NEW YORK — Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon says he stands by Omar Minaya, but acknowledges the general manager made a mistake by questioning the motives of a reporter during a bizarre news conference.

Wilpon said Minaya was “visibly shaken” on Tuesday, one day after the GM announced the firing of close friend and team executive Tony Bernazard.
That news conference took a strange twist when Minaya said a reporter for the New York Daily News who’d written stories critical of Bernazard had “lobbied” him for a job with the Mets. The reporter denied the allegations.
Wilpon appeared shortly before the Mets played the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night and said that Minaya “knows the collateral damage he caused.”
Minaya was not available for comment.