Almost A Met (Manager): Lou Piniella
He was a 'top candidate' for the Mets, but the devil is in the details.
Hello fellow Mets fans! We are doing something a little different today. It’s our first “Almost A Met (Manager)” edition.
There have been A LOT of people who were linked to being the skipper of the Mets over time, and I thought this was fun first foray into that.
Before we get into the history of the Mets and Lou Piniella, you know I’m going to ask you to forward this newsletter to a Mets fan in your life. It’ll take 2 seconds for you and mean the world to me! All they have to do is subscribe with the button below.
P.S. — I’ve got some fun stuff cookin’ that I can’t yet talk about. But keep your eyes on your inboxes over the next few weeks! 🤐
Anyway, let’s get into it!
Andrew
The Mets definitely wanted to hire Lou Piniella
As we’ve mentioned before in this newsletter, the 2002 Mets were a huge disappointment. GM Steve Phillips went bonkers on the trade market to acquire big names like 1B Mo Vaughn, 2B Roberto Alomar, OF Jeremy Burnitz, and others. All that fanfare led to a dismal 75-86 record.
Following that grim season, the team fired Manager Bobby Valentine, and immediately began searching for who would take over the dugout in 2003.
One name that immediately came up was then-Seattle Mariners Manager Lou Piniella.
We are doing something a little different today. We’ve focused on players so far in Almost A Met, but as you know, every managerial search is expansive and unpredictable. Today, I thought we’d focus on how one of the most recognizable managers of the 2000s, Piniella, was “Almost a Met.”
Piniella was highly regarded throughout the sport. He recently guided the Mariners to tying the best record in the history of the game. He won manager of the year multiple times, and was a hit for anyone who watched baseball (mostly for his well-known tirades when arguing with umpires).
Piniella was a ‘top candidate’ for the Mets
Apparently, the Mets really wanted him to take over for Valentine. He was the team’s “top candidate” in October 2002, according to the New York Times.
The Mets were hoping to strike as Piniella and the Mariners had a bit of a falling out. The Times reported around the same time that Seattle was “expected to begin researching candidates” to replace the skipper because they had “no interest in having him return if he does not want to be there.”
GM Steve Phillips compiled a list of candidates besides Piniella including (future Met) Buck Showalter and Terry Francona, according to Mike Puma’s If These Walls Could Talk: Stories From The New York Mets Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box. (A great book! You should read it!)
Just a few days later, the New York Post reported that the Mariners made a public statement allowing Piniella to speak with other teams about managerial vacancies. Former Mets Owner Fred Wilpon apparently left a message with the Mariners just 30 minutes after their public statement.
So clearly the Mets wanted Piniella, who managed the New York Yankees in the late 1980s, to manage the team.
The biggest problem? Piniella was under contract, so any team who wanted to hire him would have to offer some kind of compensation for him to swap squads. Apparently it was Piniella’s “first wish” to come back to New York and lead the Amazin’s.
‘It became pretty obvious to me they wanted Lou’
The Post speculated that the Mets would not want to give up highly touted prospects at the time like SP Aaron Heilman or SS Jose Reyes, but would be expected to give up “at least one of their other touted prospects.” Puma’s If These Walls Could Talk book specifically mentioned that the Mariners wanted Reyes. ESPN reported at the time that the Mets instead offered Seattle “two lists of prospects” for the team to pick from.
Phillips later would say Seattle asked for the Mets to take on a veteran player with a long-term contract as well as Piniella, in exchange for an “All-Star caliber Met” and a “combination of prospects,” according to the New York Times.
While the Mets tried to counteroffer, the Mariners wouldn’t budge, the Times reported at the time.
While Piniella was able to talk to other teams about manager openings, it was also clear he wanted to be close to Tampa, Florida. That meant the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a team that lost 106 games the year prior and fired their manager Hal McRae around the same time, was an obvious possible destination.
That also meant the Mets would obviously have to broaden their managerial search.
