Earlie today Mets manager Jerry Manuel was a guest on Mike Francesa’s radio show. There were some interesting things said by Manuel.
Daniel Murphy: Manuel pretty much said that the Daniel Murphy outfield experiment is dead and over with. Murphy will have the next 4 games to prove himself a capable first baseman, otherwise Murph will not be an everyday player. Also sounds like Murphy will not be getting a lot of at bats against lefties, which is somewhat confusing to me considering how well he hits lefties.
The Outfield: Besides Carlos Beltran the outfield will remain in a platoon situation, some games Sheff, Reed, Pagan and Tatis.
Ryan Church: Jerry said that there is no beef between Church and himself, that he’s thrown batting practice to Church and everything is good.
The Jerry Manuel Dog House: There is no dog house, Castro, Church and Castillo are not in any dog house.
David Wright: With Delgado out, this is now Wright’s team. That comes right out of the mouth of the gangsta. He wants Wright to be a leader on the infield and the team.
Carlos Beltran: This one surprised me a lot but he says he’s been really hard on Beltran in private, didn’t go into specifics about that.
What really struck me about this interview was that Jerry Manuel came out and said that the New York Mets is David Wright’s team. I think it’s been the worst kept secret for the last couple of years but now it’s officially out there. David Wright is the leader of this team and he needs to step up now and be that leader. This will not trip David up, in fact I think this might take some weight off him now as he can be the leader with the manager’s blessing. I don’t expect David to be a “rah rah” type of leader but this has to make the job of leading this team easier with Jerry Manuel’s blessing.
