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A half-inning after Jose Reyes welcomed freshly-appointed New York Mets manager Jerry Manuel into his new role with a childish, on-field temper tantrum, Carlos Delgado took his turn in greeting the skipper.

In what has become typical Delgado fashion, the less-than-nimble first baseman booted a routine groundball that extended Anaheim’s turn at bat and cost the Mets a run.

In what certainly won’t be viewed as the most eloquent of moves, the Mets changed their manager on Monday, but in reality they changed nothing. Willie Randolph was sacrificed for what Minaya deemed “an underperforming” ball club, but all 25 underperformers remained untouched and intact.

Minaya, like most of the Shea Faithful, clearly recognized his club needed a shake-up, and massive on-field personnel overhaul was not a realistic option when the calendar already read June 16. The Mets’ general manager had to find a more reasonable way to wake his club from its year-long slumber, and his recent acquisition of the hard-nosed, grizzled veteran Trot Nixon was not exactly going to send shockwaves through the clubhouse.

In choosing the most convenient option and showing Randolph the door, Minaya sacrificed the wrong man. Yes, Randolph should have been on Minaya’s hit list, but the Mets’ GM should have made a bigger, more justifiable splash by handing a pink slip to the most disappointing member of the 2008 Mets – Mr. Carlos Delgado.

A move of that sort would have required Minaya to both swallow his pride while coercing ownership into paying the remainder of Delgado’s monster contract. Remember, it was Minaya who flew to Puerto Rico and put his Spanish-speaking skills on display to court Delgado during his free agent year to no avail before finally acquiring the first baseman in a trade with Florida a year later.

The man who hit at least 32 homers in each of eight seasons prior to his arrival in New York has been nowhere to be found except for a handful of regular season games during the 2006 season and the subsequent Mets’ playoff run. After hitting a disappointing .258 with an even more disenchanting .333 on-base percentage in 2007, Delgado is batting only .238 through 68 games played this season.

Delgado’s lack of performance in the batter’s box will make any irate Met fan that pays $6 for a hot dog wonder exactly what they are paying for, but it is not the reason why Delgado must go.

A defensive liability by nature, Delgado does nothing to help his shortcomings with his lackadaisical effort in the field. Very rarely seen diving for a ball, but too often turning a routine play into abomination, Delgado is a microcosm of what is wrong with the Mets. His elitist attitude, which puts him before both the game and his team, is as apparent as it could ever be without him accusing rural Pennsylvanians of clinging to their guns and religion.

From his refusal to stand for “God Bless America” in 2004 to this season’s profanity-laced run-in with reporter Jon Heyman, Delgado has a history of disrespect. Nearly acting like more of a team player than Stephon Marbury could ever dream of being, Delgado publicly undermined Randolph when rumblings suggested the former manager was considering platooning the struggling Delgado. “We’re gonna have to talk,” said Delgado to reporters in late May.

When Reyes shows up his manager as he did in the first inning of Tuesday night’s game against the Angels, one must wonder if Delgado is rubbing off on the young, promising talent. Reyes is his own person and makes his own decisions, but the veteran Delgado certainly isn’t helping the situation by setting an example for the youth of the clubhouse.

The possible replacements for Delgado (Nixon, utility infielder Damon Easley, or AA prospect Mike Carp) may not even excite a GM in the independent Can-Am League, but any of the three will be an upgrade in attitude over what has become a light-hitting first baseman. If lightning strikes and the washed-up Delgado somehow awakens, the Mets may very well wake up with him and reach the postseason. With the Mets still 6.5 games back of the Phillies and poised to disappoint their loyal fan base once again, Minaya can’t be afford to wait and hope.

Instead, it should be “addition by subtraction.” Minaya must wake up and truly shake up this club by cutting an overpaid, underperforming veteran whose appearance makes Mets’ fan long for the days of Doug Mientkiewicz.

Sub-par offense, non-existent defense, and a lack of leadership have Mets’ fans wondering what their beloved team is paying $20 million for this season. The faster Minaya realizes that the 2008 version of Carlos Delgado may be the worst bargain in baseball and acts upon that realization, the better off the 2008 Mets will be.