N.Y. Mets ax manager Randolph with a dead-of-night dismissal

GM Omar Minaya announced the move with a 3:15 a.m. email.

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — New York Mets manager Willie Randolph was fired because the losses and the speculation about his job were hurting the team.

That’s what general manager Omar Minaya said Tuesday after Randolph’s awkward dismissal was announced in a matter-of-fact news release in the dead of night.

With the Mets below .500 and still wobbling from last year’s colossal collapse, rumors about Randolph’s status built to a crescendo over the weekend. Minaya said the tension went on “far too long.”

“It was not fair to the team, it was not fair to Willie Randolph, it was not fair to the organization,” Minaya said, several hours before the Mets played the Los Angeles Angels.

Bench coach Jerry Manuel was promoted to manage the Mets and will stay in that position for the rest of the year.

“I’m really stunned by it,” Randolph said as he left the team hotel shortly before noon. “I was surprised by it.”

Minaya said he made the decision Monday and stressed it was his alone. He met with Randolph at the Mets’ team hotel after that night’s 9-6 win over the Angels.

“I think he was resigned to it. When all is said and done, I think he was relieved,” Minaya said.

Minaya said it would have been disrespectful to fire a manager while he was still in uniform. Instead, Minaya said he waited to talk to Randolph away from the ballpark.

“11 p.m. at night, after a game ... standard procedure in letting a manager go in this game,” he said.

At 34-35, the Mets never found any consistency.

“Is it Willie only? No, it’s us,” Minaya said. “I can’t replace 25 players. And the players care. The players give 100 percent.”

“It just wasn’t working,” he said. “I think the players were pressing.”

Randolph became the first manager in the majors to get fired this season, a move the Mets released in an e-mail around Tuesday at 3:15 a.m.

“Right now, I think we are somewhat underperforming,” Manuel said. “I think we need to freshen up our everyday players.”

Minaya said he could’ve made the decision to fire Randolph after last year ended, but wanted to bring him back. Minaya was the one who originally hired Randolph.

Pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto also were fired in an enormous overhaul.

Randolph led the Mets to within one win of the 2006 World Series. They got off to a strong start again last year but plummeted down the stretch and were unable to rebound.

A preseason favorite to win the NL pennant, the $138 million Mets had won two in a row when Randolph was dismissed. He was set to earn $2 million this season and is owed $2.25 million in 2009, when the Mets move into new Citi Field.

Randolph said he was sorry he wasn’t able to “fulfill my what my dream is, to come here and help this team win a world championship.”

Peterson said Mets management “welcomed me into their home and homes go through renovations.

“I’m the hardwood floor that’s getting ripped out and they’re going to replace it with Tuscany tile,” he said.

“This is a team that’s underachieved and it will get back on track,” he said. “I walk out in peace.