According to a New York Post story on Thursday, friends of Willie Randolph say the former manager thinks Jerry Manuel may have contributed to bringing about his early Tuesday firing.

His friends say Randolph developed these thoughts when he observed Manuel talking to Mets’ assistant GM Tony Bernazard. Manuel denied this was his intent, both in a face-to-face discussion with Randolph afterward and to reporters yesterday afternoon.

Randolph also apparently felt Manuel was going out of his way to distance himself from Randolph in his introductory press conference on Tuesday, suggesting he may have discussed the changes he would make as manager to Bernazard.

It’s always best to take stories with “friends” as sources with a grain of salt, but this type of paranoia is in the vein of the racial remarks Randolph made weeks ago.

Personally, I think Manuel hasn’t been radically different from Randolph thus far. He’s getting too much credit for his use of the DH with David Wright on Tuesday. The Mets will only have the DH a few games this season; he can’t realistically “freshen up” players as much as he acted like he could. Randolph would have used the DH in the same manner Manuel is, especially since he’s done so with the likes of youngsters Wright and Jose Reyes in previous years.

As far as major changes to the lineup in particular, Manuel said he’d like to get people going with the 2-spot in the lineup, but thus far, he hasn’t implemented that plan. That Post article also says Manuel might switch Wright and Carlos Beltran in a few games. But until he does these bigger moves, Manuel is maintaining much of Randolph’s set plans.