Why is Tony Bernazard on the Payroll?
Posted by Matthew Artus July 22, 2009 1:09PM
Understanding the dynamic of the Mets' front office can be an exercise in futility.
Though I have as much access to the inner workings as you do, I know when it feels like something isn't right. And according to Adam Rubin of the NY Daily News, something doesn't feel right about Tony Bernazard's latest alleged shenanigans:
The Binghamton Mets clubhouse nearly turned into a scene out of WWE Raw recently, when VP for player development Tony Bernazard removed his shirt and challenged the Double-A players to a fight during a postgame tirade, multiples sources told the Daily News.
Bernazard particularly went after middle infield prospect Jose Coronado, using a slang term associated with a woman's anatomy, a source indicated. The confrontation happened about 10days before the All-Star break, according to insiders.
This story comes on the heels of another one by Rubin involving a recent outburst by Bernazard at Citi Field:
The scouting community has been abuzz with an account of Mets VP Tony Bernazard going into a profanity-laced tirade directed at the organization's manager of baseball operations at Citi Field, which left witnesses in the section behind home plate aghast. According to two sources, scouts had settled in a row behind the plate during a recent game. Bernazard arrived and found a Diamondbacks scout sitting in the seat he wanted. When Bernazard's underling suggested that the Mets VP wait until the end of the half-inning to change the seating arrangement in order to minimize the disruption, Bernazard went ballistic in a rant against his Ivy League-educated deputy.
It's usually around this point where someone points out that Bernazard wasn't crazy about Willie Randolph and may have helped orchestrate our ex-skipper's ouster. There's some truth in that sentiment, but it oversimplifies what happened as well as Bernazard in general.
Go back to late autumn 2004, when Art Howe completed his lame duck tenure as Mets' manager and Minaya, as the team's new GM, would hire his first skipper. Quite a few names passed through NY's back pages for the post, including Jim Leyland, Terry Collins, Carlos Tosca, and even a brief flirtation with Bobby V. From the chatter, two names quickly emerged as the front runners: Rangers' hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo and Yankees' bench coach Willie Randolph.
The chatter seemed to favor Jaramillo for the post, as he once managed at Single-A Sarasota with Minaya on his staff in 1985 and 1986 and the two maintained their relationship over time. Combining that with the sentiment that Minaya favored hiring a young, newer MLB manager rather than a seasoned vet like Leyland, it just felt as if Minaya hiring Jaramillo would be a case of Omar getting his guy.
Enter Randolph, the heir apparent to Joe Torre and the Yankees' bench coach that lost the Mets' manager gig to Art Howe after an unprepared interview. He was from Brooklyn, not too far from the Wilpons' old stomping grounds and a short hop from Minaya's Queens roots. He represented the first African-American manager in Mets history. He almost joined Minaya in Cincinnati in 2000 when each interviewed for the Reds' manager and GM spots, respectively. And Willie's reputation with the Yankees would steal headlines for the Mets. The winds changed, and so did Minaya's mind.
Lost in the rapid changes was the addition of Tony Bernazard, a former utility player and another old friend of Minaya's. Bernazard joined the Mets' ranks as a special assistant after a long tenure in the Players' Association (his big claim to fame was his work on bringing the World Baseball Classic into existence). Bernazard had no experience as a coach, scout, or front office executive but he did have good relationships with a lot of players through his work with the MLBPA. So Minaya hired him, and reaped the benefits of Carlos Beltran and Billy Wagner choosing New York in part due to Bernazard's presence.
That backfired early on, and in a big way. As you'll recall, Carlos Delgado chose to sign with the Marlins instead of the Mets in 2005 because the front office mistakenly played the race card to woo him. That gaffe was largely attributed to Tony Bernazard, who allegedly so alienated Delgado that Carlos asked to deal exclusively with Minaya before eliminating the Mets from consideration entirely.
One year later, Bernazard rises to the rank of VP of Player Development with the Mets. He continues his role as adviser to Minaya, but now he has control over the Mets' minor-league development. The Mets enjoyed a magic carpet ride in 2006, and any rumblings of discontent go largely unnoticed. But there was one move of interest made by Bernazard at that time.
After the 2006 season, Tony Tijerina left the Mets' organization for Kansas City after serving as the team's Minor League Field Coordinator (the organization's top player-development official). Mark Healey of Gotham Baseball Magazine aptly describes Just who Tijerina is:
Most fans don't know "T.J.", but the former minor league catcher served as a player, coach, manager and assistant to Guy Conti (who he replaced as Coordinator) for the Mets since 1991, when he was drafted in the 13th round of the amateur draft. Deemed "too negative" by Bernazard to be a cog in his machine, he was replaced by Luis Aguayo.
