According to reported rumors, the Mets were set to determine on Wednesday whether Mickey Callaway would return as the team’s manager in 2020. Well, Wednesday has come and gone, and the Mets have still yet to make a decision with many attempting to surmise whether the Mets are going to indeed fire Callaway.
Apparently, the next step in the process is a discussion between the General Manager and the manager. As Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports, Brodie Van Wagenen and Callaway will have a discussion on Thursday with the team making a final determination on Callaway’s job status by Friday at the latest.
Perhaps the basis for the conversation is to see how receptive Callaway would be to some of the alternative options the Mets have discussed in their meetings. As Sherman reported, the Mets are debating “whether a different support staff could provide help to Callaway in areas of need — such as in-game strategy and being able to better impart organizational messages.”
In the alternative, Sherman reports the Mets have begun sending out feelers to potential managerial replacements. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic has recently floated Carlos Beltran as someone who could be considered for the position. Given the history between Beltran and the team, it would be very interesting to see if not only Beltran were interested, but also if the two could actually coexist.
One of the considerations going forward is the publicity for the decision. Mike Puma of the New York Post has intimated when the Mets make this decision they will likely want the back pages to themselves. That is going to be complicated with the Yankees beginning the postseason on Friday.
With respect to the postseason, the Mets do have to be sensitive to MLB protocols. As Sherman noted, “generally frowns on teams making major off-field news and potentially overshadowing playoff games.” If the Mets do indeed follow those protocols, it would seem like a decision would be announced sooner after today’s phone call between Callaway and Van Wagenen.
