Commissioner Rob Manfred

“For multiple generations of baseball fans, Rickey Henderson was the gold standard of base stealing and leadoff hitting. Rickey was one of the most accomplished and beloved Athletics of all time. He also made an impact with many other clubs during a quarter-century career like no other. He epitomized speed, power and entertainment in setting the tone at the top of the lineup. When we considered new rules for the game in recent years, we had the era of Rickey Henderson in mind.

Rickey earned universal respect, admiration and awe from sports fans. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I send my deepest condolences to Rickey’s family, his friends and former teammates, A’s fans and baseball fans everywhere.”

Dave Stewart, childhood friend, World Champion teammate with Athletics

“I can’t explain what someone who was present in every memory, childhood to today, means to me, or what it means to cope with having no more tomorrows alongside him. Rickey Henderson was the best ballplayer many know, but that is nothing in comparison to the brother he is to me.”

Mike Piazza, Hall of Famer, teammate with Mets

“Rickey Henderson was a dream to hit behind as a teammate and a nightmare for a catcher as an opponent. He was one of the most generous, hysterical and gracious human beings. He will be sorely missed. Prayers for his soul and family.”

Dave Winfield, Hall of Famer, teammate with Yankees

“I truly cannot believe I’ve lost one of my favorite teammates and great friend Rickey Henderson. Rest in peace.”

José Canseco, teammate with Athletics

“I’m heartbroken and devastated. Rickey Henderson was an incredibly talented player but an even better human. I’ll never forget all the incredible memories we created together. Memories I’ll never forget. Rest easy my friend.”

Dennis Eckersley, Hall of Famer, teammate with Athletics

“I’m very sad about the loss of my friend, teammate and fellow Hall of Famer. We were two Bay Area boys. I was proud to play with him. He was the greatest player I ever played with. I cherished our recent times together both in Cooperstown and at the Oakland Coliseum. My condolences to his family.”

Bobby Valentine, Mets manager, 1996-2002

“It was an honor to be in the same uniform with Rickey Henderson. He was the most entertaining and dynamic player I ever saw. RIP Rickey. You were the greatest!”

Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Sandy Alderson, baseball executive with Mets, A’s and Padres

“I traded Rickey Henderson twice and brought him back more times than that. He was the best player I ever saw play. He did it all,  hit, hit for power, stole bases and defended,  and he did it with a flair that enthused his fans and infuriated his opponents. But everyone was amused by his personality, style and third-person references to himself. He was unique in many ways. Rickey stories are legion, legendary and mostly true. But behind his reputation as self-absorbed was a wonderful, kind human being who loved kids. His true character became more evident over time. Nine different teams, one unforgettable player. Sandy gonna miss Rickey.”

Willie Randolph, teammate with Yankees

“People always ask me who was the best player I’ve played with. I played with so many tremendous players through the years that I hate picking just one. But pound for pound, Rickey Henderson was the greatest player I ever played with. He possessed so many talents that could positively impact the outcome of a game. I’m going to cherish the memories Rickey and I shared together. He was a special man.”

Buck Showalter, former Mets manager

“I played against Rickey when he was with Jersey City in the Eastern League in 1978. He batted .310 but didn’t hit a home run in 133 games. People don’t realize how dedicated he was to being the best he could be. He took great care of his body and was ahead of his time in nutrition and conditioning. In my opinion, he was the best leadoff hitter of all time.

“He was in my first big league camp, and my first time throwing to big-league hitters was to his batting group. He had a strike zone the size of a thimble, and I had never seen anyone run the way he did, with powerful strides that were fluid and violent at the same time. As a young coach working with the outfielders, Rickey laughed easily and made me feel comfortable. I can’t believe he’s gone. He was one of a kind.”

Associated Press file photos

Billy Wagner, former Mets reliever

“RIP, there will never be anyone like Rickey Henderson. I’m in pure shock. Grew up wanting to be Rickey. Played against him and he was our Mets 1B coach. Truly a great player but a tremendous person. Thank you for Rickey Time.”

Jerry Blevins, former Mets, A’s reliever

“Rickey Henderson was an incredible man. A legend who was so much more approachable than his image would have you think. From playing cards in the clubhouse to picking his Hall of Fame mind about holding runners, Rickey would share his wealth of knowledge with ease. RIP Rickey.”

Pamela Henderson

“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of my husband, Rickey Henderson. A legend on and off the field, Rickey was a devoted son, dad, friend, grandfather, brother, uncle and a truly humble soul. Rickey lived his life with integrity, and his love for baseball was paramount. Now, Rickey is at peace with the Lord, cherishing the extraordinary moments and achievements he leaves behind.”

The National Baseball Hall of Fame

The Man of Steal … and so much more.

• 1,406 stolen bases –  1st all-time
• 2,129 unintentional walks – 1st all-time
• 2,295 runs scored – 1st all-time
• 81 leadoff home runs – 1st all time

The post The Baseball World Continues To Mourn Rickey Henderson appeared first on Metsmerized.

Regularly the smallest player on every organized team he played on, Collins realized that he could stand out by routinely playing harder than the rest.

Collins, 74, has spent over five decades in professional baseball. Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 19th round of the 1971 Major League Baseball Draft, he never appeared in the big leagues as a player. Collins soon understood that if he wanted to taste the life of a major leaguer, he would need to do so in a different way.

The baseball lifer worked his way up from managing in the minor leagues to earning a coaching spot with Jim Leyland’s Pittsburgh Pirates team before getting his first shot as a major league skipper with the Houston Astros in 1994. The Astros would go on to finish second in the N.L. Central in each of the three seasons Collins was at the helm. Houston fired him following the 1996 season, however, after the team went 8-17 in September and saw their division lead disappear.

Collins wasn’t out of work long though, as the Anaheim Angels named him the 15th manager in franchise history in November of 1996. The Angels won 84 and 85 games, respectively, in 1997 and 1998, but went a disappointing 51-82 in their first 133 games of the 1999 season. Despite receiving a contract extension midway through that campaign, Collins resigned as manager following a nine-game losing streak at the end of August. Stories of player unrest and a fractious clubhouse marred Collins’ tenure as Angels manager.

Following stints as an advance scout with the Chicago Cubs, bullpen and third base coach with the Tampa Bay Rays, field coordinator and director of player development with the Los Angeles Dodgers and manager for the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, Collins was hired by the New York Mets as their minor league field coordinator for the 2010 season.

Almost a year after the Mets brought Collins on, he was tasked with a new, yet familiar, responsibility: managing a ball club.

Collins returned to the dugout, becoming the 20th skipper in Mets history. He made a promise to himself to enjoy this time more and not make the same mistakes he did with the Astros and Angels.

In total, he was at the helm for seven seasons (2011-2017), becoming the second manager in franchise history to lead the club to back-to-back postseasons in 2015 and 2016 (joining Bobby Valentine). Collins is the longest-tenured manager in Mets history, managing 1,134 regular season games.

Recently, Collins joined X (formerly Twitter) and began a podcast with John Arezzi aptly called “The Terry Collins Show.” The weekly show features Collins bringing listeners behind the scenes of a major league clubhouse, along with hosting a variety of guests, including David Wright, R.A. Dickey and Daniel Murphy.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Collins over the phone, where we discussed his playing career, transitioning to managing and some of his memories from his time with the Mets.

MMO: Who were some of your favorite players growing up?

Collins: I grew up in Michigan, and Al Kaline was a big star with the Tigers. There was another player named Rocky Colavito who became a great player with the Tigers.

The Yankees won a lot back then, so I was a big Mickey Mantle fan.

One of the stations we listened to in Michigan had Milwaukee Braves baseball. I used to listen to the great Braves players like [Hank] Aaron and [Eddie] Mathews. The catcher’s name was Del Crandall, who I played for in the minor leagues. So that was cool.

MMO: You played all over the field throughout your minor league career. Were you always a versatile player?

Collins: I grew up playing just second base. I was always the smallest guy on every team I ever played. Second base was my position, and I only played a couple of games at shortstop in American Legion.

When I got to college, I made the team as a freshman. The first game we had was a doubleheader, and the second baseman on varsity got hurt. They brought me up for those two games, and I got six hits in the doubleheader.

The next day the coach asked me, “Can you play shortstop?” I told him yes. He said, “Well, meet me at the field,” and the following day I played shortstop against the University of Michigan. I ended up playing shortstop the rest of my career at Eastern Michigan.

MMO: You’ve always been known as an intense and fiery competitor. Do you remember when you first started displaying those traits?

Collins: Well, again, I’m a little guy. When I had to compete, if I was going to compete, I had to play hard. I played harder than anybody.

When I was a little boy, my mother got a phone call from one of my friend’s mothers. She said, “I don’t want Bobby playing with Terry anymore. He plays too hard.”

When my dad got home from work that night, my mom said to him, “You need to talk to Terry.” My dad asked, “Why?” She said, “One of the mothers called and said Terry plays too hard, and we need to talk to him.” My dad said, “I’ll talk to him.” She asked, “What are you going to tell him?” He said, “I’m going to tell him not to play with Bobby anymore.” [Laughs.]

MMO: When and how did the chance to manage in the minor leagues come about? 

Collins: It’s pretty funny. My first spring training, I saw Triple-A guys who were 29-30 years-old still playing. I wrote a letter to my mother that spring telling her there are guys who are 29 and 30 years old still playing in the minors. I told her I’m giving it three years, and if I’m not in the big leagues in three years, I’m going to go back and use my education. Fifty years later, I’m still doing it!

I kind of fell in love with the game. The one thing I always wanted to do was be a coach. When I went to the Dodgers organization from the Pirates, in spring training you would go into a backroom, and they had this little area where guys could get a beer. It was part of the complex. You would sit there and listen to [Sandy] Koufax, [Don] Drysdale, [Johnny] Podres, Maury Wills, Wes Parker, Walter Alston and [Tommy] Lasorda. They were always at spring training. You just sat there and absorbed as much information as you could.

When I was hoping I would get a chance to manage, as I said, I played for Del Crandall. I picked his brain because he was an outstanding minor league manager, great teacher, and great teacher of catching. Back then, you didn’t have any coaches in the minor leagues; it was just you. I had to learn how to teach catching, how to teach outfield play and how to work with the pitchers.

I picked the brains of those guys as much as I possibly could. I knew at some time I was going to have to use all of that information. It was the greatest education you could have.

MMO: It’s crazy to think there was a time where the only coach on a minor league time was the manager.

Collins: My first year managing, I’m in Lodi, California, and in the minors you have halves. So, the first half, our team wasn’t very good. Fernando Valenzuela burst onto the scene in Los Angeles, and he was throwing a screwball. There was an older pitcher the Dodgers had at one time named Jim Brewer, and Jim threw a screwball. The Dodgers hired him to go through the minor leagues and try to teach some guys that were average pitchers the screwball.

The first place he came was Lodi. He saw our pitching staff and said, “Terry, first of all, I’m going to teach them how to throw their fastballs for strikes. I’m not worried about the screwball. If they can’t throw their fastballs for strikes, the screwball is not going to help them.”

