Omar arrives in SD just as Heath Bell departs.

Coincidence? I think not...

Apparently this confirms the Padre's Latin American player development has been a big failure.

What would Omar be doing now if the Mets won the world series in 2006, but everything else after that played out in exactly the same manner?

What would Omar be doing now if the Mets won the world series in 2006, but everything else after that played out in exactly the same manner?

GM for the Cubs?

@3: He'd still be gone. The Great Crashes of 2007 and 2008 would have still soured the general perception of Minaya and affirmed his reputation as a guy who had no idea how to build an entire team. The thud of 2009 would have put him in jeopardy, and the limp performance of the Mets in 2010 would have been the final nail. Sure, he gets a bump from winning the WS, but what came after was still inexcusable. This is still the guy who gave Ollie Perez 3/36, thought Mike Jacobs and Little Sarge were still ballplayers when everyone else knew they weren't. A WS only buys you so much time, and in any case the clock had run out long before the end of the dismal 2010 season.

In other words, he'd be taking a job in San Diego, probably.

Rooming with Tony Conigliaro, perhaps?

@3: He'd still be gone. The Great Crashes of 2007 and 2008 would have still soured the general perception of Minaya and affirmed his reputation as a guy who had no idea how to build an entire team. The thud of 2009 would have put him in jeopardy, and the limp performance of the Mets in 2010 would have been the final nail. Sure, he gets a bump from winning the WS, but what came after was still inexcusable. This is still the guy who gave Ollie Perez 3/36, thought Mike Jacobs and Little Sarge were still ballplayers when everyone else knew they weren't. A WS only buys you so much time, and in any case the clock had run out long before the end of the dismal 2010 season.

This. Omar didn't do anything productive to improve the 2006 team after they lost. If they win, things follow the same path.

You guys might be right, but it's strange to think that a WS win doesn't buy the guy any extra time at all.

Also, we can get into whether or not the WS win creates an increased payroll for 2007. Or does it buy Willie Randolph another year? Do either of these things matter?

If they win, things follow the same path.

If they win, I suspect the collapse of 2007 never happens. I know that's massively speculative, but the pressure the 2007 team was under after falling short in 2006 was part of what led the 2007 team to fold. It may have played only a small part, but every little thing makes a difference when a team comes that close. I think a more relaxed Mets' team coming off a WS team has reserves of confidence instead of the questions that failure brought, and they survive.

As for the rest, you just can't speculate what else might have been different. Maybe if they'd won, a whole series of events is just a little different. Maybe Jose Valentin gets hurt in the WS in a way that would have led the Mets to decide they had to bring in a different 2B in spring training 2007, and they never trade for Luis Castillo. Maybe a WS win would have led Minaya to go in a different direction than Moises Alou, whose injury problems were so integral to what ailed the Mets.

It's just impossible to say, I guess.