MLB

METS TRY THE MAIL REVIEW

Omar Minaya’s future is now tied directly to Willie Randolph.

Mets ownership has ordered Minaya to recommend either the firing or the retaining of Randolph with the proviso that the GM’s job will hinge upon how the decision plays out, The Post has learned.

In the aftermath of the Mets’ historic late-season collapse, Minaya was indicating that he would endorse keeping Randolph. However, ownership has informed Minaya that he will need to fully explain why he thinks Randolph can win back his clubhouse and avoid the same kind of plummet next year. And if the Wilpons opt to follow Minaya’s wishes – which is likely – then they will notify Minaya that he is accountable for the results.

So if the Mets do not win next year under Randolph, it will not just be the manager whose job is in peril. Mets management would hardly want to move into a new stadium toting old failures.

It is not as if Minaya has an easy out either. For if he recommends Randolph’s dismissal, ownership will have to eat the $4.25 million that Randolph is owed on the contract extension he signed prior to this year.

Mets ownership has always been against eating money and doing so in this situation might force Minaya to come up with an inexpensive and then very likely inexperienced replacement for Randolph. That is among the reasons why he is likely to advocate retaining Randolph, who was not at Shea yesterday.

Minaya said yesterday the decision on the manager is his and that he still has autonomy over baseball operations. In that case, it could be World Series or bust for the Minaya/Randolph tandem in 2008. Interestingly, like Randolph, Minaya is signed through 2009, as well.

Yesterday at Shea, Minaya again offered praise of Randolph. But the GM repeatedly said that despite that praise, he’d have to speak to ownership regarding Randolph’s future. It seemed clear he was trying not to give a definitive answer publicly before he fully knew the Wilpons’ position. Fred and Jeff Wilpon were expected to meet with Minaya yesterday and today on this subject, and an announcement on Randolph was expected by the end of the week.

“Put it this way – Willie Randolph has two years left on his contract,” Minaya said. “I think that the work Willie Randolph has done here the last three years speaks for itself. It’s fair to say I think Willie works hard, my relationship with Willie is very good, but when you lose the way we lost, I think it’s fair to at least sit down with ownership.”

Don’t expect them to be ecstatic. Yesterday Jeff Wilpon released a statement that read, “On behalf of Fred, [president] Saul [Katz], and myself, all of us at the Mets are bitterly disappointed in failing to achieve our collective goal of building upon last year’s success.”

Minaya said yesterday his wish was that there’d be an imminent resolution on Randolph, and yesterday he said that “I believe in Willie Randolph” and called him “a winner.” He talked about how Randolph’s overall performance was more important than Randolph’s final 17-game, 12-loss finish this year.

“I have to look at the whole three years,” Minaya said. “I’ve got to look at the next two years. I’ve got to look at the 88 wins.”

At one point during Minaya’s press conference yesterday, he was asked if ownership’s confidence in Randolph has waned. Said the GM, “I’m not going to speak for ownership on that.” He will, however, have to make his case to it.

Besides Minaya yesterday, the other Mets at Shea included players who were there to clean out their lockers. John Maine was still in disbelief (“It still doesn’t feel like the season’s over”), while Moises Alou was more angry. Asked if he’d watch the playoffs, Alou replied, “I hate baseball right now.”

Damion Easley also had what’s probably the correct sense of how the meltdown will be remembered.

“It won’t be forgotten,” he said. “We’re in New York.”

mark.hale@nypost.com