He turned our entire pitching staff around in three weeks. We ended up winning the second half and won the championship because Brewer came and taught my pitchers to throw strikes with their fastballs. That’s the kind of stuff you got the opportunity with. Again, this was my first year coaching by myself.

When I got to Triple-A, we had coaches; we had a pitching coach and third base coach. My pitching coach was Dave Wallace, who was one of the best pitching coaches for a long time and one of my best friends. He had to go home, and I’m the only guy who’s ever had Sandy Koufax as a pitching coach. Sandy used to roll through the minor leagues, and he came to Albuquerque when Dave was going to be gone. Sandy was my pitching coach for a day.

MMO: You can’t do much better than having Koufax offering his tutelage.

Collins: We were sitting on the bench and the game was going on, and I brought a pitcher in for the ninth. He walked the first guy, and I went, “God damn it!” And Sandy, sitting next to me, said, “Did you ever pitch?” I said, “No.” Then he said, “Well, it ain’t that easy.” I never, ever said that again! I learned a lesson in one little sentence. [Laughs.]

MMO: Can you talk a bit about the role Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland played in your development as a skipper?

Collins: Jim had a similar background as me. He only got to Double-A as a player; I spent six years in Triple-A. Neither of us got to the big leagues. Jim started managing at a young age and was stuck in the Tigers organization where Sparky [Anderson] was the manager, so Jim was going nowhere.

He was stuck in Triple-A and had a chance to go with Tony La Russa, but he wanted to be a Tiger; that’s all he wanted to do. Sparky wouldn’t hire him, so Jim ended up leaving. It was a very similar thing [for me]. Tommy [Lasorda] was the manager of the Dodgers, and he was never going to go until he decided he was going to. There was no place for me.

I had been managing in Albuquerque for six years as the Triple-A manager, and I had a chance to go to the Pittsburgh Pirates and manage their Triple-A team. I went to Pittsburgh and asked, ‘How do I get to the big leagues?’ I met Jim, and he liked me, and he brought me to the big leagues three years later. We had this relationship because of our backgrounds. He’s such an entertaining guy and funnier than heck.

In September, they started bringing the Triple-A manager up to the big leagues at the end of the season as part of the call-ups; they bring five, six, seven guys up in September. They started bringing the managers up so that you could help the coaches and the [minor league] manager knows about the [minor league] players. The other teams brought their minor league guys up who I saw [play]. So you could help.

When I got to the big leagues, Jim said to me, “Here’s your job: I want you to sit next to me on the bench during the games. I want you to throw batting practice to [Barry] Bonds, [Bobby] Bonilla and [Andy] Van Slyke. If I ever see you throwing batting practice to Tom Prince, I’m going to send you back to Triple-A. When the game’s over, I want you to come in, sit right over there in the corner, and listen to what kind of questions the sportswriters ask me and how I answer them. You don’t have to say the same things I say, but you need to hear the kind of questions you’re going to face.”

For the next number of years, that’s what I did. We’d sit on a plane together, and I’d ask questions about situations that happened in the game that night. He’s very upfront and blunt about it and would talk about it.

I asked him one time, ‘Jim, when you got the job in ’86 in Pittsburgh, what changes have you made to be the manager you are today?’ He looked off for a second and said, “Well, I’ll tell you, Terry. The biggest change I made was I write Barry Bonds’ name in a lineup now and not Jason Thompson’s.” [Laughs.]

MMO: There’s no better way to get acclimated to a future as a major league manager then getting to essentially shadow one as you did with Leyland.

Collins: Absolutely. They had a lockout one time, and Jim was in minor league spring training, so there were no big-league players at camp. The Triple-A manager ran spring training with the Pittsburgh organization at the time, so I ran spring training.

When it was over, Jim came over to me and said, “They opened up the camp for the big-league players. I don’t make promises but the next spot on my staff, you’re it.” That’s how I got my chance. I was really lucky, and we’ve just been very, very good friends. We stay in constant contact.

MMO: Are you planning on being in Cooperstown for his induction into the Hall of Fame this summer?

Collins: Yeah, absolutely.

MMO: I interviewed Ned Colleti several years ago, and he sang your praises during your time with the Dodgers as director of player development. He said when you left for Japan, he often missed your approach, intellect and honesty. What are your memories from your time with the Dodgers organization?

Collins: I was talking with Andy Green when he got the job with the Mets, and I told him that he’s the perfect guy. I told him he can make a huge impact on people. What helped me, Mathew, to be honest, I had already managed in the big leagues for six years. I had some situations with young players that got to the big leagues that failed miserably, and they were good players! It took them a while to get through it. That was one of the theories when I became the minor league director of Los Angeles was, look, I’m going to challenge my good players, and if they’re good enough they’ll get it and move faster.

I challenged Matt Kemp when he was 19; I put him in Double-A. He might have had a little problem in the beginning, but at the end of the year, he’s the best player in the league bar none.

My time with the Dodgers, Paul DePodesta was the GM, and when Jim Tracy was let go and I was going to get that job, Paul got fired two days before they were going to name me the manager. Ned got hired, and he came down to Florida to talk to me, and he said, “Look, you’re not going to get the job. I’m going to go with somebody else.” I said, “Okay.” And he said, “I don’t know what you want to do.” I told him, ‘I’m going to do what I always do: I’m just going to do my job.’

But I didn’t mope; shit happens! I stayed on and tried to help Ned as best I could and was always there and calling about different things. I had a great relationship with him, but I had a chance to go to Japan [to manage] for a lot of money, and I couldn’t turn that down. That’s why I left.

MMO: How would you compare baseball in Japan vs. the States?

Collins: The whole game’s different. Number one, they are fundamentally off the charts; tremendous cut-offs and relays. They can lay down the best bunts you’ll ever see, they can run the bases – they don’t steal a lot – but they run the bases great. They play to score one run and they play to protect one run. It might be the top of the first inning, and a guy’s on third base with one out and they’re bringing that infield in. They’re not giving up runs. You’re going to have to get a hit to earn a run; that’s how they play.

They have a tremendous work ethic. I mean, the pitchers with 200-pitch bullpens between starts, and hitters will take 500 swings before a game. They trained themselves and want to make the game easier so they get themselves into tremendous shape. They run and run and run and run!

You go to spring training, and they don’t have the number of fields we have over here, but spring training starts at nine in the morning and you’re off the field at six. You have dinner, and then the players get their bats and go out in the parking lot and swing. The rookies went to a room at the hotel and had night batting where they used wiffle balls. It’s pretty intense. It’s always go, go, go!

They have a day off or two every week, they play 144 games, but there’s a number of off days. They take the bullet trains, or they’ll take an easy flight, which are only an hour and ten minutes.

They’re very sound players. All of their pitchers throw the ball over the plate. Here, we like strike one and then expand the zone. They do almost the opposite. They nibble the outside corner and see if you’ll swing at it. If you don’t, they’ll throw it over. They don’t like to strikeout, so those guys will put the ball in play. They’ll hit that borderline pitch. They may not hit it good, but if you really work the count, you’re going to get a good ball to hit.

When I got over there, Bobby Valentine told me, “Terry, you’re not going to like the cut-offs or relays, but leave them alone because they do it.” Mathew, in all my years in the United States, I have never seen a guy tag up at third base on a fly ball to the outfield and try to score where the ball is cut off and relayed to home never be thrown out. I saw it three times in Japan! They are so good at it. Every cut off is perfectly thrown.

MMO: Did you take anything you learned in Japan and bring it back to the States when you were managing the Mets?

Collins: Not really. I saw a thing the other day that Carlos [Mendoza] was saying we took infield. Well, you know, in all my years in New York, we took infield. You know how they used to take it after batting practice? We took it before. When we were at home, our guys threw to the bases twice during a homestand. The outfielders loved it. You had [Yoenis] Céspedes and [Juan] Lagares, who both had tremendous arms. It was like a challenge of who was going to make the better throw.

Tommy Goodwin was my outfield coach, and those guys loved him. We took infield/outfield most every day. Those fundamentals in Japan, I remember I took an American coach over and a scout asked him one day before the game, “You guys going to take infield?” And John said, “Let me think, this is our hundredth game, and we’ve taken infield one-hundred times. Yeah, we’ll take it again.” [Laughs.]

I liked it. You make it easy because they want to take ground balls anyway. We came out 15 minutes early before we started hitting, and guys got all of their defensive work in. Now, if you want to take some balls off the bat during batting practice, that was fine. It eliminated guys getting hit because they were catching a ground ball while someone was taking BP. It really helped out, and I thought it was a big difference, so I brought that over.

Their batting practices at home [in Japan], have two cages going; they have a right-handed pitcher and a left-handed pitcher. You just go from cage to cage. It’s tremendous! They have routines, man. I saw [Yu] Darvish when he was 19. I saw [Masahiro] Tanaka when he was 17. They were electric, and both threw between starts. They would throw 150 pitches in the bullpen because that would make their game easier when they got to 120. That was their theory. But you couldn’t bring that here. You’d never get an American guy to do that.

MMO: The July 29, 2015, game is one fans will likely never forget with the sight of Wilmer Flores crying on the field believing he had been traded. What memories stick out for you from that night, and how did you go about managing a game that clearly had so much off-the-field speculation going on?

Collins: It was during the trade deadline, and Wilmer’s name was never mentioned; Sandy did that stuff himself. I’m just standing in the dugout and the game’s going on, and Wilmer was on deck, and some fans were yelling good luck and we love you. I’m going, “What the heck is that?”

David [Wright] came up to me and said, “Terry, it’s all over TV. He’s been traded.” I said, ‘David, he has not been traded.’ He said, “I’m telling you they’re broadcasting right now on TV; he’s been traded.” I said, “David, this guy has not been traded. You see that phone right there?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, ‘That phone goes to Sandy. If there’s a deal done, that phone would be ringing, and I’d be taking him out of the game.”

Now people are telling Wilmer he’s been traded, and he’s upset. I walked down the dugout to him, and I said, “Hey, let’s go. You’re on this team. You have not been traded. You’ve got to go out and play.” He goes out, and sure enough, he starts crying on the field. As he comes in off the field, I went over to him, and at the time, I think he was the only shortstop I had who was healthy. I said, “Look, you’ve got to finish this game, man. You’re fine, you’re still a Met. You’re not going anywhere.”

He went back, and he’s still crying on the field. The next thing you know, the phone rings, and it’s Sandy. And he said, “You’ve got to take Wilmer out.” I asked, ‘Is he traded?’ He said, “No, but he’s crying on the field!” So, he came back in, and I got him out, and sure enough, he wasn’t traded. I didn’t know what else to do. I told him, ‘Wilmer, if you were traded, I would’ve been told, and I would’ve taken you out of the game. You are a Met. Everything’s going to be okay.’

Sure enough, it ended up being okay. And that’s why, Mathew, two days later he hit that home run against the Nationals that couldn’t have been written. You can’t read a Hollywood script better than that.

MMO: Your “To who? For What” postgame comment will forever be etched in my brain. I always loved watching your pre and postgame press conferences because you were very transparent.

