Mets owner Jeff Wilpon said today the club will alter its training practices for treating and preventing injuries.
He also said the team’s payroll for 2010 should be similar to this year, and announced a shakeup to the coaching staff.
The Mets used the disabled list 22 times in 2009 for 19 players, including eight former All-Stars. Mets players spent more than 1,480 days on the disabled list, more than any other major league team, according to STATS LLC.
The medical staff will remain in place for 2010 but “we are changing our medical protocols to better treat and prevent injuries,” Wilpon said, declining to get into specifics. The son of owner Fred Wilpon also said he plans to take a more active role in how the club releases information about ailing players.
Injuries to Reyes, Beltran and Delgado became a season-long soap opera as they appeared to be close to playing again, only to remain sidelined. Beltran was the only one of the three who returned to the lineup.
Wilpon said part of the communication problems occurred when players were hurt on the road.
“We relied on visiting team doctors to diagnose,” he said. “When Jose had a hamstring tendon that was partially torn to begin with, the doctor in, I forget where it was, L.A., said it was his calf. Now the radiating pain was through his calf. It wasn’t really what happened.”
First base coach Luis Alicea was fired and third base coach Razor Shines will have a different role next season. Bench coach Sandy Alomar also lost his job, but will be offered another position in the organization, and son Sandy Alomar Jr. likely is headed for a promotion after serving as catching instructor this year.
The Mets’ first season at Citi Field was a mess, filled with injuries, mistakes and lackluster play. An April favorite for a deep postseason run, the Mets swept a three-game series from Houston last weekend to finish 70-92, their worst record since going 66-95 under Art Howe in 2003.
General manager Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel will return next season, but Wilpon made it clear that ownership expects a turnaround.
“We demand better and we expect better,” Wilpon said. “And to me, (Jerry) and Omar deserve a chance to come back and right the ship. It’s a one-year thing.”
The Mets hit .270 this season, tying playoff-bound Los Angeles for the best average in the NL, and batted .276 with runners in scoring position, second in the league behind Atlanta. But they finished with 671 runs, 12th in the National League.
Injuries robbed them of stars Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran for long stretches, but Manuel and the front office decided to change the base coaches.
“The traffic that we had on the bases probably to a lot of degree was not properly managed as well as we would’ve liked to have seen,” Manuel said. “That was probably the biggest issue with us was one of the issue of baserunning. We didn’t seem to have that perform at the level that we thought we need to to be a championship club.”
Alomar’s dismissal was particularly painful for Manuel, who said they were such close friends that they used to ride to the ballpark together. Alomar, who turns 66 this month, could be back with the club next season depending on his personal situation and whether he can find a big league job with another club.
“Defensively, I thought we struggled and I think that we needed to get to another level,” Manuel said, citing the club’s 134 double plays, tied for 12th in the NL. “We have to do everything we can to be better defensively.”
Manuel, signed through next season with a club option for 2011, said Shines could be considered for the other coaching openings and Alomar Jr. could be in the mix at first base.
Hitting coach Howard Johnson, pitching coach Dan Warthen and bullpen coach Randy Niemann will be back in the same roles next season. Pitchers were plagued by control problems, but Manuel said he thinks Warthen is the right person to help young starters John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez return to form.
The Mets’ rough season was part of a tough stretch for the Wilpon family, whose members and companies lost millions in convicted swindler Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The owner’s losses don’t appear to have affected the team’s finances yet, with Jeff Wilpon saying Monday the 2010 payroll will be “what Omar needs.”
That puts the pressure squarely back on Minaya, who said he will do anything to help the team rebound next year. He didn’t rule out adding former major league GMs Kevin Towers and J.P. Ricciardi to the front office.
“I’m going to look at any way we can improve ourselves,” Minaya said. “There will be some personnel out there. Like every year, I look around and see how can we get better?”