SAN DIEGO — Omar Minaya will see plenty of familiar faces on the other side when he sits in the general manager’s suite at Petco Park this weekend.
After all, it was Minaya who drafted or signed most of these Mets players that form the nucleus of what the organization, now led by general manager Sandy Alderson, believes is a bright future.
And the 55-year-old Minaya can’t help but enjoy a measure of satisfaction.
“I feel good for the development people and the scouts,” said Minaya, the former Mets general manager who is serving the Padres in a similar role on an interim basis. “You feel good for those guys, because the scouts find them and the development people bring them along.”
Lucas Duda, Daniel Murphy, Ruben Tejada, Juan Lagares, Dillon Gee, Jon Niese, Jacob deGrom, Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia, Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Eric Campbell are all products of Minaya’s regime with the Mets, which lasted from 2005-10.
In addition, Matt Harvey and Bobby Parnell, both of whom are recovering from Tommy John surgery, arrived during Minaya’s tenure.
Though Minaya is not a candidate to become the Padres GM on a permanent basis — he is sharing responsibilities with two others and doesn’t want to uproot his family, which still resides in New Jersey — his portfolio will be on display for the next three days, wearing Mets colors.
But as seeds turn into fruit within the Mets organization, Minaya isn’t thumping his chest in search of vindication.
“I don’t think that way,” Minaya said. “You do your job, and when teams don’t win in [New York], people’s opinions are a product of it.
“We felt very comfortable and believed we had a plan in place to get athletes, to get good players to the major leagues, and it’s an organization, not just one person. Part of it has been [vice president of development and amateur scouting] Paul DePodesta and Sandy Alderson. They are part of bringing these guys along. It’s not an individual thing.”
Minaya said he wore a smile Tuesday watching Murphy make his first All-Star Game appearance. The Mets selected Murphy in the 13th round of the 2006 draft and brought him to the big leagues two years later in the middle of a pennant race.
“We were moving kids up from Double-A and Triple-A, and to see where he is right now as an All-Star, when a 13th round pick is an All-Star, you feel good for the scout and feel good for the development people and the player himself,” Minaya said. “He’s such an intense competitor and a player, he’s non-stop. I’m very happy for him.”
Another gem from Minaya’s regime is Lagares, who was signed as a 17-year-old in the Dominican Republic. Over the last two seasons, Lagares has blossomed into one of the game’s premier defensive center fielders.
“Lagares was a shortstop, he made a lot of errors, but at the time we felt we needed to get him in the outfield to just settle him down,” Minaya said. “We thought his defense was affecting his offense and we talked about converting him to the outfield.
“He was just such a good athlete. He was an athlete, and when we had our rankings early on, his athleticism was right up there with Jose Reyes and Carlos Gomez.”
This weekend, Minaya will sit back and watch, hoping the Padres can subdue his handiwork with the Mets.
“I’ve been in the game a long time,” Minaya said. “You’re happy to see guys do well and identify players.”