Collins: Absolutely, Mathew, and I’m going to go back to Jim Leyland. Right when I got my interview with the Houston Astros, I called Jim and said, ‘I’m going to go to Houston tomorrow and interview for the manager job.’ He said, “I’ll meet you at the stadium.” I was living in Pittsburgh, and we went to the stadium and I spent six hours with him. He just talked about all these different questions that I was going to face and different things.

One of the things he said was, “Listen, I’m going to tell you right now, you treat every reporter as if they’re the sports editor of The New York Times. There are no dumb questions, but if you’re hit with one, treat it like any other question. Don’t belittle the guy, just answer the question.”

When I got to the Mets, Jay Horwitz was the guy who told me, “Terry, one of the best things you can do is learn everybody’s name.” When I did these press conferences and if Mike Puma asked me a question, I would say, “Well, you know Mike…” Now his name is tied to that question.

There were some questions asked by some young guys or people from a different team or something that didn’t make much sense and all the writers would laugh. I didn’t laugh; I just answered the question. I thought that really helped, not to belittle any reporter. They have a job to do, and I respect it.

The only thing I ever asked of these guys was not to lie. Don’t make something up. It’s your opinion and strictly your opinion; that’s fine. There were a couple of times where there was an unnamed source that says this. I would go to them and say, “I know you won’t tell me who it was that said it, but how do I know you just didn’t make that up? Maybe you just said this is what I think, and I’m going to put it down and say somebody else said it.” I always did that one-on-one, I never did it in front of any of the other writers.

After your press conference, you’ve got to budget two minutes for almost every one of those guys; they all want their own two minutes. They’d ask a question or two for their own stories that they don’t want out there. That’s why I try and tell anybody that’s ever managed in New York that you’ve got to understand to budget your time for these guys and answer their questions. Don’t blow them off because they’ve got the pen, and they can make it miserable for you. Just treat them with respect, and that’s about it. I thought it helped me out a lot.

MMO: How beneficial was the Matrix during the 2015 season?

Collins: It was just coming into play then. I think it was a great coaching tool, I think it’s really good for coaches to use. The players can get overwhelmed with information, and their job is to go play. As a coach or manager, you take that information and try to use it to your benefit to put those guys in the best position to succeed. We didn’t flood them with a bunch of information; I just didn’t like it. Number one, most of them have played a long time, I had a pretty veteran club. The last thing I want to do is put stuff in their head.

I remember one time when I was in Anaheim, Tim Salmon, who’s a great, great player, somebody on the team said, “Hey, I’ve got the signs. Do you guys want them? If I’m on base I can tell you what’s coming.” And Tim said, “I do not want to know. I’m fine.” I asked him after the game was over why that was, and he said, “Terry, if he’s wrong, it’ll screw me up mentally. Let me just figure it out.” I thought that made sense.

They used it (analytics) a lot in Japan. In interleague play in Japan, you can have your advance scout on the bench with you. The other team brought in a pitcher, so this advance scout got up and talked to my rookie shortstop, who was a pretty nice player, and said, “There’s a thirty percent chance you’re going to get this, another thirty percent chance you’re going to get this pitch, a twenty-five percent chance you’re going to get this pitch.” You’ve got to be shitting me! [Laughs.] Go up there, and if you get a fastball, hit it!

You’ve got to filter it. I thought our coaches did a great job of using that information for their benefit to help the players and not try to overwhelm them.

MMO: One of the moments I’ll always remember is when SNY caught the shot of you going over and putting your arm around Jacob deGrom in the dugout after he gave up eight earned runs against the Texas Rangers in 2017. Do you remember some of the things you relayed to deGrom in that moment?

Collins: First of all, everybody saw how talented Jake was. Great talent. He was the best pitcher we had. There were times Matt [Harvey] was the best, or [Noah] Syndergaard might have been the best, but Jake was our guy.

I remember years ago, Walter Alston told me when I first started managing, “Terry, there are two kinds of players. There are the ones who have been humbled, and ones who will be humbled in this game.” And that was what I pretty much told Jake. Everybody’s going to have a bad day. [Sandy] Koufax had a bad day; Bob Feller had a bad day. He had a bad day. You’ve got to be able to forget about it, because in four days you’re going back out there, big boy. Blow it off, tip your cap and say I’ll see you in four days.

That was just a moment where you could look back and say, guess way? Welcome to the game. It’s not easy out there. That’s why guys who compete like he did, it can cause that humbleness that a player needs once in a while to realize the game is not easy. I thought that was a coaching chance for me to tell Jake that he’s still the guy. You’re going to be just fine, you had a bad night and move on.

MMO: Does a day go by where someone doesn’t mention the ass in the jackpot game?

Collins: You know what? It’s become part of me, it really has!

I live in St. Lucie, and I belong to a golf course where three quarters of the members are New Yorkers. During this time of year, people come down and they’ll come out and somebody will introduce me. And that’s the first thing they’ll bring up!

I have a friend who’s a golf pro at the pro shop, and every time I walk in the first thing I hear is, “Give us a shot! Gotta give us a shot!” So there’s not a day.

MMO: It still baffles me that Adam Hamari had such a quick trigger when it came to Syndergaard’s pitch behind Chase Utley.

Collins: That was my argument. Do you remember John McSherry? Great, big umpire. He actually died on the field in Cincinnati. He was a long-time umpire, and we had a fight in Houston. When the fight finally stopped, I went over to him, and he’s writing down names of guys he’s going to kick out. He never looked up; he was just writing names down. He said to me, “You get one shot. You get the first guy in the batter’s box and then I’m going to put an end to this.”

Four years later, I’m managing the Angels, and we get in a big fight in Kansas City. Don Denkinger said exactly the same thing to me when all the stuff stopped finally. He said, “You get the first guy and it’s over with.” This was the first time we saw Utley, and I was shocked. That’s why when Tom [Hailon] said, “You had a shot,” no we didn’t! This was it! That was my whole argument. I wasn’t mad at Tom; we didn’t get the chance to get Utley and that’s what I was upset about.

MMO: What advice would Terry Collins in his final year as manager in 2017 give to first-year manager Terry Collins in 1994?

Collins: Enjoy the game more. I took it real serious, that’s why I rubbed people the wrong way. I’m a pretty intense guy, you know, when I played, I was intense. I had an old manager tell me one time, “Players will take on the personality of the manager.” I really respected the game. I wasn’t a good enough player, but there wasn’t a time that I didn’t play as hard as I could. Not one day.

One year I broke my jaw, and seven days later with my jaw wired shut, I was in the lineup. I was playing with a pair of pliers in my pocket in case I got sick so I could snip the wires off. You just played; you played as hard as you could. I always thought you had to respect the game. If it wasn’t for baseball, what would we all be doing? Give it back, give it back effort. And for some people that rubbed them the wrong way. And I understood it. Shoot, I apologized to a lot of players.

Garret Anderson was a really good player, but he was one of those guys who didn’t run every ball out. One time I went up to him and asked, “Do you have a problem with me?” He said, “Absolutely not. You’re wound a little too tight for me, but I know you want to win, and I have no problem with that.” I told him okay, and that I just wanted to make sure because he’s going to be playing, he’s going to be in the lineup every day.

There are times where you’ve got to take a stance on something. It might rub a player the wrong way, but I just think that’s the way the game should be played and managed.

When I went to New York, I told myself that I’ve got to start enjoying the game more. I’ve got to enjoy my time because these jobs are hard to get. I’ve got good players, and there’s nothing more fun than going out with the best players in the world and competing. So, I told myself I’ve got to enjoy it, and that’s how I went about it in New York.

MMO: Tell me about joining X and starting a podcast. What can fans expect from “The Terry Collins Show”?

Collins: John Arezzi called me about it, and I had absolutely no idea I was going to do it. I’m not a big social media guy, and I’m too old to get on that stuff. But I just want to have some fun with it.

As you said earlier in the conversation, I’m an honest guy. I think there are things the fans might want to know about with the actions during a game or what goes on behind the scenes. The more they know the more they’ll enjoy the game. I want to have some fun and have guests on and talk about their careers.

I’ve got a buddy who’s a bookie, and one of the shows is going to be about gambling in sports, especially baseball. It’s just something to have some fun with and to relate to the fans. I’ve never been big enough in the game to think that I don’t have a relationship with the fans. I respect that. I try and say hi to everyone and take pictures. It takes ten seconds to sign an autograph, and that ten seconds means a lot to people.

MMO: When you look back over your fifty years in the sport, what are you most proud of?

Collins: That’s a tough one. I guess I’m most proud that I lasted for fifty years. After I signed, three years later I was released. I loved the sport and endured enough through all of the years, rode a lot of buses and didn’t make much money for a long, long time. I still respected and loved the game enough that it was fun, and it was all I wanted to do. So, I stayed with it.

I stayed with what I wanted to do and made a life. I took the ups and downs and tried to be the same guy every day. I think baseball teaches that.

Follow Terry Collins on Twitter, @TerryCollins_10.

Check out Terry’s podcast here.

The post MMO Exclusive: Former Mets Manager, Terry Collins appeared first on Metsmerized.

Granderson, 42, was an easy player to root for, no matter what team he was on. As congenial as they come, the left-handed hitter posted a 47.2 fWAR for his sixteen-year major league career and was a true ambassador for the sport on and off the field.

Selected in the third round of the 2002 MLB Draft by the Detroit Tigers out of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Granderson didn’t expect to make the majors. In fact, he believed that he would spend two or three years in the minors before getting released to pursue other interests, be it in sports marketing or teaching, like both of his parents.

Fast forward to 2007, in which Granderson became the first player since Willie Mays in 1957 to tally at least 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a season. In his second full season in the majors, Granderson posted the fourth-highest fWAR among position players in ’07 with a 7.9 mark and finished tenth in the M.V.P vote in the American League.

The affable Granderson made his way to the New York Mets following the 2013 season. After spending the previous four seasons across town with the New York Yankees, in which Granderson recorded back-to-back 40+ home run seasons in 2011-12, he inked a four-year, $60 million deal with the Mets in December 2013.

The ‘Grandy Man’ was incredibly durable with the Mets, playing in at least 150 games in each of his first three seasons with the club. Granderson’s best season came in 2015, in which he led the Mets in fWAR (5.3), games played (157) and hits (150), while second in home runs (26).

En route to the Mets’ first division title since 2006, Granderson posted an OPS of .898 in the second half of the ’15 season, with a 151 wRC+ (tied for 16th-highest among 123 hitters with a min. 250 plate appearances).

In 14 postseason games in ’15, Granderson produced an .866 OPS. His three home runs in the World Series tied Donn Clendenon (1969) for the most homers in a single Fall Classic in franchise history.

Following the 2019 season, Granderson announced his retirement. A Roberto Clemente Award recipient, a four-time Marvin Miller Man of the Year, a three-time All-Star and Silver Slugger winner, Granderson left an indelible mark on the game of baseball.

Beyond the recognition on the field, Granderson remains an incredible representative off it.

From his Grand Kids Foundation, founded in 2007 to provide educational and athletic opportunities to kids, to his broadcasting assignment for TBS’s Tuesday Night Baseball, to being the board chair of the Players Alliance, a nonprofit comprised of active and former players focused on building equitable systems in order to change the trajectory of diversity throughout baseball, Granderson has continued to keep busy and focus his time on important issues.

