Mets sticking with Minaya
Mets general manager Omar Minaya is expected back next season.
The New York Post reported Sunday that owner Fred Wilpon said Minaya will return in 2010 despite the failings of his $136 million team on and off the field this year.
“Am I going to bring Omar back next year? Absolutely. That’s a fact,” Fred Wilpon told the Post.
Minaya in turn told the newspaper that if he’s back, manager Jerry Manuel will return as well.
Decimated by injuries, the Mets have slipped to fourth place in the N.L. East. Last season, they missed the playoffs following their second consecutive September meltdown. Afterward, Minaya was given a three-year contract extension that runs through 2012 with club options covering 2013 and 2014.
Manuel is signed through next season, with a club option for 2011.
The Mets came into this season with an $800 million new ballpark and hopes of supplanting the Phillies atop the NL East. Instead, long-term injuries to Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, John Maine and, more recently, David Wright, depleted the lineup and sent the team into a tailspin that left it out of playoff contention in August.
Pads, Cards get testy
Benches and bullpens emptied momentarily after Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols apparently thought the Padres’ Will Venable threw an elbow while being tagged out to end the sixth inning Sunday in San Diego.
No punches were thrown.
Venable hit a slow grounder up the first base line, Pujols fielded it and tagged him. Pujols then stared at Venable and appeared to say something. Venable turned around and repeatedly said, “What?”
The benches and bullpens emptied, and Pujols and Venable had to be separated.
“(Saturday) night he tried to run me over like he’s playing freakin’ football. A play like that you don’t try to run people over,” Pujols said. “He threw an elbow. He was out by a lot. … That’s pretty stupid.”
Venable said it “was a whole lot of nothing.”
Clearing the bases
Reds starter Aaron Harang is out for the rest of the season after an emergency appendectomy. Harang woke Saturday morning in Pittsburgh with pain near his abdomen. He was examined later that afternoon and driven by team clubhouse manager Rick Stowe back to Cincinnati, where the surgery was performed. Harang, 31, will be restricted from strenuous physical activity for three weeks. … Rookie outfielder Carlos Gonzalez has been held out of the Rockies’ lineup after suffering a puncture wound to his left hand. The team said Gonzalez hurt himself when he caught a steak knife as it fell off a plate while he was putting a dish in the kitchen sink at home. He needed one stitch to close the wound.