Omar Minaya last night confirmed a Post report that Mets COO Jeff Wilpon met with the GM and manager Jerry Manuel two weeks ago to assure them their jobs are safe despite the team’s disastrous season.
“[Wilpon] wanted to let us know that those things being written, don’t worry about that,” Minaya said from his suite at Nationals Park in Washington, where he watched the Mets beat the Nationals, 6-2.
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“He said, ‘I want you to be our general manager and I want Jerry to be our manager.’ That’s always nice to hear.”
Wilpon gave the vote of confidence to Minaya and Manuel while the Mets were being swept by the Yankees at Citi Field, a source told The Post.
Earlier last night, Manuel had denied the story, but Minaya and the team clarified that by saying Manuel had misinterpreted the question.
PLAYOFF CHANCES LESS THAN 2 PERCENT“We don’t converse often, but there was a conversation that took place that was very, very encouraging. It was, ‘Hey, we’re in this to the end — period. We’ll keep fighting.’ Boom. That was it.”
The report was hardly surprising in Minaya’s case, considering his three-year, multi-million dollar extension doesn’t kick in until 2010.
But Manuel is in the first year of a two-year deal that pays him just $1 million a season, so it wasn’t unreasonable to think he was in trouble with the Mets 44-48 after last night’s win, despite the NL’s highest payroll at $143 million.
Minaya, though, defended Manuel’s performance in light of the Mets’ blizzard of injuries this season.
“Nobody wants to be five games under .500 with a lot of the injuries,” Minaya said during the game. “For us, it’s new ground. We’re not used to this. But you have to look at the job Jerry has done.
“The coaches continue to work hard and the players are trying their best, but you can only work with the talent you have.”
Along those lines, Manuel had said yesterday he didn’t expect any outside help before the July 31 trade deadline — something Minaya confirmed in the later meeting with reporters.
Minaya essentially ruled out acquiring Athletics slugger Matt Holliday by saying the Mets won’t be in the market for rental players — players in the final year of their contracts.
Also, Minaya declined to comment on an SI.com report that the Mets turned down a proposal from the Blue Jays for Cy Young winner Roy Halladay.
The report said Toronto wanted outfielder Fernando Martinez, pitchers Jonathon Niese and Bobby Parnell and minor-league shortstop Ruben Tejada for Halladay, but that the Mets considered that too high of a price.
“That rumor’s out there right now, but I’m not going to comment about rumors,” Minaya said of the Halladay report.