I had the privilege of interviewing Granderson over the phone, where he discussed juggling academics and athletics, his time with the Mets, friendship with Lucas Duda and his work outside of the game.

MMO: Both of your parents were educators. How did your parents have you balance academics and athletics growing up?

Granderson: They laid the groundwork that I had to get my schoolwork done first in order to participate in different activities. That was the priority.

A lot of people ask if I had to get straight A’s or if I had to be on the honor roll. They didn’t need that, per se. As long as they spoke to a teacher and I put forth the effort required and there wasn’t, he didn’t turn this in, or I know he can do more, then they were fine.

I got a D one time in Spanish II, and I was like, ‘Mom, Dad, you know it’s not me. This class is really bad. It’s the one class that doesn’t have air conditioning. It’s the summer, and every other class in the foreign language hall is doing these cool cultural experiences.’

Our whole class had Cs and Ds. That was the only time I got a really bad grade, and they were okay with it. It was getting your work done first, and then you could enjoy all the different activities.

MMO: Is it true you grew up an Atlanta Braves fan — even though you lived in Chicago — due to the timing of “Saved by the Bell” on television?

Granderson: It is! At that time, “Saved by the Bell” was on WGN, except for when the Cubs would play; they played a majority of day games. I’d be excited to come home, and nope, the Cubs would be on. It was like, Man, I missed my show!

The timing of the Braves being so good led me to TBS, and I could watch baseball at night. A combination of “Saved by the Bell” not being on, the Braves being on at a time that made more sense for me, and the Braves being good was a perfect recipe for me to become a Braves fan.

MMO: I have to test how big a fan you are. Did you also watch “Saved by the Bell: The College Years”?

Granderson: I did! The one thing I missed live was Zack and Kelly’s wedding. I forgot why I missed that, but I ended up seeing it.

Even before that, I watched the beginning when it was “Good Morning, Miss Bliss,” before it became “Saved by the Bell.” I loved every bit of it!

MMO: Can you tell me what the phrase ‘Don’t Think, Have Fun’ means to you?

Granderson: It was coined in combination with my head coach, Mike Dee, from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He was in his second year as head coach of baseball, which was my first year there.

One of the things he said to me early on in my college career was, “You’re very analytical. You can think with the best of them, but I don’t want you to overthink it. Just trust your ability. Go out there and have fun.”

That stuck with me because I would have a day where I would do something successful and still try to find something. I would nitpick a bit. He said, “No, trust what you’ve been doing and go out there and do it.”

From that moment, I started writing it underneath my hat as a constant reminder because you’re constantly taking your hat off throughout the game, so you can look at it. That was a good spot for me to have it.

I used it all the way through my career because the game is hard and challenging enough. Why add more? It’s supposed to be the same game that you were playing when you first started and fell in love with it. As long as you can do that, you’ll have fun doing it. That’s when you tend to be at your best.

I always try to relay that message to younger players: As long as you can put forth the work, then you can trust it. When you put forth the work, you get the results. When you get the results, you have fun. And when you’re having fun, you want to perform.

It all goes in cycle, right? That’s when you end up just enjoying it. It was a good reminder for me.

MMO: You mentioned being analytical. Were you someone who embraced the metrics throughout your playing career?

Granderson: I feel like it came out of the storm, but then there was no one there to explain it to you. Either up on the scoreboard or you have a meeting where they would say that you need to improve in a certain stat. But there wasn’t any follow up in terms of this is why it’s important. If you do these things, this will increase these numbers and, therefore, hopefully results in this.

I feel like that part has been, and still kind of is, missing a bit. I’ll see stats pop up, and I have no idea what it means. Even when I look at it and go, Okay, I know a bigger number is better, but how do I get a bigger number? What does that mean once I do get a bigger number? Am I actually doing something better than something else?

WAR was a very popular one right away towards the middle part of my career. I would always ask people how WAR is defined defensively. No one would give me an answer, and I still don’t know how to define it defensively. There are also two or three different WARs, so which one is the most accurate? Then there’s the wRC+ and OPS+, and you start adding these plus symbols on different things.

It’s very unique because if you look at some of the analytic numbers that have come out, they’ve been able to backtrack it to players that played way before this time and throw it on them. And that’s an interesting question. Just thinking defensively, do we know for players that played when there was no TV and all that stuff the range they had? All we know is putouts, attempts and errors. So how do we accurately quantify it?

This isn’t me saying I’m against it; I definitely think there’s a place for it. I just think there needs to be a better job of explaining it, especially to the younger players.

For the longest it was, if I got more hits, my average goes up. Okay, I know that. If I walk, my on-base goes up; if I don’t make an error, my fielding percentage stays higher. I knew those different things. Ultimately, those things would lead me to being a better player, helping our team get a chance to win, or once you start playing professionally, start to make more money.

MMO: You hit the free agent market for the first time after the 2013 season. What was going through that process like, and what made you ultimately sign with the Mets?

Granderson: It was unique because I was finally getting the chance to get close to that point. I had just come off of a solid 2011-2012. I was like, If everything continues to stay in place in 2013, the offseason could be very exciting.

I got hurt twice; I get hit in the hands in the first at-bat of spring training, and then I came back, and I got hit eight days later in the hand and missed more time. I only played a fraction of a season (61 games).

That changed a couple of things for me in terms of the outfielders who were going to be free agents. I think it was Jacoby Ellsbury, Shin-Soo Choo, myself; I think we were the top three. My stock fell because I was hurt.

We’re going through it, and the Mets reached out, and I started talking about a couple of different things. What’s interesting in the baseball landscape, the American League and the National League, up until this year, even with interleague play, you don’t really know what’s going on with the other side because you don’t play them nearly as much. Yes, you have your natural rivals, so we had the Subway Series. Whether it was a four-game or six-game series, in the grand scheme of 162, you didn’t really focus on them too much and vice versa.

I didn’t know a ton about the Mets. I played the Mets in interleague in ’07 with the Tigers and in the Subway Series during my time with the Yankees. Over the course of 2004, when I debuted, to 2013, I only played against them four times and maybe in spring training.

I played against David Wright in the minor leagues, so I knew he was there. After that, it was like, I really don’t know much about them. I met with Sandy Alderson, and we got a chance to chat and talk about things. The conversation started moving forward, and I was like, You know what? I’ve been in New York for four years. I’m very familiar with it when we play in the Subway Series; I would just drive to Citi Field. I’m used to getting to and from, and it’s not too complicated. I think this could be a good fit.

Everything kind of aligned that way, and the Mets became my first free agent home.

MMO: Something I’ll always remember during your time with the Mets is your friendship with Lucas Duda. The wefollowlucasduda Instagram account was amazing. Can you talk about your relationship with Duda, and how that account came about?

Granderson: We were locker mates. With him being a left-handed hitter, we would talk a lot in the cage or during the game. One of the things I always try to communicate to younger players is look at the other players in the lineup that are similar to you, whether you’re a right-handed batter, switch hitter or a left-handed batter. There’s a good chance they’re (the pitchers) probably doing very similar things to that batter that they are to you. That could help you throughout the course of a game.

Sure enough, with Duda and I, we would watch each other and talk about things. What do you see? What do you feel? What’s going on? That’s how our relationship started.

Duda’s very quiet; he stays to himself and doesn’t say too much. At this time, I think Instagram, in terms of being viral, just started to become a big thing. The number of players who would enter a team that already had social media or the number of players that were starting to jump on was skyrocketing. But there were still a lot of them who swore they would never get it.

Daniel Muno, John Mayberry and myself were like, let’s make an account for Duda. That’s how it started. It wasn’t even the plan to grow followers; it was to make one for him because he didn’t have it and didn’t want one. We became this invasive paparazzi crew that would follow him and antagonize him.

I think it was helpful because it kept him loose and relaxed because he can overthink with the best of them, just like me. We got to keep the game fun and do all these different things. It’s amazing how quickly the followers jumped. We got to 100,000 followers in a matter of a couple of months! And then people wanted more.

I think it’s (the account) still out there, but I don’t think anything has been posted recently. It’s funny how that came to be. But it helped not only him but the clubhouse stay loose because other players started trying to sneak pictures of him and give them to me and give me a chance to post.

I did one that was really good and he begged me not to post it. And I never did it. I caught him one time in the bathroom, and he was in the stall. I went into the stall next to him. I stood on top of the toilet and went over the top and took a picture of him. [Laughs.] I was ready to post it, but he was like, “No, please don’t post it!” That’s one that was deleted, and no one got a chance to see it.

MMO: I love how this became a team effort.

Granderson: It was amazing. Everyone was like, “Oh, I got this!” And then I’d say, ‘The quality isn’t good.’

I became a photo editor and social media person where I’d say, ‘That’s not good enough. I need five seconds of video. I need this, I need that.’ My team was out there going to work.

MMO: Only two Mets in franchise history have hit three homers in a single World Series: Donn Clendenon in 1969, and you in 2015. What memories stand out from that Fall Classic?

Granderson: It was fun to see Citi Field rocking. It was exciting that it happened my second year there. Although I had signed there, I knew there wasn’t a lot of anticipation for us to be as good as we were that fast.

Here we are on the biggest stage, the final two teams standing, and we have a chance to do something that hadn’t been done in a very long time. The energy was through the roof! It was exciting and loud. If we just would’ve won Game One… there are a number of factors that played into that. Alex Gordon extending and putting the game into extra innings and then ultimately winning the game, but we forget how that game started: they had the inside-the-park home run (Alcides Escobar), and then we came back and took the lead.

If we win that one, I’d definitely give the Royals Game Two because they just outplayed us. Now we come back to Citi Field being tied one-one versus being down zero to two. It’s a different mindset.

It’s the same thing with my hat: don’t think, have fun. I had been in the postseason and the World Series in ’06, and I put way too much pressure on myself. I made it a point to say, ‘I don’t care what happens; I’m going to have as much fun out there as possible.’

I feel like that let me go out there and do some of the things you quoted statistically. When we were down three games to one before our last game at Citi Field, Kevin Long, our hitting coach, called a hitter’s meeting. We went in the cage, and he wanted to see where everyone was at and what we were thinking. I sat there and said, ‘Isn’t this fun? We have a chance to do something that’s only been done a couple of times. Let’s go out there and have a ton of fun and just see what happens.’

In that game, I led off with another home run. Unfortunately, we ended up not getting the win to extend the Series. It was still fun! Of course, we wanted to win it, which would’ve been even more fun. I enjoyed every moment of it. You don’t get a chance to be there often, so you have to take advantage of it. I made sure I did.

MMO: In the 2016 Wild Card Game, you made one of the best catches I’ve ever seen in center in the top of the sixth. You covered a ton of ground running back and somehow kept the trajectory of the ball in your view. What are your memories from that play?

Granderson: Hitting the wall and just being able to get up. It’s funny; prior to that, I talked about how loud the place can be, but there are times where I don’t hear anything. I’m going back for a ball and don’t hear anything; hit a home run, don’t hear anything; run for a triple, don’t hear anything. I just go deaf.

