Mets’ Patience Runs Out on McIlvaine

Joe McIlvaine was fired as general manager of the New York Mets in the middle of a season in which his preaching of patience during a multiyear rebuilding process was bearing fruit. The firing came at a time when the clock is ticking on the July 31 trade deadline with McIlvaine in pursuit of pitching support for his team’s surprising wild-card pursuit.

Co-owner Fred Wilpon called it a restructuring, saying McIlvaine was offered a senior position as minor league evaluator, but the spin didn’t obscure the fact that he was axed and replaced by the man he had hired as his assistant, Steve Phillips, and that Manager Bobby Valentine’s influence has been strengthened.

Phillips and Wilpon said negotiations will begin promptly on a multiyear contract for Valentine, who insisted he was on good terms with McIlvaine and did not play a Machiavellian role in his firing.

Valentine said his hands will probably be “dirtied or bloodied” by the public perception, but “I think in time they’ll be cleansed when people really understand the situation. I’m not worried about it. I don’t think this was about me in any shape or form.”

McIlvaine agreed, saying he didn’t think he had been undermined by the manager, but this much seems clear:

The aggressive, energetic, detail-oriented Phillips is more in the Valentine mold, more apt to be available for the emergency phone call from the manager or owners (who wanted McIlvaine to carry a cellular but which he rejected) and more suited, Wilpon said, for the changing nature of the general manager’s position.

Citing McIlvaine’s oft-criticized absences from the team while he scouted the farms, Wilpon said those absences made it clear that was where McIlvaine wanted to be and the move was made now because he wasn’t going to be offered a new contract.

“We wanted the restructuring in place because we think this team is close,” Wilpon said.

The standings confirm that and represent a bottom line on McIlvaine’s style and patience.

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Waivers expire Monday, leaving Fernando Valenzuela available as a free agent. He was released by the St. Louis Cardinals with a 0-4 record and 5.56 earned-run average after his acquisition from the San Diego Padres for Danny Jackson, a trade that has hurt both teams. Valenzuela was 2-12, 4.96 overall, but will probably draw interest, given he is a left-hander who has been down the stretch before.

“The feeling is he still loves the sport and is still capable if he wants to go forward and the opportunity is there,” agent Tony DeMarco said. If not? “He’s strong mentally, physically and financially. He’s in very good position,” DeMarco added.

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The San Francisco Giants continue to hold on despite a shortage of pitching. Two areas of concern: Top-three starters Shawn Estes, Mark Gardner and Kirk Rueter have never pitched more than 200 innings in a season, and the bullpen has been used so much that five relievers have already been in 40 or more games.

A division foe, the Colorado Rockies, picked up Frank Castillo from the Chicago Cubs to augment an injury-depleted rotation, but Giant Manager Dusty Baker scoffed at Castillo.

“We’ll see how his breaking ball works in that altitude,” Baker said. “He might play lights out, but we’re looking for a higher-quality starter.”

Whether Pat Rapp, acquired from the Florida Marlins on Friday, fits that description remains to be seen.