The Mets Police

With that loss, Prince writes, “the Mets dug themselves into a hole from which they’ve never climbed out. It’s always October 19, 2006. Ownership and general management has proceeded as if this is forever a World Series club in every sense but that of accomplishment.” The evidence bears him out. Two years ago there was the “we’ll get it this time” off-season, with few moves made, management assuming the team would just repeat what it did the year before. Last year was the “we just need one starting pitcher” off-season, with the acquisition of Johan Santana masking the dam holes quietly tearing open everywhere else. Now the “we just need to fix the bullpen” off-season has been concluded, with J. J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez hauled in and pretty much everything else left intact. General manager Omar Minaya has acted like his team is perpetually one piece away, while other pieces, the ones he wasn’t looking at, slowly erode. And he’s just about out of time.