Very similar to that situation, I just remember thinking, He got this one over my head. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed as a center fielder was going back on the ball. I feel like that was my strength versus coming in. When given the opportunity, I tried to play as shallow as I could because that was my strength.

Sure enough, here’s a ball over my head, and now it’s time for me to go back. I could sense the wall was coming on, and I was like, This is going to hurt. But it’s zero-zero, and if I don’t try this, it’s going to bounce off the wall and going to be at least a double, maybe a triple. That could be the game-winning run, so let me go.

When I hit, I was like, Okay, my shoulder feels fine, wrist feels fine, I can breathe. I finally started to hear the crowd at that point as we start to come off the field. But prior to that, I was like, Let me get us to the playoffs. If I get hurt on it, this is the one chance to do it to keep us in the ballgame.

But it wasn’t enough. We didn’t have enough star power. Even if we win that game, I don’t know if we had enough at that point of the year in 2016 to keep going further. A lot of our pitching was hurt, and we were scraping by and doing enough. At that point, I think we would have been exposed if we were to move forward.

MMO: Along with your playing career, you were also a big leader with the Players Association, and won four Marvin Miller Man of the Year Awards. Can you talk about how important it was to be involved with the MLBPA?

Granderson: I kind of got pushed into that in 2006, my first full year with the Tigers. It was an election year for the team, and every two years I think it is, the team votes for their main team rep and alternate rep.

So it’s my first full year in the big leagues, and someone recommended me, and then they seconded me. I’m looking around thinking, What does that mean? All of a sudden, I’m in this position. I thought, If I’m in this position, let me figure out what I can do.

At the end of the season, I went to my first union meeting in the winter. At the time, the head of the players’ union was Michael Weiner, and I had no idea what was being talked about. It was the first time I heard words like collusion, arbitration, all these different things. I was just thinking, Let me ask some questions and not look too odd.

I started going year after year after year and started understanding a bit more. I started understanding the importance of asking more questions while also being able to take that information and give it back to my teammates. Or, if someone called and had a question, I can try to break it down for them. If I didn’t know the answer, I can point them in the right direction to get the feedback.

I pride myself on that because you have fun in this game, you enjoy it, get into it, and then there’s a lot of the business of the game where again, you just don’t know. We talked about the statistical side and that stuff’s not really explained to you, well, same thing with your playing career.

I had this conversation with one of the staff members at Turner. I’m talking to Jimmy Rollins, and I said, ‘The Padres just DFA’d Nelson Cruz.’ One of the staff members went, “What does that mean?” And again, not saying that the staff member is supposed to know that, but I think most people don’t know what that means. And what that means for you and your career, or what arbitration means, or what exactly free agency means or what options mean.

You see a player and get mad about why he got sent down. Why did my favorite player get sent down? We have these emotional responses, but we don’t understand the reasoning behind it. That’s where understanding what the union is for and what has been collectively bargained is important.

I have some former teammates that are now in real estate, and they’re in Chicago. We have two teams here, so a lot of players have either signed here, were traded here, or started a new career here, and they’re looking for a place. I’ll try to connect them, and this is someone who played pro ball and is constantly asking me, “What happens if a player gets sent down? What happens if a player gets traded but they’re in a lease?”

That language is in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It’s amazing how few people know what that stuff means. I took pride in gathering the information and passing that along.

To be acknowledged with the Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award is just a sign of what the players and the game thought of me from that standpoint. I appreciate them because they’re the ones voting for it. I always tried to do my best to improve the scenarios for the players that were there and provide as much information as I could.

MMO: Talk to me about your foundation. When did you initially start it, and what is the mission?

Granderson: In 2007, I’m in Detroit, and I got approached about starting a foundation. I heard about foundations, but again, it’s one of those things that I didn’t know what all went into it. They told me to find something I like and go for it. I said, ‘Education, that’s important.’ I remember people asking, why education? And I said, ‘That’s important to me.’

This is when the Wounded Warrior Project was going on, a lot of the military-focused initiatives were front and center. I didn’t have a passion for that like I do education. So I went for it.

The name Grand Kids plays off my last name and kids being in school. The education side of it was started, and obviously, using baseball as a vehicle because that’s what I was involved in that I could hopefully use as a character. Like, here’s a baseball player telling me that school is fun and important. Let me listen to that player tell me that stuff.

At the time in Detroit, the high school graduation rate was at fifty percent. That stood out to me, and I wanted to do something around that. We started with education and baseball, trying to get kids active. I was able to join Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to help fight childhood obesity. We got kids moving around and started all these different initiatives.

Fast forward to where we are now; we have food and insecure issues that we tackle here in my hometown of Chicago. I’ve done that in a bunch of different places with the food bank from New York and for one of the hurricanes in Houston. We were able to help with No Kid Hungry, which has national reach.

The good thing about playing for seven different teams is I got a chance to be in all of these different areas, including Canada. I realized that even though I might not be there full-time, I could still do something and not physically have to be there. That’s kind of how Grand Kids has evolved.

It’s amazing to say that it’s been going on for 15+ years. Who knows what the future is going to look like? As long as we continue to help out in some form or fashion and give kids an opportunity, that’s what I’m all about.

MMO: The Players Alliance was formed in the wake of the horrific killing of George Floyd in 2020, and is aimed to help build Black participation in baseball. Can you talk about your role in the Players Alliance, and some of the work the nonprofit does to help spur participation?

Granderson: I became the board chair and timing and I guess my position in the game aligned pretty well from that. I just retired, so I was still very much connected to the active players. C.C. Sabathia just retired, he’s our vice president. And then Edwin Jackson is our founding board chair. We had a good connection to the current players and the up-and-coming players. We were also connected to some of the older veteran players, players that had taken us under their wing, like Dmitri Young, Ken Griffey Jr., Ellis Burks, to name a few.

It was a good bridge because it was a conversation that had already started 18 years ago, 30 years ago, but now we were able to bring it together because there was nothing going on at that time. Baseball wasn’t happening. Covid was happening, and the George Floyd situation happened. Most people were just at home and able to be connected to this new and exciting thing that not many people knew about via Zoom.

For example, in 2008, I think it was, there were about 40 of us that all met in New York at the time. Frank Robinson was there, Tony Clark, C.C., Dontrelle Willis, Dmitri Young, a bunch of players. We had talked about very similar things to what the Players Alliance had become. I know players and generations before with Dave Winfield and all those players back then talked about it too, but life was happening. Let’s get together next year. Let’s get together this time next year. I can’t. I’m busy. I thought I had this. I’m injured. I’m free.

The timing of 2020, there was nowhere to go. We wanted to do more than just, if you remember at that time, everything was about, let’s take a stance on social media and post an orange square, a black square. I was like, This isn’t enough. We’ve got to do a little more than that. We’ve been talking about this, let’s see what we can do.

We’ve been trying to identify what have been some of the causes of why Black participation has gone down so much at the pro level, the college level and in the front office. We’re starting to realize that poverty has been one of the biggest barriers, or the lack of ability to afford certain things in this space. It’s not just the Black issue. It started and was founded by Black players, but this has affected so many different players.

When you look at the number of kids that play baseball up until the age of 12, the numbers are high here in the U.S. The most recent stat I saw was anywhere between two and three million kids play. But as soon as you jump into 13 and 14, you lose about one-to-two million kids. As of 2021, this was by “Sports and Fitness Industry Associations,” the baseball participation was at 3.67 million players ages six to twelve. Between the ages of 13 and 17, that number drops to 1.9 million.

You start looking and ask, why is there such a big drop? First, people look at the field finally gets bigger, and the failure rate starts to go up a bit. Okay, that’s part of it. But at the same time, this is where travel ball becomes such a big thing. I’ve seen travel ball as young as eight years old, which doesn’t make any sense to me. At the same time, when it can start to make sense is when you get to 13U, or 14U, or 15U or 16U, I think there is space for it there. But the risk of cost associated with it, now you’ve alienated a lot of kids, especially kids that just want to play.

There is a family that I’ve grown up with where they communicate with me about their sons playing. They said, “We’re at a point now where we’re thinking about getting a motor home because all these hotels we constantly have to go to. It might be more affordable for us to go ahead and have this motor home. At least we don’t have to pay for all these different hotel rooms.’

Times have changed where you don’t just send your kids out, it’s a whole family gathering. So this is multiple rooms and multiple weekends. We’re trying to address those barriers with the Players Alliance by making accessibility affordable, especially if kids are being carded, scouted or recruited. And the only thing that’s keeping them from going is cost. Let’s try to find some workaround to do that. Once you start to get more of these players into that wheelhouse of playing more, now there’s more exposure, more recruitment. There’s more possibility to go on to the next level, whatever that happens to be.

The same thing moving into the education space, looking at opportunities to define whether it’s internships, entry-level jobs. It’s different spaces like that to provide opportunities, not handouts, just more opportunities because there is more demand.

I think that gets mixed up when people say there’s no interest. I think there’s definitely interest, but at the same time, you have to make a decision: can I afford this? If the answer is no, then I have to shift what it is I want to do, not because I’m not interested. I just can’t afford it.

MMO: When you look back on your career, what are you most proud of?

Granderson: The thing I’m most proud of is that I had fun out there, and it’s amazing that I got a chance to play as long as I did.

I never imagined that when I got drafted in 2002, I honestly thought and told people this: that I would play for two-to-three years in the minor leagues and get released. Then I would put my college degree to work in a number of different things, whether it be sports marketing because I was a marketing and management major, or follow what my parents and sister did and teach. I wanted to teach at the college level; I didn’t want to teach at the high school or grade school level.

What’s crazy is I played in 2002, played well, make the All-Star team. I played well in 2003, made the All-Star team. This is my second year of pro ball and I’m just hating life. I didn’t like where I was at in Lakeland, Florida, and the Florida State League.

I always tell people that the Major Leagues are the hardest, but the Florida State League is the second hardest. It’s hot, the stadiums are so big, there are no fans because who wants to sit out in a game where it’s 95 degrees plus humidity. There are a couple of teams that draw, but Lakeland didn’t at that time. I think we were averaging two-to-three hundred fans a game at a stadium that holds 7,000!

All of my friends are in Chicago and going and doing all these things that sounded exciting. I was ready to be done. I got to the end of that season, I came back, and I was able to finish and graduate with my college class, and then the next year I got called to the big leagues. It’s just crazy to think about in two or three years I’d be done, and I almost quit at the two-year mark, and then by the three-year mark I had made my Major League debut. I thought, Since I’m here, let’s see what happens.

It’s really cool to be a part of this baseball fraternity. To have done it and get a chance to talk to different people about it and try to help anywhere I can on the field or off it is great.

Follow Curtis Granderson on Twitter, @cgrand3

The post MMO Exclusive: Three-Time All-Star, Curtis Granderson appeared first on Metsmerized.

Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Good morning, Mets fans!

Buck Showalter announced that Max Scherzer will likely make his spring training debut on Sunday against the Nationals. The 38-year-old threw a live batting practice session yesterday afternoon. The Mets open their Grapefruit League slate on Saturday with a split-squad doubleheader against the Astros and Marlins, with Denyi Reyes and José Butto expected to start those games. David Peterson is expected to pitch on Monday followed by José Quintana on Tuesday.

