Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse is reporting that the Mets will rid themselves of not only manager Jerry Manuel by the end of the season, but general manager Omar Minaya as well.

There has been little doubt for a while the Mets will not bring back Jerry Manuel as manager, and a source confirmed reports that general manager Omar Minaya is likely out as well. Ownership seems to be leaning toward hiring an experienced GM, as they are not inclined to promote assistant GM John Ricco, and Wally Backman — a popular ex-Met who was nearly manager of the Diamondbacks before the team discovered some off-field issues he didn’t disclose — as manager.

Manuel is 197-203 (.461) in New York since first taking over as the interim manager in 2008. Under Manuel, the Mets went from being a second place finisher in the NL East to a fourth place finisher last year and as it currently stands, a fourth place finisher this year as well.

Minaya’s best season with the club came in 2006 when the Mets lost to the Cardinals in the NLCS, but outside of that he’s been the man in charge of putting together a roster of underachievers. Injuries have played a part in that, but enough is enough.

It’s time for the Mets to move in another direction.

For those Mets fans that were hoping either manager Jerry Manuel or GM Omar Minaya (or both) would be fired after yet another disappointing season in NY, think again.

With nine players on the disabled list, including three members of the Mets’ core, it became apparent early on that neither Jerry Manuel nor Omar Minaya was going to take the fall for the team’s dismal performance this season.

Manuel is signed through 2010, and Minaya’s three-year contract extension doesn’t even begin until next season. So it wasn’t surprising that a source confirmed today that COO Jeff Wilpon already has assured both Manuel and Minaya that their jobs are safe. The story was first reported by SI.com.

There’s no question that injuries have played a huge role in the demise of the Mets this year. So maybe Manuel and Minaya do deserve a mulligan for this season.

But regardless of injuries, this year has been an utter disaster for the Mets in terms of the most basic things in baseball. They can’t field pop ups, the outfielders don’t communicate on fly balls, the team struggles on a whole running the bases properly, etc. Those things have nothing to do with injuries – those are basic fundamentals of the game.

Now, is all of that Manuel and Minaya’s fault? Maybe not. But they both have had a hand in how poorly this club has played this year – injuries or no injuries.

So far, one of the biggest mysteries of the 2009 MLB Season has to be the play of the New York Mets, who I would estimate is the most frustrating team to watch on a nightly basis.

Case in point, last night they had the go-ahead run taken off the score board in the top of the 11th in L.A. because Ryan Church missed third base. And he didn’t just miss third base by a step – he missed it by a good mile and a half. Then in the bottom half of the inning, first baseman Jeremy Reed air-mailed a throw home trying to cut down the winning run with bases loaded and the Dodgers managed to beat the Mets 3-2 despite being out hit 11 to 5.

Also in that crucial 11th inning, outfielders Carlos Beltran and Angel Pagan let a routine fly ball hit the ground, which put runners on second and third with no outs. Three batters later is when Reed decided to play catch with a fan in the stands instead of nailing the running at home, which would have given the Mets two outs and a chance to get out of the inning.

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