The new manager of the New York Mets, Mickey Callaway, has said, to paraphrase, that he knew the moment he walked out of his interview with team brass he wanted to be a part of the team’s future. That is an extremely encouraging sign considering how the trajectory of this team took a nose-dive last season.
A former pitcher turned pitching coach has the opportunity to take the managerial reins of a Mets team stockpiled with young, talented starting pitching. It makes all the sense in the world.
Hopefully, Callaway’s presence will equate to, for one, an increase in Matt Harvey‘s effectiveness. Along with the rest of the Mets hurlers who will surely benefit from Callaway’s experience and wisdom, Harvey is the Mets pitcher with the most to gain from this regime change. Harvey has had stratospheric highs and gutter-dwelling lows over the course of his Mets career.
From literally being on top of the baseball world in 2013 when he started the All-Star Game that was played at Citi Field, to his injury-plagued last few seasons, Harvey needs to regain the form that put him among the upper echelon of MLB starting pitchers. Mickey Callaway and Co. may be just what he needs to get back on track.
Mickey Callaway’s Magic
Callaway took over as the Cleveland Indians pitching coach before the 2013 season began. After spending two seasons in the Indians’ minor league system, Callaway was very familiar with the prospects that were coming through the pipeline. Once he was tabbed as the pitching coach for the big club, Callaway certainly had his work cut out for him.
The 2012 incarnation of the Cleveland Indians had a pitching staff that was ranked 13th in the American League in wins with 68 and 14th in ERA with a portly 4.78. This was no collection of waiver-wire or trash heap pick-ups. The Indians starting five consisted of popular, proven names such as Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Zach McAllister, Derek Lowe, and Josh Tomlin. Too bad names don’t equate to wins in MLB.
Granted, only two of those players pitched over 150 innings that season so injuries obviously played a big part in the unit’s overall performance. The following season, with Terry Francona at the helm, Cleveland replaced the retired Derek Lowe and Josh Tomlin (who moved to and excelled in the bullpen for The Tribe) with our old friend Scott Kazmir and a second-year pitcher with tons of upside, 26-year-old Corey Kluber.
The Effects of Mickey Callaway on Corey Kluber
In his 2012 rookie campaign, over 12 starts Corey Kluber was 2-5 with a 5.14 ERA over 63 IP with 54 strikeouts and 18 walks. In 2013, the first year of the Tito Francona era in Cleveland, Kluber improved dramatically.
In 147 innings over 24 starts, he pitched to the tune of an 11-5 record with a respectable 3.85 ERA, striking out 136 batters and walking only 33. Kluber’s transformation into an elite MLB hurler had begun and Mickey Callaway was the mad scientist behind the curtain.
In 2014, Kluber once again improved on his previous season’s marks. In a whopping 235 innings pitched, Kluber won a league-leading 18 games and pitched to a sparkling 2.44 ERA. His 269 strikeouts still stand as a career high and his WHIP was just one one-hundredth over one walks and hits per inning (1.095). Kluber took home the Cy Young Award that season.
Corey Kluber’s exploits from 2015 through his second Cy Young Award-winning season of 2017 are well known by now. Simply as baseball fans, I implore you all to go and pore over his baseball-reference.com page (or the back of his baseball card, if you’re of a certain age; yes, they still make them). The incredible progressions he made while under the tutelage of Mickey Callaway is quite the sight to behold.
Welcome to New York, Mickey. Now Fix Matt Harvey!
That brings us to the 2018 New York Mets and their beleaguered former ace, Matt Harvey. A first-round, seventh overall pick out of UNC in the 2010 draft, Harvey seemed to be destined for stardom.
In Harvey’s first three seasons at the big-league level, 2012-15 (missed all of 2014 due to Tommy John surgery), his 2.57 ERA, 499/94 K/BB ratio and overall dominance of opposing batters signified that the Dark Knight of Gotham was going to be to a new generation of Mets fans what Doc Gooden (and Generation K, and Scott Kazmir, and Kris Benson, etc.) was supposed to be for Mets fans my age. A true ace.
Then, in true New York Mets fashion, Matt Harvey succumbed to a potent mixture of overnight fame, New York nightlife, and the most damning affliction of them all, the injuries. Over the last two seasons, Harvey has made a combined 25 starts and put up a bloated 5.78 ERA in his battle back from multiple serious injuries.
With Mickey Callaway now leading the way for the New York Mets, the guy with the most to gain from Callaway and his proven track record of harnessing and developing obvious talent has to be Matt Harvey. The rest of the Mets promising stable of young hurlers stand to improve on their lackluster performances of 2017, as well.
In particular, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler could also come to flourish under Callaway. Just like Matt Harvey, Matz and Wheeler have undeniable talent and unquantifiable potential. If Mickey Callaway could work the same magic on them as he did with Corey Kluber and Co. in Cleveland, we could be in for a very pleasant surprise come April.
If those group of players can stay healthy, which Callaway seems to have a plan to accomplish, the Mets could find themselves right in the thick of things.