Latest Mets News

Steve Cohen confirmed that Sandy Alderson is no longer the team’s president. Alderson is still with the organization as an advisor, but Cohen will have a bigger role in the team’s day-to-day operations. Cohen said it’s possible the Mets go all season without a team president. Cohen also mentioned that this year’s camp has him feeling “the best vibe I’ve felt” since he’s bought the team.

Latest MLB News

The Guardians were dealt a couple of tough blows on the injury front, the team announced. Top pitching prospect Daniel Espino has been shut down for at least eight weeks with a strain or tear in his shoulder. 2022 first-round draft pick Chase Delauter will miss four-to-five months with a fracture in his foot, which is the same injury that prevented him from making his pro debut last year.

Two-time All-Star second baseman Jason Kipnis announced his retirement from baseball on his Twitter account yesterday. A second-round pick out of Arizona State in 2009, Kipnis helped Cleveland reach the World Series in 2016 and hit four homers that postseason. He received MVP votes in 2013 and 2015 and finishes his career with 126 homers, 260 doubles, 136 steals, and 21.3 rWAR.

With Jacob deGrom already dealing with some side tightness, David J. Roth of Defector writes about why people shouldn’t be so worried about deGrom. While it’s easy to worry about the two-time Cy Young winner’s health, Roth notes that we’re still a ways away from meaningful baseball being played.

Zach Eflin spoke with Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times about how his traumatic experiences from his childhood have shaped who he is today. A native of Orlando, Eflin experienced the loss of his older sister to leukemia when she was just seven years old, and his parents divorced due to his mother’s battle with alcoholism.

Latest on MMO

Elliot Teichman profiles non-roster invitee William Woods.

On This Date in Mets History

1974: The Mets make Tom Seaver the highest-paid player in major league history by giving him a one-year contract worth $172,500. Seaver won his second Cy Young award in 1973, turning in a 2.08 ERA and 0.976 WHIP with 251 strikeouts in 290 innings.

The post Morning Briefing: Max Scherzer Expected to Start on Sunday appeared first on Metsmerized.

Photo by Sandy Alderson

Sandy Alderson is no longer the Mets team president, says owner Steve Cohen.

Alderson is now with the team as an advisor with Cohen becoming more and more involved in day-to-day operations. That includes Cohen spending every Thursday in Mets meetings and not as his hedge fund.

Alderson has been with the Mets since 2011. Originally hired to replace Omar Minaya as the general manager, Alderson has seen his role grow over the years. He took a leave of absence from the team in 2018 due to a recurrence of cancer and announced he would not return to the Mets in the same position.

Alderson spent two years with the Oakland Athletics as their senior advisor of baseball operation to general manager Billy Beane.

When Cohen bought the team, Alderson returned. In September 2020, Cohen hired Alderson as team president, replacing Saul Katz who served in that role since 1980.

Alderson’s son, Bryn, was with the Mets as an assistant general manager. He was let go last week. The Mets did not comment on the personnel decision. The Mets current assistant general managers are now Ian Levin and Ben Zauzmer. Bryn Alderson had been with the Mets since 2011 when his father took the reigns.

The Mets did report in September that Sandy Alderson would step down as the team president when they found his successor. Cohen did not immediately announce who would be his replacement. Cohen did say they could go all season without one.

The post Sandy Alderson Officially No Longer Mets Team President appeared first on Metsmerized.

For over thirty years, Jim Reeves has been traveling the Pacific Northwest as an area scout, responsible for roughly 2,000,000 square miles, to help the New York Mets find the next crop of potential major league talent.

The role of an area scout involves getting to know the programs, schools, coaches, and players in their respective territories, and traveling to various games and showcases in order to assess and analyze potential draft picks for their organization.

Scouts are continuously juggling the current crop of ballplayers who are eligible for the nearest draft while keeping tabs on younger players they’ve come across in their travels for future evaluation and reports.

For Reeves, a sixteenth-round pick by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1977 June Amateur Draft, blending professional experience in pro ball with gut instinct and an altruistic nature has led to several significant signings over the last dozen years.

Reeves was the signing scout for Brandon Nimmo (2011), Michael Conforto (2014), and David Peterson (2017), who have all contributed to the Mets and brought their own unique set of skills to the club.

After thirty-plus years of long travel, time away from family, and scouting countless players, Reeves has decided to retire.

The Mets celebrated his decades-long service with the organization on September 4th, when they had him throw out the first pitch prior to the start of their game against the Washington Nationals.

In a touching moment, Peterson caught the pitch from Reeves, and Nimmo came out of the dugout to greet and hug the scout who first gave him what all hopeful young players yearn for: an opportunity.

I had the privilege of speaking with Reeves towards the end of the regular season, where he discussed how he initially got into scouting, learning on the job, and his evaluation process for Nimmo, Conforto, and Peterson.

MMO: You were selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1977 MLB Draft out of Southern Illinois University. How long after your professional playing career ended did you get into scouting?

Reeves: I played in 1977, 1978, 1979, and into 1980. I realized that my baseball career was going to be coming to an end, like a lot of minor league players.

I finished college and moved to Chicago to start a career. I was working for a big telephone company and really enjoyed it, but something was missing.

After about five years, I stumbled upon a place that was a big indoor baseball facility. I would go in there and hang out a bit and met some people.

I ended up giving lessons to younger kids. I met a lot of people, met some coaches, and it turns out a good buddy of mine got a job as a head coach at a junior college there, so I started helping him out. I believe that was around 1985 that I started helping him.

I met some baseball scouts in the area and realized that baseball is in my blood pretty deeply. I started helping my buddy out as I was working full-time; I had three jobs at the time. But I loved baseball and found a way to kind of get back into it with coaching.

Then, through some of my contacts with pro baseball, I kind of started helping out the Mets part-time. There were guys like Todd Hundley, Dan Wilson, and a few other guys [that I helped scout]. I found that really interesting, so I started to get more involved with scouting and coaching.

The guy that was out here for the Mets, Marv Scott, retired and was responsible for Wally Backman, Doug Sisk, and several other players. They offered me a full-time position out here in 1990, and the wife and I said, “Why not? Let’s give it a shot.”

MMO: So your scouting career started with a part-time role?

Reeves: Yes. Most of the scouting was done in the spring and summer. Because I was helping out the junior college team, I was able to see a lot of the junior college teams in the area.

I would go see some high school games on occasion, and help Phil Favia, who was the full-time scout in the Chicago area for the Mets.

I was helping out here and there and evaluating some players; I really had no idea what I was doing, it was more gut instinct than anything. I’d go back and remember watching guys who I played with that I felt had major league potential. It was a big learning experience for me.

MMO: Except for those early years in Chicago, have you always been a scout based in the Pacific Northwest?

Reeves: Yeah, other than those two to three years back in the Chicago area.

My wife and I moved out here, and it’s funny, I thought to move out there, and I’ll get some education as to how to scout for a professional team full-time, and then we’ll probably end up moving back to the Midwest to be closer to our families. We got out here and moved to the Portland area, and it’s a big area, you have Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Western Canada, and Alaska. Obviously, there are not a lot of players in some of those remote areas, but nonetheless, it was a big area and a lot of travel.

We got out here, and my wife loved it; I loved it, We raised our kids out here, and we eventually stayed. I had a couple of opportunities to move down to L.A. or Phoenix, but for Joan (his wife), it just wasn’t what she really wanted to do at the time.

It worked out great, we love it in the Northwest, and it’s a wonderful place to raise a family. A lot of driving and travel is tougher out here in some respects, but we love it.

MMO: You mentioned having to learn on the job as an area scout. What were some of those responsibilities you needed to adapt and adjust to?

Reeves: When you’re getting out there and are responsible for a particular area, it’s up to you to go out and find the players.

The first few years I had to learn my territory; you have to learn where the players come from. It’s mostly the I-5 corridor, which runs from Southern Oregon up Portland and through Seattle and to Vancouver, B.C. That’s where the majority of the population is out here.

You have to learn where the best high school players come from, and of course, back in 1990, it was a lot different than it is today because there weren’t the showcases, you really had to dig! You had to watch the older scouts and where they went and what they were doing and try to figure out a pattern or how they were working the areas. That took a couple of years but I had some really good mentors in the game and those guys helped me out.

You also need to learn how to write reports on players. You’ve got to break them down, break their tools down, assign grades to those tools but then also talk about their strengths and weaknesses, and then an overall summation as to what you think this player is going to be five-to-six years down the road. If he’s going to be a big-league player, what type of player is he going to be at the major league-level? What is he going to bring to that major-league team that’s going to help them win?

So, when you put it like that, when you’re a young scout, that’s tough! You have to feel good about your opinions and you have to go with it and stick to your guns on players.

There were a lot of mistakes made those first few years, no doubt, but I think that happens with every scout. Now we have a lot of analytics and data that help back up those decisions. Back in those days, we didn’t have that, so you were pretty much putting your own reputation and opinions out there. It was a little different back in those days, but it was fun.

I was surrounded by a lot of good scouts, not only here in the Northwest, but within the organization with the Mets. Everybody helped everybody else out. There were those older guys in the area and guys out here in the Northwest that were tough to read at times and couldn’t get information out of. It’s like a big poker game but that was the fun part and I’ve always enjoyed that, trying to figure things out and the psychology of scouting.

I don’t know if we have that as much today, at the higher levels they do, but that’s kind of what made it fun and interesting for me.

MMO: In regards to the amount of data and analytics utilized with all thirty clubs today, are there certain differences you’ve noticed with your job when it pertains to the use of analytics compared to when you first started?

Reeves: That’s a tough question. There’s just a lot of data and analytics that people are relying on.

It’s hard to say, Mathew. I didn’t get into it as much as I know a lot of guys in the office did. They have access to all of that stuff; I really didn’t have a lot of access to it. I didn’t let that bother me, I just did my own thing and pretty much scouted the player themselves and left the analytics to everyone else. Even to this day, I don’t know exactly everything that went into those guys making the decisions that they did.

I think it’s a good thing; the more information you can gather on players, the better. I think in the end, we’re dealing with human beings, and everybody is a little bit different. These are 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21-year-old kids, and nobody knows for sure how they’re going to react when they get into pro ball. I’m glad I’m not doing that end of it! [Laughs.] That’s a little bit over my head, to be honest with you.

I was never a big computer person. Everything was pretty much gut reaction, watching the player, and just getting to know the player and forming those bonds and finding out what makes them tick and if they have the makeup and desire to be able to move onto that next level. And not only move onto that next level but be able to pull out what makes them as good as they can be.

MMO: Besides the athletic tools you were looking for, what other traits would you try to identify when scouting players?

Reeves: I think the most important thing about a young player is I want to see them compete almost every time they go out there. That’s the one thing that I think separates the players.

There have been many, many players over the years I’ve watched, and you just watch them go out on the field and you can tell that they’re competing. Sometimes instincts can improve obviously, but just watch a kid play.

