Terry Collins will return to manage the Mets in 2015 as long as the team don’t completely fall apart before the end of the season, a source familiar with the situation told Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports adds that if the Mets go into the 2015 season with a manager on the hot seat, it would be in no one’s best interests.
Bad decision if this is true. This is not the manager who will usher in this bright future they keep talking about.
Who’s ready for Spring Training?
August 9
I had some additional thoughts on Terry Collins after Friday night’s developments. Nobody knows what was said and what transpired when Sandy Alderson met with Collins behind closed doors prior to the Mets 5-4 win. But wouldn’t you have loved to have been a fly on the wall?
One thing was certain, and a new and improved Terry Collins emerged to greet reporters. That big smile on his face when he said we’ve got to give Wilmer Flores some significant playing time from now until the end of the season almost looked genuine.
Collins even used the word “development” or some form of it six times. It was a very convincing act and if I could I’d even give him an Oscar for his efforts.
Gone were phrases like “we’re in the hunt” and “I can’t babysit young players we’ve got games to win” and in their place we heard “we’re all about the future” and “these kids deserve the time to show what they can do. ” Could you hear the Twilight Zone music playing in your head too?
I’m being asked again and again whether yesterday’s drama means Collins is about to get fired. The truth is I don’t know. But after reading the tea leaves, I’d say Collins is now on some shaky ground and if I were him I’d think twice before renewing the lease on his condo.
August 8
I think it’s time to end the charade and get back to reality. The Mets have about as much of a chance to get into the post season as the Philadelphia Phillies – two teams separated by two games occupying the two bottom spots in the division.
The Mets are nine games back in the NL East and despite a run differential that says the Mets are better than a .500 team, they are seven games under. Enter Terry Collins.
Some of you thought I was too quick to call for his head back in April. To quote a line from the thriller Stigmata, “How’s your faith these days?”
My chief gripe about Collins has always been that he’s the worst possible candidate to put in charge of a major rebuild and especially one that was going to be dependent on nurturing and developing a cadre of young minor league talent. To begin the year his main concern was not getting Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia going, but instead catering to the likes of John Lannan, Jose Valverde and Kyle Farnsworth. Only disastrous results by the veterans eventually brought in a sense of calm as the young Mets power arms took over the late game duties and transformed the bullpen into a strength. None of that is on Collins.
Collins operates without any thought about player development and has an unnatural predisposition to playing older and unproductive veterans who he sees as the keys to winning. On many occasions he’s made it clear that he has no time to worry about developing the Mets’ top prospects – he views them as distractions because he has “wins to worry about.”
But on top of my problem with his disdain for the longterm approach for the Mets, there’s his maddening use of the bullpen, his constant belly-flops as an in-game tactician, and the steady decline of the team’s fundamentals as well as the lack of accountability for players who just lollygag it on the field.
I’m tired of hearing about how the players love him, of course they love him, he defends them when they screw up rather than addressing and confronting issues head on.
I love this team. But I love the future of this team even more and we deserve a manager that can embrace that concept.
Who among you isn’t beleaguered whenever he gripes that the Mets were in every game? That we were right there? That the win was within our grasp? Collins is not getting the most out of this roster, he’s getting the least. We’re not finding new ways to win, we keep finding new ways to lose. We are a team that often clutches defeat from the jaws of victory. Hence the damn run differential, and hence the reason we’re on pace for another 77 win season.
The ONLY reason the Mets have appeared close to contention is mostly due to the parity in the division and not because of anything fantastical that Collins has done.
What if Collins had the brains to have gone with the younger and better options from the beginning, rather than waiting for injuries and DFAs to get them in as the last resort? Shouldn’t they have been the first resort?
We need a new and refreshing message and a leader who can deliver that message as the Mets get set to usher in a brighter and better tomorrow. Terry Collins is not that leader.
With a roster packed with players mostly in their mid-twenties, and with so many questions yet to be answered, we need someone who understands that the next 7 weeks should be devoted to development and determining which players are part of the solution and which are not.
But instead we’re saddled with a man whose main priority this weekend is trying not to look bad against the last place Phillies. Collins has his priorities upside down.
The remainder of the 2014 season should be open tryouts for the 2015 season.
Collins deserves credit and appreciation for doing his best with what he had as the GM disassembled the team while we were in a transformative period. But the future is here and we need someone who understands that and embraces it.
