Mets GM, manager get new contracts

By HOWARD FENDRICH

AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK (AP) – Bobby Valentine and Steve Phillips insist they have learned to work together.

Putting stock in a detente reached during a season that saw the New York Mets reach the World Series for the first time since 1986, the team agreed to three-year contracts with both manager Valentine and GM Phillips.

“What’s happening here is a sign of some stability,” Valentine, the only manager to take the Mets to the postseason in consecutive years, said Tuesday. “It’s a lot of weight off my mind. We’re going forward absolutely together, absolutely on the same page. Steve and I are going to demonstrate that this is a team effort.

“We’re going to put forth an effort that will rival those who locked hands and climbed mountains to plant flags during wars.”

Valentine had been under contract until midnight Tuesday. The Reds reportedly were denied permission to talk with him during the playoffs, and there are three other managerial jobs open.

Phillips and Valentine have had a rocky relationship.

It might have bottomed out in June 1999, when Phillips fired three of Valentine’s coaches. All of the current coaches’ contracts are up now.

“The one thing we’ve both had to deal with is forgiveness,” Phillips said. “There have been times either one of us has felt offended by the other, by something said or something done. We’ve probably both held on to some things longer than we should have.”

Division is nothing new for Mets management.

The team’s co-owners, Fred Wilpon and Nelson Doubleday, hardly speak. Wilpon wants a new ballpark, while Doubleday prefers that Shea Stadium be refurbished.

Neither Wilpon nor Doubleday was at Tuesday’s news conference to announce the signings. Phillips said they were at the major league owners’ meeting in Chicago.

A turning point for Phillips and Valentine seemed to be the fallout from a speech Valentine made in April at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

A Penn student, who later apologized for making some things up, posted on the Internet critical comments about the Mets attributed to Valentine. Phillips canceled a scouting trip to fly to Pittsburgh, where the Mets were playing.

“He let some stuff out. I let some stuff out,” Valentine said of their talk about what Phillips called “Whartongate.”

“When you do that, it’s always easier to go forward.”

Said Phillips: “I think we had a cleansing.” That made it a much smoother ride.

“We’ve had ups and downs, things we’ve agreed and disagreed on. Sometimes in New York, the issues become bigger, but we got through that one and we’re going to get through the next one.”

Valentine is 379-301 during his four-plus seasons in New York, second to Davey Johnson’s 595 in victories with the Mets. Valentine is 960-906 overall in the majors, having also managed the Rangers.

He thought he should be compensated at least as well as Dusty Baker, who just signed a $5.3 million, two-year deal with San Francisco. The new deals for Valentine and Phillips contain team options for 2004.

“Bobby’s players play extremely hard for him. He keeps them hungry and sharp,” Phillips said. “He’s able to balance the goals of short term with the long term – winning today while keeping in mind he has to grind it out over 162 games.”

Coming off a year when they made it to the National League championship series, the Mets won the NL pennant, then lost in five games to the Yankees in the first Subway Series in 44 years.

On Wednesday, Valentine will start looking for a house to buy in Stamford, Conn., where he grew up and where he owns a restaurant.

“If we didn’t win more than the year before, there was a good chance I wouldn’t be back,” Valentine said. “There probably would have been some doubt if we didn’t go to the World Series.”

The Mets now head into a busy offseason, with nine players eligible for free agency.

“We’re on the brink,” Phillips said. “The core is here for a winning team. and we’ll put ourselves in position to do well in the postseason again.”

Mike Hampton, Rick Reed and Bobby J. Jones, three of the team’s top four starters, are free to go, along with relievers Turk Wendell and John Franco.

Franco and outfielder Derek Bell filed for free agency Tuesday.

Shortstop Mike Bordick filed for free agency last week, and Kurt Abbott, Derek Bell and Lenny Harris are also eligible, but aren’t as high a priority for the Mets as the pitchers.

The team probably will pursue All-Star shortstop Alex Rodriguez, expected to be baseball’s highest-paid player, and perhaps Baltimore ace Mike Mussina, if Hampton leaves.