As Jay Howritz, the former PR man for the Mets and beloved member of the organization, said in his memoir, Mr. Met:
“We thought fiery former Yankee Lou Piniella, then managing the Seattle Mariners, might be hired as the next Mets manager, but Oakland A’s manager Art Howe emerged as another possibility after he led his team to back-to-back 100-win seasons. It was a convoluted set of circumstances that included A’s general manager Billy Beane giving permission for Art to interview for the Mets job, then Art pulling himself from consideration.”
Even Howe, who would eventually get the Mets gig, seemed to think Piniella was a shoe-in to manage the Amazin’s.
“When I originally interviewed, Lou was still with Seattle,” Howe told Horwitz in his book. “When Lou got involved, it became pretty obvious to me they wanted Lou. I asked Billy Beane to withdraw my name.”
As Horwitz put it, Tampa Bay “went hard” after Piniella.
He eventually signed a four-year $13 million contract to manage the team, with the Devil Rays sending All-Star CF Randy Winn in return, as compensation.
Wait… David Wright?!?!
To say the press wasn’t happy with Howe being picked is an understatement.
Here’s how Joel Sherman of the New York Post described the (soon to be official) move:
“Outflanked by the Mariners and outmaneuvered by the usually plan-less Devil Rays, the Mets look like they are going to fail to lure Lou Piniella (bad) and wind up with Art Howe (worse). In need of electricity in his manager’s office, Fred Wilpon has seemingly bumbled into a guy who makes the Amish look exciting.
Howe was in New York yesterday negotiating with Wilpon, with all signs that he would replace Bobby Valentine.
“Where there is smoke there is fire,” a person familiar with the Howe negotiations said.
It feels as if the Mets have been burned by their owner’s indecisiveness and their own miserable roster.”
It’s worth noting that while Sherman did applaud the Mets for not giving up Reyes or Heilman in exchange for Piniella, he did mention one big name as someone he thought the Mets should have used in the negotiations.
“Understandably, the Mets didn’t want to give up a top prospect close to the majors such as Jose Reyes or Aaron Heilman for a 59-year-old manager who feels no compunction about getting out of his contract. But Justin Huber, David Wright, Pat Strange, Mike Bacsik? The Mets needed Piniella too much to be too stingy about prospects far from the majors or second-tier.”
If David Wright was the compensation for Piniella, this newsletter would have been way different. (Of course, Sherman had no idea Wright would become the face of the franchise, I just thought this was a fun little piece of “what-if” information).
Meanwhile, the Mets hired Howe, who apparently made an impression on Wilpon.
“He blew me away,” he said at the news conference announcing Howe’s hiring. During the press conference, the press apparently asked the team’s higher-ups why they didn’t meet Seattle’s compensation demands or go after someone like San Francisco Giants skipper Dusty Baker.
In the end, Howe’s tenure with the Mets didn’t end well.
It’s unlikely Piniella would have changed the team’s fortunes. But perhaps there would have been some lively ejections amid all the losing.
❓ Would you made the deal?
Would you have traded someone like P Aaron Heilman or SS Jose Reyes for Lou Piniella to manage the team?
Next newsletter we’ll share the results of the poll! So stay tuned.
Last newsletter’s results: 75% of Almost A Met readers said they would have traded OF Lastings Milledge and another prospect for SP Roy Oswalt, while 25% said they wouldn’t have.
⚾ Mets news you need to know
Here’s why the Mets sent C Francisco Alvarez to the minors. (Anthony DiComo/MLB.com)
The Mets promoted top prospect OF Carson Benge to Double-A Binghamton (Robert Sanchez/SNY).
The sorry list of things going wrong for Mets during stunning fall (Jon Heyman/New York Post)
In case you needed any more proof, OF Juan Soto is amazing. (@NYNJHarper/X)
👀 Next time on “Almost A Met”
Next newsletter we’ll be look at SP Barry Zito almost becoming a New York Met. Stay tuned!
Got a suggestion for who you want us to feature in an upcoming newsletter? Send us an email at: almostametnewsletter@gmail.com