minaya'a plan got off to a tremendous start during the 2004 off-season, when he signed Pedro
Martinez and Carlos Beltran, two marquee players, to give the Mets a new face. Minaya also hired
Willie Randolph as manager. "I thought Willie was a perfect fit," he says. "Sure, I had some
doubts about his managing abilities, because he had never managed, but he was a hard worker, a
professional, and the fans knew him. He was a New Yorker and he was going to be able to handle New
York. He was going to understand that they hate you one day and they love you the next."
In 2005, the Mets improved from 71 wins to 83, and although they missed the playoffs, they were
in the wild-card race until late in the season. The progress was heartening, but the job wasn't
over. To go along with Martinez and Beltran, and emerging stars such as David Wright and Jose
Reyes, Minaya set out to add more pieces to the puzzle. He signed slugging first baseman Carlos
Delgado, hard-nosed catcher Paul LoDuca and top-notch closer Billy Wagner. He also continued to
add role players such as infielders Jose Valentin and Julio Franco, and outfielder Endy
Chavez.
Oddly enough, while Minaya has been praised for his aggressive pursuit of players, he's also
been criticized for signing too many Latin Americans, something that he shrugs off. "I don't think
much about it," he says, "because I think that people always try to find fault in what you're
doing. It's all part of being in the public eye and being a general manager. The fact of the
matter is, we go out and get the best players, whether they're Hispanic or not."
Minaya also shrugs off the criticism because, for him, it all goes back to baseball being a
world game. "The globalization of the game is huge," he says, unable to stress it enough. "It's
good for baseball and I think it's a reflection of the game as a whole. If you don't understand
that, you are at a competitive disadvantage."
It turned out that the criticism was unfounded as the Mets won a division title in
2006—their
first since 1988—and their first playoff berth since 2000. Suddenly, Minaya and the Mets had
the
World Series in their sights. After sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the divisional series, it
was closer than ever. Then came the Cardinals and the exciting seven-game series that left them
short of the World Series.
In a process that Minaya describes as ongoing, he spent the off-season bolstering the Mets
lineup even further, most notably by acquiring outfielder Moises Alou. Although many of his moves
were considered minor in comparison to those in previous years, Minaya entered the 2007 season
confident the Mets could attain their goal of a championship.
He had his detractors. Baseball analysts—from ESPN and Sports Illustrated to Baseball
America and FoxSports.com—predicted that the Mets would be contenders again and would almost
certainly
reach the playoffs, but that their starting pitching would prevent them from winning the World
Series.
"All winter long we were told that our starting pitching wasn't strong enough," says Minaya. "I
think the real strength of this team is our offense and our speed. I think it's our defense,
especially turning double plays, and it's our bullpen." Minaya also believes the team has those
intangibles needed to win. "The fact that this team has played together and won together is huge,"
he says. "There's chemistry as a group and a lot of clubhouse leadership."
Yet baseball is a funny sport and the best team on paper doesn't always take home the trophy.
There are streaks and slumps, and always an injury or two to overcome. "It's such a long season
with so many ups and downs," Minaya says. "You want to sustain your ups for as long as you can,
and keep your downs from being that long. The bottom line is it's a marathon."
Then there are the baseball gods, who need not be aroused, especially with idle talk of
celebratory cigars when the season isn't half over. Yes, the goal is to win the World Series and,
yes, cigars will be in order when the time comes, but Minaya won't tempt fate. "I haven't set one
aside yet," he says. "But I can tell you, it's going to be something special."
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