A lot of times, I’d put myself in the shoes of a hitter if I’m watching a pitcher. I’d put myself in the batter’s box and think, Can this guy get me out? Will this guy intimidate me? Doing that with all the different players, if possible, as a scout, I felt that it always helped me because I used to play. I was involved with it, and I knew what these guys were thinking when they were in the box or on the mound and what pitch they were going to throw. Things like that and just seeing if they’re playing the game the right way, and just their attitude.

A guy like [Brandon] Nimmo, man, he was fearless out there. He wasn’t the greatest player at the time in high school, and he knew it, but he also knew he was going to get better. Talking to these kids and knowing that they’re going to do everything they can to make themselves as good as they can be, that’s really, really important.

I’ve talked to kids along the way who felt they were really good and were just going to go out there and be better than everybody else without putting in the effort. Those guys weren’t the ones we wanted.

There are a lot of things that come with it, depending on what position you play, but I looked at the guys who were dedicated to what they were doing and just had a lot of fun doing what they were doing.

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

MMO: You were the signing scout for three big names in recent memory in Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto, and David Peterson. Can you talk about your recollection of scouting each one? Let’s start with Nimmo.

Reeves: He was drafted in 2011, so he was the first guy to come along. A bit of a funny story, he has an older brother who was probably five-to-six years older than Brandon. I believe his name is Bryce. He wasn’t as big as Brandon, was a centerfielder, a left-left guy, and I had gotten word that there was a good player over in Wyoming. I called his coach and got all the details and flew over.

It was early May, and with American Legion Baseball there was a little tournament going on, and they were matching up with a big right-handed pitcher out of Montana who was going to Stanford. I thought this would be a good chance to see this guy (Bryce) that I had been hearing about, so I flew over, and there was maybe a dozen or so scouts there from the area.

It was cold; it was like twenty-five degrees and snowing, so it wasn’t a very pleasant day in Casper, Wyoming, and the wind just howls there! We’re watching the game, and there’s nobody in the stands and this family comes and sits right behind me.

We start talking, and it turns out it was the Nimmos; it was mom, dad, and Brandon. And Brandon was probably 12 years old. We struck up a conversation, and I told him I was there to see their other son. Their son was a really good player, but he was going to the University of Nebraska.

I got to know them a little bit, and a few years later the head coach called me and said, “This Brandon Nimmo kid is starting to fill out and get a bit bigger and is a pretty good ballplayer.” I got to know him a little bit, and I saw him, I believe, after his sophomore year in high school, and at different tournaments. They would always come over and play in Idaho or Oregon or some summer tournaments. I just got to see him, and I had a little flag there saying, hey, I better keep an eye on this kid, he looks pretty athletic.

I saw him in the summer after his junior year, and he’s really coming along. His instincts were improved; he was a centerfielder then, and I just liked the way he swung the bat. He was aggressive, sprayed the ball all over, could run; all the tools that we look for. It was still hard at that time to put the whole thing together; I think he was going to the University of Arkansas, so he had a good scholarship waiting for him.

Fortunately, he got to play in some showcases, and I think he played in the Under Armour tournament in Chicago at Wrigley Field. Some guys saw him out there and we agreed that this guy has some ability. That’s what you do, you keep following guys and watching them and see how they progress. And that was the thing with Brandon, every time I saw him he added a little something to his game.

I know a lot was made of him only playing American Legion and there was no high school [ball], but if you go to Montana and Wyoming, there’s no way they can play baseball in the springtime in those areas. They had a really good Legion program, and they started working out around February-March, as soon as basketball was over. They weren’t outside a lot but they had a nice indoor facility and the coach would take them down to Arizona for a little spring training and play some high school teams. That spring that’s what I did, I saw him play in Arizona a couple of times and then I saw him in the fall before that in Arizona as well.

He was on the map and on our radar, and one thing led to another, and our guys saw him in the springtime. Chad MacDonald and [Paul] DePodesta saw him and liked him. He just kind of fell in our laps, and I was a little surprised, to be honest with you, that we would take a guy from Wyoming, but players come from everywhere.

I have to hand it to the guys in the front office and scouting department; everybody that saw him had good reports on him. Those decisions aren’t made by just an area scout. I just said what I had to say about him as far as his abilities and let them know that this kid wants it really bad; he’s got great makeup, a great family that supports him, and then we got him.

He went to the minor leagues and showed everybody he could do it. And even to this day, you look at Brandon over the last year or two, and he’s improved his outfield play, his ability to hit left-handers, and that’s what makes these guys good major leaguers is they continue to improve on their weaknesses.

Brandon was the type of guy where it was easy once I got into his makeup and realized I had nothing to worry about with this kid. I mean, he’s just going to work his tail off.

It’s when you get those phone calls about this guy is in trouble or he’s not doing his work, those are the phone calls you don’t want to get.

MMO: How about Conforto?

Reeves: Michael was easy pretty much. He went to high school in the Seattle area, and I think I saw him when he was fifteen or so.

He was playing at a higher level than most of his classmates, and you could just see it, man. He had the ability to hit. He was a shortstop at the time, obviously, I didn’t think he was going to be a shortstop, but you just loved the way he swung the bat.

He had big, strong shoulders when he was sixteen and had some juice in his bat, and could do a lot of things. But when he got into his senior year of high school, they made it pretty clear that he was going to college, and he went to Oregon State. We followed him, and I kept my eye on him, and he just flourished in college.

[He] got with Pat Casey in Oregon State, and when he was younger he had more of an uppercut swing. Pat got a hold of him and tried to level his swing out, which really helped, and did great work with him there. It helped make him into the player that he is.

Michael has a great family and great genes – both his parents were athletes – so that was an easy one for me. I was a left-handed hitter myself and I just loved his swing, I thought it was a beautiful swing.

I also felt that Michael came a long way with his defense too. He was a corner outfielder, and I know I read some things where people didn’t like his defense, but I thought it was more than adequate. He was taught well at Oregon State, and I wasn’t worried about his defense at all.

Honestly, I never thought he’d be a center fielder, and I know he got some time with us in center, but I think it was just because it was what they needed at the time.

Michael was a pleasure, he was humble, and the makeup was just off the charts. You knew this guy would do everything he could to make himself into a player.

Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

MMO: And Peterson?

Reeves: David was a Colorado kid, so I never saw him when he was young. I think he was possibly a high pick coming out of high school, but he broke his lower leg in basketball, so pro ball didn’t work out for him at the time.

He came to the University of Oregon, and I remember seeing him in his freshman year and thinking, Holy cow, look at the size of this guy! It’s like when you see a guy for the first time and the hair on the back of your neck stands up a little bit and you go, oh, I really like what I see here. It’s just one of those instinctual things the first time you see a player.

I really liked what I saw in the fall. He’s a big guy that’s athletic, and he needed to get his body in shape, and I think he knew that maybe coming off that leg injury. And he did.

I got great reports from his coaches on his makeup and that he works harder than anybody else on the field. I think in his freshman year he might’ve led the team in wins out of Oregon, and he really just opened some eyes for a lot of people.

I got to know him and knew that this kid was intense; he wanted to win and was a competitor. I keep going back to that, and the same way with Michael. When the game was on the line you wanted them in those spots, and David was like that. He was a winner, a competitor, and again, he kind of fell into our laps with the 20th pick. At the time, we didn’t think there was anybody else better in the draft, and we took the shot with Petey, and he’s turned out to be a very fine major league pitcher.

I think with just about any other club in Major League Baseball, he’d be a front-line starter. He’s been doing a great job, and I think he’s about to break out.

MMO: I interviewed Jon Updike – the scout who signed Pete Alonso and Matt Allan – for Mets Merized a few years back, and he told me that watching the players he signed move up the ranks and make it to the majors made him feel like a proud parent. Is that how you viewed it as well?

Reeves: Absolutely! Not only with the guys, you get in the draft, but with guys that you got to know along the way that other teams have drafted. You spend a lot of time with these guys.

I’ll be honest, I’m probably a bit more partial to hitters, just because I was a hitter. We would do things in the Northwest and in the Portland area, and for many years on Sunday nights we’d get various indoor places and there’d be about four-to-six scouts and we’d invite players: high school, junior college, college, anybody wanting to come in and hit for a few hours. They’d hit for free and just hang out. We’d throw batting practice and talk with them and get to know them a bit, and find out how much they knew about hitting. We also had some pitchers, and it was just a fun time.

You get to know these kids and really care about them. Some scouts over the years have said you don’t want to get too close to these guys, but I wasn’t that way. I felt like I wanted to help these kids if I could a little bit in coaching them. And coaching them wasn’t really a scout’s job and I understand that. It’s hard to keep your opinions to yourself sometimes if you see that a kid is not getting his bat loaded or is dropping his hands. It’s tough to bite your tongue and not say anything.

But you get to know these kids and their families, and you watch these guys play, and you feel like you’re one of their coaches. You want to see them succeed and excel and get to be where they want to be.

I agree with Jon; it’s like they are your own kids. Being a baseball player myself at one time, you feel like you’re teammates with these kids. I think we’re losing some of that, but that’s the way I grew up doing it in scouting, and I felt like I had an edge sometimes against other organizations because I knew these players pretty well.

MMO: You were honored for your years of service and got to throw out the first pitch at Citi Field in early September. What was that experience like and to have Peterson and Nimmo on hand?

Reeves: It was awesome! I can’t tell you enough, especially all the people who were there with the Mets: Sandy [Alderson] and Marc Tramuta. Tommy Tanous wasn’t there but I talked to him a little bit [prior].

The Mets have been great to me and this was a special honor. To be able to take my wife back to New York and be a part of it was just awesome. It’s a great way to go out, and I’ve enjoyed all the years I’ve been with the Mets.

It’s good to see them winning now. I’m still overwhelmed by it! A lot of teams don’t do this type of stuff anymore. I had some older buddies, who are long gone now, where some clubs had done this. But those types of things had died out but for the Mets to do this was really special. I don’t have enough words to express how I feel.

MMO: Thanks for your time and insight, Jim! Congratulations on a well-deserved retirement.

Reeves: Thank you, Mathew.

Follow Jim Reeves on Twitter, @jreevesnym

The post MMO Exclusive: Area Scout, Jim Reeves appeared first on Metsmerized.

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

No matter what happens come October, World Series or no World Series, deep postseason run or no deep postseason run, this has been a transformative year for the New York Mets in more ways than one.

While the Mets are threatening to stumble across the finishing line with a 7-7 record against teams under .500 in September, there is no doubt that 2022 has been a resounding success on the diamond and away from it for a franchise that couldn’t get out of its own way for decades. While this team now looks like a legit World Series contender that can mount a serious playoff challenge, the work that has been done to repair a damaged organization’s reputation and standing within the baseball world is perhaps more important.

That has been detailed in an in-depth story by Stephanie Apstein for Sports Illustrated as part of their Daily Cover feature, and it is a deep dive that will also feature in the October issue of the magazine. In a wide-ranging story that picks every single bit of meat off the bone and uncovers every figurative dead body left behind by the Wilpons, Apstein paints a picture of a franchise that has executed a miracle-like facelift when it comes to their public perception. Apstein also does an excellent job of illustrating how the Cohens, along with team president Sandy Alderson and manager Buck Showalter, have made Queens a place players want to be again.

