Omar Minaya will join the New York Mets knowing that he has left the Montreal Expos in cost-effective shape for any potential buyer.
The Expos' general manager spent last night completing the details of a move to the Mets to assume the post of head of baseball operations.
Both Minaya and Expos president Tony Tavares declined to comment on the situation, but two highly ranked baseball sources said Minaya will leave the Expos to return to New York.
An announcement could be made as early as Friday.
Minaya has been the GM of the Expos since Major League Baseball assumed control of the franchise in 2002. Minaya was formerly the senior assistant GM with the Mets.
Minaya worked in his office at Olympic Stadium during last night's game against the Florida Marlins and could not be reached for comment. His work with the Expos has won widespread praise and his name has surfaced in connection with most GM openings in the past three years. He would leave the club in good shape.
"What you would be getting is a team full of young, hungry players who want to win," Expo outfielder Terrmel Sledge said yesterday. "And one more thing -- with everything we've gone through, with all the uncertainty and travel and injuries this year, you can be pretty certain that it's a team that knows how to deal with adversity."
Major League Baseball has run the Expos for three years, but until this year it was hardly a failure on the field. In 2002 and 2003, the Expos recorded their first back-to-back winning seasons since 1992-94, despite playing a crazy-quilt schedule in 2003. The 2003 season was the first year of a two-year plan to play 22 home games each season in Puerto Rico, which brought in about $20-million (all figures U.S.) in guarantees from promoters.
The Expos lost outfielder Vladimir Guerrero to free agency last winter, but small-revenue clubs with private ownership also have problems keeping franchise players. When you're selling a team, payroll flexibility is a huge asset, and the Expos, who started the season with a $38-million payroll, have only two players signed to multiyear contracts. Second baseman Jose Vidro signed a four-year, $30-million deal last winter and is on the 60-day disabled list with patella tendinitis, and workhorse starter Livan Hernandez is in the first year of a three-year, $21-million deal.
Brad Wilkerson combined with former Toronto Blue Jays slugger Tony Batista to give the Expos their first 30-homer tandem. Wilkerson, who will return to the outfield from first base next season when Nick Johnson's fractured cheekbone heals, also became the first Expo to hit 30 homers, score 100 runs and draw 100 walks. At 27, he is a future all-star and the next candidate for a multiyear contract.
Sledge is second among National League rookies in home runs with 15 (behind the Pittsburgh Pirates' Jason Bay of Trail, B.C., who has 25). Sledge is third among rookies in runs batted in, sharing time with Juan Rivera. Minor-league infielders Maicer Izturis and Brendan Harris, left-hander Michael Hinckley, exotically named first baseman Larry Broadway and outfielder Ryan Church (voted the best hitting prospect by managers in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League) will be contributing at the major-league level in the next two years.
"We have good, young talent as a foundation, guys with zero to three years service time that we have financial control over," Minaya said. "All that needs to be done is for somebody to build around them."
Minaya, baseball's first Latin-American general manager, has gone from overseeing a club that he was told would be contracted after its first season to suddenly discovering he needed to maintain some minor-league depth for a future move.
Minaya shocked the baseball world (and a few people in the commissioner's office) in his first season by trading his three best prospects -- Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore -- to the Cleveland Indians for pitcher Bartolo Colon. He then sent more minor-leaguers to the Florida Marlins for Cliff Floyd.
"Remember," Minaya said, "we were told by baseball when we took over that this was just going to be a one-year thing and that we were going to be contracted [folded]after that first season. Believing you won't be around is a pressure you can't remove from your thinking. Plus, you need to remember -- in a situation like we've been in, things can get really ugly if a team starts losing."
Minaya will talk to manager Frank Robinson this week about returning for 2005 so a management team will be in place to give baseball another year to ferret out new ownership.
The organization's biggest logistical shortcoming is scouting. Minaya has only 14 full-time scouts and has no presence in Latin-American countries such as the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, where young players are not eligible for the draft.
"There are some things that ail this franchise on the field," Tavares said. "But what I'm proud of is that after three years, none of those things are irreversible."
***
Who would buy a baseball team?
Names and groups to watch if baseball puts the Expos up for sale in Washington.
Washington Baseball Club: The front-runners, led by Jeff Zients, the 37-year-old chairman of Washington-based medical research firm Advisory Board Co. He is one of Fortune magazine's 40 wealthiest individuals under the age of 40. His group includes Frederic Malek, well-known in Republican Party circles and a former part-owner of the Texas Rangers when President George W. Bush was the general partner; James Kimsey, the founder of America On-Line, and Franklin Raines, the chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae.
Mark Broxmeyer: The chairman of New Jersey-based Fairfax Properties and chairman of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs in Washington, he is said to have high-powered local investors lined up and has hired Lehman Brothers to assist his bid, as well as financier Steve Forbes and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Stan Kasten: The former president of the Atlanta Braves, Hawks and Thrashers and formerly Ted Turner's point man on all matters related to sports is reportedly putting together a group.
Robert Johnson: The president of Black Entertainment Television and owner of the National Basketball Association's expansion Charlotte Bobcats might join an ownership group as a partner, but he no longer appears interested in fronting his own bid. Cal Ripken Jr.: Baseball's iron man has a hankering to run a major-league franchise and has the star power to get a group together. But some believe he is more interested in being the president of a club rather than an owner. DSG Baseball: Headed by investment banker Brian Saulsberry, who is based in Memphis, Tenn., the group includes Alphonso Maldon Jr., the former assistant secretary of defence and Clinton administrator.
Daniel Gilbert: The chairman of on-line mortgage lender Quicken Loans, Gilbert is a native of Michigan who made an unsuccessful bid for the Milwaukee Brewers.
Charles Dolan: The president of Cablevision Systems, Corp., whose family made a higher bid for the Boston Red Sox in 2002 than the one by John Henry that was eventually accepted. Has the financial clout to become a serious player.
Jeff Blair