MLB

Mets passed over truly Amazin’ baseball exec

Early in the fall of 1997, at the outset of his first offseason as Mets’ general manager, Steve Phillips restructured his front office. He lured Omar Minaya from Texas to be his assistant GM and hired a friend, Jim Duquette, as the director of pro personnel.

Because he was good with computers and had ties to Sandy Koufax — a real bonus in the Dodger-centric world of Koufax pal Fred Wilpon — Gary LaRocque was named the director of amateur scouting. That was the job Jack Zduriencik deserved. Instead — despite being employed significantly longer with the Mets than even Phillips — he was shuffled from farm director to special assistant to the general manager.

So at that moment Phillips, Minaya, Duquette and Zduriencik all had relatively new roles. Three would ultimately hold the title of Mets GM. One would not. That guy looks like, by far, the best of the group.

Zduriencik, who aside from a three-year detour, worked for the Mets from 1982-98, was a draft magician after becoming the Brewers’ scouting director from 1999-2006 (think Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun). The Mets under LaRocque did not find much talent.

Had he been named the Mets’ amateur scouting director, Zduriencik might have found that talent and might have been on the GM trajectory. Instead, bypassed for the role, he left for the Dodgers in 1998. Today Phillips lives in disgrace, Duquette does radio and Minaya is barely holding on as GM after overseeing another discouraging Mets offseason.

Zduriencik? In his first year as Mariners GM, he unearthed gems such as Franklin Gutierrez (by far the best player in a 12-player, three-team trade involving the Mets), David Aardsma and Russell Branyan. That transformed Seattle from 101 losses to 85 wins. Now the Mariners are generally perceived as the big winners of this offseason.

Zduriencik conceived a blueprint as more than a sales pitch to sucker fans to buy tickets. He saw a big home ballpark, and fixated on pitching, defense and speed. This offseason he accentuated that by adding the defense/speed of Chone Figgins and the brilliance of Cliff Lee to team with ace Felix Hernandez.

Now it is only fair to point out that Minaya’s first few years as Mets GM were successful. Yet even amid that success — most of which was ignited by a more open Wilpon checkbook — he talked pitching, defense and speed, and never really committed to that philosophy. Here in Year 6 — and the second in yet another big home park — he is still not walking his talk, unless Jason Bay or Fernando Tatis have hidden skills. Forget about obtaining someone as good as Lee behind Johan Santana, the Mets have added no one to their dubious rotation.

The Mets did not have a very appealing plan for this offseason, and failed to execute even that. Yes, they did sign Bay. But they were convinced Bengie Molina would eventually accept their offer. He didn’t and now the Mets have no starting catcher. They were convinced a starter from among Doug Davis, Jon Garland, Jason Marquis, Joel Pineiro and Jarrod Washburn would fall to them. Washburn is the only one still available. The Mets wanted to add sure innings to their untrustworthy rotation, and now they are talking about the brittle John Smoltz. So much for that plan.

And also so much for turning the page on the injury sideshow of last year. The Mets can point fingers at Scott Boras for the controversy around Carlos Beltran’s knee surgery, but what other organization even puts itself in position for yet another miscommunication or misstep when it has prioritized fixing this specific area. Think of it another way, the Hospital for Special Surgery also is associated with the Giants, Knicks and Nets: Do any of those organizations have the same kind of endemic problems as the Mets?

When you have the same issues over and over — not following a plan or micromanaging injuries, for example — the problems begin at the top where you can an ownership that has Phillips, Duquette, Minaya and Zduriencik in front of it, yet never hire the right guy to lead the organization.

joel.sherman@nypost.com