Make no mistake, the Mets made a tremendous strategic upgrade when they changed managers from Willie Randolph to Jerry Manuel in June 2008. The former struggled with the elementary questions of bullpen management and player and media communication; the latter excels at all three.

But even in a game Manuel managed supremely for nearly nine full innings, a 4-3 loss yesterday to the Florida Marlins, Manuel’s decision to pinch-hit Omir Santos for Ramon Castro with the bases loaded in the ninth inning defies all logic applied to it.

Manuel’s week-long love affair with playing Santos over Castro has all the makings of a Willie Randolph-style blunder, both in terms of strategy and player motivation.

When starting catcher Brian Schneider hit the disabled list on April 17, it was widely assumed that Castro would finally get his chance to prove he could play every day. After all, the question with Castro has never been if he could hit—his OPS is .769 since joining the Mets in 2005, with 31 home runs in 727 at-bats—but whether he could stay healthy. A performing Castro wouldn’t simply be an adequate substitute for Schneider, but a significant upgrade.

Castro, now 33, dedicated himself to training this offseason, and shed 25 pounds. He has been healthy all season, and after a slow start, has hit .304 over his last 23 at-bats, so recent performance hasn’t been a problem, either. In fact, Castro homered the night before Schneider was placed on the DL, and had two hits in his first start as the would-be starting catcher.

But Omir Santos seemed to impress Jerry Manuel quite a bit in his limited time with the Mets, hitting a double and a triple in his first major league start April 19. Then, though Castro had a hit in both his April 22 and April 24 starts, Omir Santos took firm hold of the position, getting the chance to start the last four games in a row before Wednesday afternoon.

The reasons given for this have varied, none of them geared toward common sense. It was said that the Mets wanted to see what Santos could do before Schneider returned—but they are paying Castro $4.6 million in 2008 and 2009 for the chance to see what Ramon Castro could do should Schneider get hurt. 

It was said the Mets were dissatisfied with Castro’s handling of pitchers, yet in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, pitchers allowed a significantly lower OPS with Castro behind the plate than they did with New York’s starting catcher. It also makes no sense that Santos, with the club less than two weeks, would have a better handle on what pitches to call than Castro, who has been with the club since 2005.

On Wednesday, Castro finally got another opportunity to start, and made the most of it, collecting two hits and an RBI. With two out in the ninth and the bases loaded, the Mets had Castro set to hit against a struggling Matt Lindstrom. Yet Manuel chose the particular indignity of not only pinch-hitting for Castro, but doing so with Santos, who had to come all the way from the bullpen in center field to hit.

Santos popped up to end the game, but the decision was an awful one regardless of the outcome.

“I think Santos has a little shorter swing,” Manuel said in his press conference following the game. “And when you have a little shorter swing, it is easier to get to a guy throwing in the upper nineties. If it would have been a different—let’s say, a sinker-slider guy, then Ramon would have continued to hit.”

However, the decision robbed Castro, a tremendous fastball hitter, of the chance to hit. Both of Castro’s hits earlier in the game against starter Josh Johnson came on fastballs. And the 1-1 fastball Santos popped up to end the game is just the pitch Castro often deposits into the seats.

The choice also raises an alarming belief in Santos, who is a nice story, but is, in fact, a career .651 OPS hitter in the minor leagues who celebrated his 28th birthday Wednesday. Chances are the Mets haven’t found their next great backstop, but merely a career minor leaguer with a week’s worth of magic beans.

In a league where a catcher who can hit is a truly rare gift, the Mets can take advantage of a healthy, motivated Ramon Castro in a contract year, yet seem set to throw away at-bats with Omir Santos, who has yet to draw a major-league walk and has a .769 OPS in 26 at-bats.

The best comparison for Santos is to a 2008 feel-good story, Argenis Reyes. Reyes had a slick glove at second base and posted an .808 OPS in his first 33 at-bats, belying his .674 career minor league OPS. By the end of 2008, Reyes’s OPS was down to .504. Almost certainly, Santos will suffer the same fate. The difference was, the Mets didn’t have a hitter like Castro to play second base.

With Schneider still considered at least a week away from returning, it isn’t too late for New York to change course and give Castro a chance to perform. Castro was gracious after the game, saying the choice was up to the manager, but he did say that Manuel hadn’t told him he might be pinch-hit for.

“I was surprised,” Castro said. Anyone cognizant of Castro’s and Santos’s strengths was surprised as well—not to mention surprise at the departure from Manuel’s tremendous gift of communicating with his players.

“I put mostly everybody in an opportunity to perform,” Manuel said in his press conference following the game. “Everybody gets a shot. I just have to make a decision.”

Clearly, Ramon Castro deserves that shot. For a manager who is so good at making the tactically correct decision—Wednesday, for example, he exploited Josh Johnson’s long pitching delivery and had the Mets steal three bases—the decision to stick with Santos blocks a far better player largely on a hunch. For that kind of managing, the Mets could simply bring back Willie Randolph.

Howard Megdal is the author of The Baseball Talmud, a book about Jewish baseball players.

It’s because Ramon Castro, whose strong bat has been a big part of New York’s recent success, had played the night before—a far more regular occurrence since Jerry Manuel took over as manager from Willie Randolph.

“It does feel better to be playing more,” the 32-year-old Castro said as he put on his uniform in front of his locker Thursday afternoon, prior to New York’s game against the San Francisco Giants. “I am getting to see more pitches. It’s helping my hitting.”

Further evidence of that came Wednesday night, when Castro, the longtime backup for the Mets, and prior to that, the Marlins, clubbed a three-run home run off of a Jonathan Sanchez slider to help pace the Mets to a 5-0 victory.

The home run wasn’t the part Castro was focused on the next day; it was the slider. Most of Castro’s home runs with the Mets have come on fastballs, he said.

“But when I get to see more pitches, I have a better chance to hit the slider,” he said.

It is undeniable that Manuel has taken greater advantage of Castro’s offense than Randolph did. From the moment Castro came off of the disabled list on May 10, Randolph started Castro in just 12 of 34 games until the manager was fired. This came on the heels of a 2007 when Randolph gave Castro just 35 starts all season. But since Manuel took over, Castro has started in 10 of 22 games.

“Manuel’s a great manager,” Castro said, drawing a smile from his next-door locker neighbor, Jose Reyes. “I’m playing more.”

It wasn’t exactly a risky move to find more room in the lineup for Castro, particularly in an offense-starved lineup like New York’s. Last season, Castro received 144 at-bats, while starter Paul Lo Duca claimed 445—odd, since Castro put up a .285/.331/.556 line, and Lo Duca sported a .272/.311/.378 mark. To put that in perspective, Lo Duca’s offense was 20 percent below league average, while Castro’s was 27 percent above league average.

Castro turned down several other starting opportunities this past winter, when he was a free agent, in order to return to New York.

“I like it here,” he said. “This team gave me a chance when the Marlins took me off of their roster. I wanted to make it here.”

Once again, Castro had been losing out on playing time to a lesser offensive player. In 2008, Brian Schneider’s line was .250/.326/.300 entering Thursday’s game, good for production 30 percent below league average. Castro in 2008 is at .274/.354/.466, and under Manuel, .265/.324/.500.

To put his .819 OPS in perspective, only seven starting catchers in baseball have a better mark—and four of those are All Stars.

Of course, Brian Schneider is known primarily for his defense. But here, too, Castro isn’t awful: he has thrown out 4 of 13 runners in 2008, a 31 percent mark, better than the league average of 25.9.

“I’m working on everything,” Castro said. “I need to stay ready.”