It's worth noting that Tijerina probably left as a result of a poor showing by the Norfolk Tides in 2006 and their star prospect, Lastings Milledge. That being said, Adam Rubin commented about his exit to KC that, "The trend with the Mets has been to push out people who predated the current administration." It wasn't an outrageous move, but it was the first show of Bernazard truly wielding his sword in a curious manner. (Aguayo serves as a field coordinator within the Mets' organization after a fairly disastrous stint as the team's third-base coach. Tijerina works as a field coordinator for the Royals.)
Bernazard, first as Minaya's advisor and later the VP of Player Development, wouldn't be given major influence overnight. But that clearly became part of the plan, as his comments to Michael Geffner of the Times Herald-Record indicated that Bernazard wasn't just along for the ride with Minaya:
And as he continues in his position as a GM-in-training, dealing with a wide variety of racial views all over baseball, Bernazard refuses to let his Latin roots or slightly accented English hold him back in a game that loves to pigeon-hole people.
He commands, as well as demands, respect as a knowledgeable, no-nonsense baseball man.
"I've always been taken seriously, both on the field and off," he says. "The way I carry myself, the way I do things, I have to be taken seriously. I make sure of that. I never wondered about that. Leaders are leaders, and I've always been a leader."
But he knows well, as a Latino moving up the ranks, that people, especially insiders, are watching him closely.
This doesn't frighten him.
"I've always felt like a role model," he says. "And so I always conducted myself in a certain way. When I was a player, I wanted to do things right. That hasn't changed. I still feel a great responsibility to myself, my family, the community where I live, the organization I'm with, and Puerto Rico, where I was born and raised.
"Omar, myself, we feel a responsibility for doing well, because we will influence lives."
I'd read that interview if I were you. Because there's more gems embedded within it.
So what does this have to do with Randolph? Well, Bernazard joined the Mets with Minaya and Randolph in '05, and exhibited aspirations for higher office. He becomes VP of Player Development in 2006 despite no prior experience as a manager, coach, or scout. And as a former liason with the Players Association, he has the players' ears and had them before joining the Mets' payroll.
The story goes that Bernazard eventually earned the attention of the Wilpons as well, presumably first with Jeff in regards to Minor League Operations and later Fred. The Wilpons have a history of receiving advice from ill-advised sources (go ahead and google "superscouts" Al Goldis and Bill Livesey, who had as much to do with the Kazmir trade as the Jacket did). And now they hear a voice of someone who doesn't approve of the manager, even though Omar Minaya stated that Bernazard endorsed Randolph's hiring in the first place.
The Collapse goes down, and calls arise for Randolph's head to roll - possibly including calls from Jeff Wilpon. Minaya stands behind his manager (this despite early beliefs that Jaramillo would've been his guy instead of Randolph initially, and Jerry Manuel's arrival suggesting that Minaya hedged his bets on Randolph). Meanwhile, Bernazard plants seeds of discontent in the Mets' clubhouse by speaking his mind publicly so often that it becomes general knowledge amongst the beat writers that he wants Randolph out.
Randolph finally gets canned, and Bernazard allegedly fiddled while Shea burned. Bernazard then continues the rhetoric against Jerry Manuel while keeping the availability of his cell phone number as part of the Mets' minor league development. And now he's calling out kids in Binghamton for reflecting his failures as VP of Player Development and yelling at subordinates in Citi Field for not bowing down to him.
If Tony Bernazard were still a player and pulling these antics, he would be deemed a "clubhouse cancer" and everyone would beg for him to be traded or released. But he continues to work behind the scenes, just far out enough of the periphery to disappear from memory when we start pointing fingers.
I believe Tony Bernazard is a major distraction and source of confusion and misinformation in the Mets' front office. I believe Bernazard is the reason the fans and media like to comment on a pro-Latin American agenda in Mets' personnel decisions, as he clearly uses it to his advantage. The conspiracy theorist in me believes Bernazard, who has made clear his aspirations for higher office, may be using subversion tactics to stage the baseball equivalent of a coup in the Mets' organization and will continue to do so until he's a GM himself or he's fired.
And I believe the Mets will be a better team and organization without Tony Bernazard than with him.
