Quick answer, yes. Saturday afternoon, Mets owner Steve Cohen announced on Twitter that the organization has hired Buck Showalter to be their next manager. Jon Heyman later shared that it’s a three-year deal, which according to Mike Puma is believed to exceed Art Howe‘s four-year $9.4 million contract as the largest for a manager in team history.

Coming into the lockout, all eyes were instantly on the Mets to see how they’d conduct their managerial search, who would be considered and eventually who would be hired. MMO did various polls about who should be the new skipper, and Mets fans all seemed to be in agreement with Showalter. All across social media fans shared their thoughts on the search, and a vast majority also wanted Showalter, including Mets radio announcer Howie Rose.

Astros bench coach Joe Espada was a finalist, along with Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro who did in fact impress Mets higher-ups, but not to the extent that Showalter clearly did. At the end of the day, the Mets needed a manager with experience. After the Luis Rojas experiment, it became quite clear that experience is what this team needed. Someone who’s been around for a while, is highly respected and isn’t a “friend” with 90% of the team. Showalter isn’t afraid to call a player out when they’re in a slump, and will manage this young — yet veteran-heavy — team to a tee.

Showalter comes to Queens with 20 years of managing experience, five of which resulted in playoff berths. He’s the most experienced manager they’ve hired since the very first manager in the team’s history, Casey Stengel, who had 21 years of managing experience. Showalter becomes the fifth person to manage both the Yankees and the Mets, joining Stengel, Yogi Berra, Dallas Green and Joe Torre.

He’s won the Manager of the Year award three times — 1994, 2004 and 2014. The Diamondbacks made their first playoff appearance under his leadership in just the second year of the team’s existence. He helped transform the Yankees and Diamondbacks into playoff contenders, with each team wining the World Series the year after he left. He’s since managed the Rangers (2003-2006) and most recently Orioles (2010-2018).  He was briefly a TV analyst for ESPN and YES Network, and has playing experience in the minor leagues.

In 3,069 games managed, Showalter is 1,551-1,517 (.506), but only a .391 win percentage in the playoffs. However, a manager isn’t defined by his postseason track record. If anything, one can look at his playoff resumé and see that Showalter might be hungry to do something here with the Mets.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Mets handle the rest of the coaching staff, as pitching coach Jeremy Hefner is the only one under contract with the team currently. Bench coach in particular will be interesting for the Mets; do they hire someone young that Showalter can develop to be his eventual replacement, or do they hire another veteran who might be a coaching friend of Showalter’s? Time will tell, but Mets fans can rest assured that the team has a competent manager in control of the team, for the first time in a long time.