Steven Marcus of Newsday reports that the Mets plan to bring back Mickey Callaway as the team’s manager next season for his second with the club, despite the team’s underperformance in 2018.

The team currently has a 45-63 record, which is third worst in the National League.

While he is only a rookie manager, it is somewhat surprising that they have determined this in August, with the team still not having decided on who will be their GM next season and a lot of things in flux with John Ricco, Omar Minaya, and J.P. Ricciardi in charge for now as a triumvirate.

According to Marcus, one name that has recently emerged as a legitimate option is current Indians’ GM, Mike Chernoff, who has worked with Callaway before and actually started his career as a Mets intern.

Callaway, 43, spoke to Marcus before Sunday’s game and said that he does not feel, and apparently rightfully so, like a man fighting for his job.

“I tried not to focus on that. Obviously everybody, as a person you think about what could happen, you know, the reality of the situations. But I always try to just go out there and approach the game and the job every day like this is going to be my job forever and try not to worry about the repercussions of us not winning games and things like that as far as it pertains to me. I’m just worried about the players, the work, do the best we can.”

Instead, Callaway is more focused on personal improvement, as he is still new to the job and wants to take this time as a learning experience.

“I try to make sure that I ask people to evaluate me as much as possible. I get the analytics department to send me information on my decision making, where we’re at as a team, obviously, I always leave it open to the front office to always question me, I’m open to constructive criticism. I’m always going to take feedback from others on how I can better. I always ask other coaches, managers, whoever I can run past questions, to try and get better.”

The front office is telling him to do the same thing and not worry about the standings at this stage.

“They said, ‘Just keep on working the way you work. You can’t control wins and losses all you can do is control the work and how you do it.’ I think all of us have been aligned on that the whole time and knew that coming in.’’

Callaway, who was named the 21st manager in the team’s history in October of 2017, is in the first year of a three-year contract. The deal also includes a team option for the 2021 season.