by Joe D.
It’s over. After just under two years, Mickey Callaway‘s tenure as manager of the New York Mets has come to an end.
On Thursday, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen and chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon announced in a conference call that despite a winning season and just missing a wild card spot, 44-year old Mickey Callaway was out as Mets manager.
“I feel unfulfilled. I feel we left some games on the field that we should have won, and we didn’t fulfill what we really had as a goal, which was get to the postseason,” Wilpon told reporters. “We’re not playing October baseball, and that’s what it’s about.”
Van Wagenen and Wilpon both flew to see Callaway in Florida to meet with him in person and tell him the bad news face to face.
It was a fitting and dignified departure, and not one that was perpetrated in the dead of night at 3 am or precluded with a defamatory whisper campaign.
“We want to thank Mickey for his consistent work ethic and dedication over the last two seasons and I’m certain these characteristics will serve him well in his next opportunity,” said Van Wagenen in a statement.
The Mets actually handled this one with an uncommon grace and rare touch of class, and regardless what your thoughts were of Mickey as a manager, we can all agree he at least merited a respectful sendoff for his service.
I castigate Mets ownership a great deal on this site and there’s never a shortage of things for me to call them out on. I regard them as a detriment to the team’s success and lay much of the recent organizational failure at their feet.
But for how they handled this firing from beginning to end I absolutely commend them.
I appreciated the expediency, the rationale and ultimately the execution. Dismissing someone is never an easy task, but the Mets made this as painless as they could for Callaway, who deserved nothing less.
As for Mickey, most of you are well aware that I was never a big fan and I expressed my reservations when his name was first floated as a potential candidate.
That said, I rooted for his success in 2018, but midway through the season it became quite clear to me that Callaway wasn’t up for the task. However he was ours and all I could do was hope for the best.
Unfortunately, by this season’s All Star break I had seen enough and began calling for Mickey Callaway to be replaced. What bothered me more than anything was his inability to grow and evolve from his first season.
And not only was he making the same bad decisions, but he was actually doubling down even tripling down when his erroneous takes were being pointed out to him.
As the season wore on, Callaway was becoming much more defensive as well, and he seemed to take any in-game criticism as an attack, even when his mismanaging directly resulted in a loss.
In one instance in June, he got into a heated confrontation with a Newsday reporter after a tense postgame press conference. He completely lost his cool all because Tim Healey pressed him on a bullpen move. He later apologized.
I already posted my extended thoughts on Callaway last week which you can read here.
All I wanted to articulate here is that I’m glad that the Mets handled this the way that they did.
Regardless of your thoughts on Mickey Callaway, we can all agree his firing was conducted professionally and sympathetically. It was good to see.
Mickey Callaway ends his first foray into managing with a 163-161 in two seasons leading the Mets. And now the hunt is on for his replacement.
The Mets are reportedly looking for veteran manager and have already put together an “expansive list’’ of candidates, according to Van Wagenen.
I’ve been advocating for former Yankees manager Joe Girardi and he’s reportedly in the mix.
Other names being bandied about include Joe Maddon, Robin Ventura, Buck Showalter, Mike Matheny and Dusty Baker.
Hopefully the Mets choose wisely and that a year from now we’ll be talking about who starts game one of the NLDS for the Mets.
