Major League Baseball

There are plenty to blame for Mets' dysfunction

Published Jul. 28, 2009 6:34 a.m. ET

Ken Rosenthal

I don't care if Adam Rubin begged the Mets to be an office boy, then plotted the overthrow of general manager Omar Minaya, which — come to think of it — might not have been a bad idea.

Adam Rubin is not the issue.

Tony Bernazard is the issue. Minaya is the issue. The Wilpons are the issue.

The Mets are the issue, for crying out loud, and no amount of finger-pointing at Rubin, the New York Daily News beat reporter who exposed Bernazard as a hot-headed bully, is going to change that fact.

Minaya, at a news conference Monday announcing the firing of Bernazard as assistant general manager, said that Rubin had "lobbied" for a job in the Mets' player-development department.

As if that changes anything.

As if now all of the Mets' secrets are revealed.

Injuries, the Mets keep talking about their injuries. At this point, those injuries are just a convenient excuse. Even when healthy, this team is a dysfunctional mess, from the top down.

The Mets do not want to clean house, some say, because it would mean starting over. But that is exactly the point. If ever a team needed to start over, this is it.

The dismissal of Bernazard ultimately might be viewed as a positive step, if the Mets replace him with someone who can fix their farm system and start spending as aggressively in the draft as other high-revenue clubs.

But on a day when the Mets should have drawn praise for dumping a controversial, volatile executive — "a cloud has been lifted from over the organization," one relieved employee said — they again turned into laughingstocks when Minaya singled out Rubin.