PORT ST. LUCIE — The Mets need to get off the injury excuse and admit they stunk last year. That’s the first step to making 2010 a successful season. It’s time for a new mindset as the Mets opened a three-day mini-camp here yesterday.
It’s not just the injuries, it’s the way the Mets have been constructed that’s the problem. They are in injury denial.
The Mets did not play the game the right way last year and their fan base became disillusioned in the team and the game plan.
Omar Minaya said no amount of depth could overcome the injuries the Mets had in 2009. Earlier in the group interview, Minaya was shoveling the Mets’ new mantra about 2009 being behind them and looking ahead to a big 2010: “We expect to be healthy. I think if our team is healthy, we are definitely going to be a contending team.”
The Mets are kidding themselves if they believe it’s only about staying healthy. They need to fix their own problems and become a team. Perhaps yesterday was the first day of trying to shape that new attitude.
After all, Ollie Perez, the poster child for what’s wrong with the Mets — overpaid and underperforming — attended the volunteer mini-camp and has even worked hard at a conditioning camp in Arizona this offseason for the first time in his career. Perez appeared more focused, although as he played a simple game of catch with Johan Santana, two of his throws sailed over the fence along the right field line.
The good news is that Perez is at least trying to better himself. What’s next, second baseman Luis Castillo catching pop-ups with two hands?
The bad news is the 2010 Mets already are not healthy. Carlos Beltran is out for months following knee surgery, and they have no proven catcher, making them weak up the middle.
Manager Jerry Manuel said the emphasis this spring training will be on pitching and defense. It’s always about pitching and defense.
The gap between the Mets and the Phillies grows larger every season.
“It’s fair to say that the Phillies have really improved themselves, so we have a lot of work to do,” Minaya said. “But I think these guys are committed and Jerry is going to be committed to us getting back on track to what we did in ’06, ’07 and ’08.”
Perhaps that was Minaya’s way of saying, “I know how to put a playoff team together,” but that ’08 season ended in disaster with a choke against the Phillies, just as ’07 did. The Mets didn’t make the playoffs either season. That’s not success. The ’06 season ended with Beltran frozen at the plate as the Cardinals won the NLCS. The Mets have not passed their most important tests. The true test of any athlete, of any franchise, is how they perform in times of adversity.
“We just got to get back to getting our team on the field and getting our players to play the game the way we know how to,” Minaya said.
It’s much more than that, Omar. Don’t be Omar the Excuse Maker.
The Mets, with a huge payroll, have been to the postseason one time over the last nine years, yet we’re supposed to believe it’s all about injuries.
What did the Mets learn from 2009?
“You learn that you don’t win championships on paper,” Minaya said. “In 2009, at this time of year, a lot of people had us on paper as being one of the best teams in baseball.”
Don’t worry. No one is saying that about the 2010 Mets, except the Mets, that is, if they get healthy. The Mets have gone from Choke to Choke to Joke. The mindset must change. The Mets are their own worst enemy.
“I don’t think we’re a joke,” Minaya answered when asked if they became a baseball joke last season.
If they don’t change their approach, the joke’s on them — again.