“It wasn’t a professional organization,” says Francisco Lindor about last year’s Mets team.

This year’s group is different, @stephapstein writes https://t.co/WHhhwlZMHH

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 17, 2022

That all takes some doing given the wreckage left behind by the Wilpon family. As Apstein leads off in her story, Jeff Wilpon needed little excuse to cut the cost of anything, and the Mets rapidly became known as the lowball specialists in Major League Baseball. Having seen the damage done by slashing pay across the board, Alderson spoke to owner Steve Cohen, and before long, “the overwhelming majority” of employees had received a significant bump in salary. Several people within the organization even went as far as to say that the raises dished out were “life-changing.”

“Lots of people are willing to do whatever it takes, including working for nothing or for a small amount to get their foot in the door,” Alderson told Apstein for SI. “But eventually it wears off. Eventually it becomes a job. A job with a certain amount of cachet, but you can’t eat cachet and you can’t support a family on cachet. So at some point you owe it to your employees. If you’re going to demand excellence, then you have to be prepared to acknowledge it.”

Improving staff morale was noted in the story as a massive win for the Cohen family, especially because of what team employees had to suffer through before their arrival. Apstein goes into exhaustive detail about the plethora of mishaps that took place under the Wilpons, from asking Cougar Life to sponsor former third baseman David Wright‘s All-Star Game campaign in 2013, to LHP Jason Vargas threatening to fight a reporter in 2019, to honoring two still-living players during the in memoriam portion of the 1969 team reunion.

Yes, all of that and a lot more did really happen. As Apstein so perfectly and succinctly put it; the Mets tweeted more photos of dildos (1) than it had won titles (0) since the Wilpons took control of the team in 1987. That hilarious but all-too-true fact excellently encapsulates the chaos of the previous regime and the deeply infected wounds caused by owners who simply stopped caring. The New York Mets were run more like a circus than a professional baseball team.

Of course, Cohen didn’t escape the usual embarrassing storm that comes with the Mets during his first year of owning the team. From players sticking thumbs down to their own fans to the team inventing a fictional hitting coach, Donnie Stevenson, the Mets remained the same old Mets even under new ownership. The fact that GM Zack Scott was fired for allegedly driving under the influence after leaving a team fundraiser after his predecessor, Jared Porter, was fired for sending explicit, unwanted text messages to a female reporter summed up the toxic culture that Cohen had inherited.

That leads us into the second part of the story where the miracle of what has been achieved really takes root. The Mets were seen by the outside world as a laughing stock, a dumpster fire that was the gift that kept giving and giving and giving. As a result, it was no surprise that players with even the smallest shred of self-respect would be alarmed by joining the Mets. Veteran starting pitcher Chris Bassitt, who was acquired from the Oakland A’s during the offseason, perhaps spoke for all players when it came to the perceived state of the team.

“It sounded like it was a mess,” Bassitt told Apstein. “Then I got to spring training and was like, Oh, this isn’t like that at all.” That’s what happens when you hire experienced, competent people to run your baseball operations. Cohen and Alderson hired long-time baseball executive and student of the game Billy Eppler to be their new general manager. Eppler in turn then hired the vastly experienced, well-respected, and much-loved Buck Showalter to be the team’s manager.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY

Those two hires have proved to be the backbone upon which this new-look Mets team has been built. With two respected figures now guiding the ship, things have rapidly changed. There’s been no in-fighting within the team, no embarrassing storyline to dominate the front pages and keep the team away from the back pages of the newspaper where they belong. Instead, Eppler and Showalter, with the full support of Cohen and Alderson, have built a clubhouse based on respect, leadership, accountability, and knowing the only mission is to win.

Showalter has been a revelation in the dugout. He has helped cultivate a clubhouse culture that has led to good results on the field, putting his trust in proven leaders like Max Scherzer who has dominated in his first year in Queens. In fact, the additions of Scherzer, Starling Marte, Mark Canha, and Eduardo Escobar have proven to be home runs not just for their production on the diamond, but also for what they offer in the clubhouse and away from the ballpark. This is a team that is on the same page and all pulling in the right direction.

It is no surprise that the likes of Pete Alonso, Edwin Díaz, Jeff McNeil, Luis Guillorme, and Francisco Lindor are having stellar years. They have been put in the best possible position to succeed by Showalter who has been in this game long enough to know what it takes to get players on board and all aligned with the same mission. It can be argued that hiring Showalter could end up being one of Cohen’s best-ever moves.

“There were so many different things last year. It wasn’t a professional organization, I felt like,” Lindor told Apstein. “Guys go about their business the right way (this year) – you ain’t gotta worry about it – and then once they’re done, they turn the page. Professional. I like that. A lot of guys got arbitration for the first time, or second or third. They got a little more money. They realize it’s not just the money. It’s gotta win. So it’s a big mix of a lot of things.”

“It starts with Buck,” starting pitcher Taijuan Walker told Apstein.

Apstein details how Showalter has made it his mission to put the players first and ensure they are turning up to work in a happy and professional environment that is conducive to success out where it matters the most. There are anecdotes of Showalter allowing Alonso to put a pool table in the clubhouse, along with working with Alex Cohen, Steve’s wife, to revamp the family room and make it a far more welcoming and relaxing place for the players’ families.

Little touches like that go a long way. Scherzer was quoted in the story as saying: “My kids are never gonna watch me pitch again!” when he saw the new and improved family room. Going the extra mile for the players is something that is commonplace within most organizations in Major League Baseball, but it was an area in which the Mets consistently fell short under the Wilpons. Showalter has driven that significant change because he knows the players are just human beings too, after all. “If it’s important to the players, regardless of how trivial it is, it better be important to you,” Showalter said in the story.

From adding proven winners like Scherzer to the mix and improving the tools players have at their disposal with pitching machines and other top-of-the-range equipment, the Mets have gone all out to act like a professional baseball team this year. That may not seem like a big deal given that they are, indeed an actual professional baseball team, but they were anything but that under the Wilpons. That’s why the Cohen family, along with Alderson, Eppler, and Showalter, all need to be applauded for the sizeable roles they’ve played in making the Mets a respected franchise once more. One that is all about baseball and not about drama. These are no longer your Wilpons’ Mets. And the baseball world is starting to take notice.

“It’s creating an environment in which professional communication is appreciated,” Alderson told Apstein. It used to be we’d meet in the lunchroom and it’d be a bunch of grab-ass and what have you. This is all business.”

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Photo by Sandy Alderson

The New York Mets announced today that Sandy Alderson will step down as President at the conclusion of a search for his successor. At that time, Alderson will shift to a new role as special advisor to owners Steve and Alex Cohen and the senior leadership team.

“When I asked Sandy to come back to the team, it was for a defined period of time and with a specific mandate – revive our culture and this iconic franchise for our fans, partners and employees,” Mets Owner, Chairman and CEO Steve Cohen said. “Sandy has done those very things and more and we have begun a search for his successor. When we find that person, I have asked Sandy to continue in a new role as special advisor to me and the senior leadership team.”

“For me personally and for the organization, it’s the right time for this transition,” Alderson said. “We are having a successful season, we have made several key additions to our senior leadership team and we have built a strong and forward-thinking culture. When the time comes, I am looking forward to continuing to support Steve, Alex and the organization in a new role.”

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Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen was a guest on the latest episode of The Show – A NY Post Baseball Podcast with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman – on Wednesday and there were a lot of interesting nuggets to take from the interview.

Cohen has been basking in plenty of praise from Mets fans as of late having successfully brought Old Timer’s Day back to Queens, culminating in a truly special day at Citi Field on Saturday, and his team are in the midst of a great season under manager Buck Showalter.

It was perhaps the perfect time, then, to go on a podcast with two of the biggest baseball writers around and discuss a whole bunch of topics in relation to the Mets. After all, Cohen’s team is locked in an intense pennant race with the Atlanta Braves and hopes are high in Queens that a deep postseason run all the way to the World Series could actually be a realistic goal.

There were a number of interesting nuggets to emerge from the podcast, including the future of closer Edwin Diaz, competing with the Yankees and blowing through the luxury tax threshold. Here’s perhaps some of the biggest takeaways from Cohen’s conversation with Sherman and Heyman…

Winning a Ring

When Steve Cohen took ownership of the New York Mets around two years ago, he said right off the bat that his goal was to win a championship within his first five years. Two years in and that dream is looking very achievable, with the Mets well positioned to make a deep run this October.

“We’ve made a lot of progress,” Cohen said. “I would love to win the World Series – that would be fantastic. Only one team wins the World Series every year and, if I remember correctly, the Dodgers won seven or eight division titles before they actually won a World Series so it is hard to win. The only thing you do is put yourself in position where things can happen and hopefully that’s the case for us. I like this team, I like what they do, they are tenacious, they never give up and that is a pretty good character trait once you get into the playoffs.

“I like to set high goals and try to achieve them. There’s no guarantees we’ll get there. Like I said, only one team can win every year but you have to set high goals otherwise you just aren’t going to stretch and try and achieve things that others may think are difficult or impossible. That’s what I like to do and that is the type of thing I do in everything I do. I think that’s the right approach.”

Ballpark Experience

Citi Field has been a fun place to be this year from Edwin Diaz’s walk out song that’s now become a whole show to jersey retirements and other little additions that have made a big difference. Having a winning product on the field helps too, of course, and Cohen shed some light on what ownership have done to improve the overall ballpark experience for Mets fans this year.

“We’re always experimenting,” Cohen said. “We have DJ nights on Friday night and we’re always thinking of new ways to enhance the experience for our fans and we’re always trying new ideas. It is at the forefront of our minds and if we can get the young fans involved, then even better.”

There is no doubt that the overall fan experience has been so much better at Citi Field this year. And, again, while winning helps, it is clear that Cohen has made it his mission to ensure the fans leave the ballpark happy and eager to come back no matter the outcome on the field. And that’s important.

Competing with Yankees

The Mets will always be compared with the New York Yankees given that they share the same city, that’s just a fact of life. And, for decades, the Mets have been the little brother while the Yankees have won World Series after World Series and made yearly trips to the postseason. Cohen’s arrival changed the dynamic instantly and, with the Mets now a legit championship contender, Cohen was asked about competing to be the kings of New York with the Yankees.

“Do I want to kick their butt? I don’t need to kick their butt,” Cohen said in response to a question from Sherman. “They’re the Yankees, we’re the Mets, we’re going to do our thing and they are going to do their thing. Wherever it falls it falls and I really believe there is room for both of us in the city. It is a big city and I just don’t worry about the Yankees. I don’t feel like we’re competing with them. I feel like we’re trying to establish our own identity, our own brand, so I don’t really think about them.”

Given that the Wilpons had a long-standing obsession with the Yankees, an obsession that no doubt hindered what they were trying to do, it is refreshing to hear Cohen make it clear that he’s only worried about what the Mets do. After all, the Yankees are always going to be a huge brand so it makes perfect sense just to focus on making the Mets their own unique thing.

Sandy Alderson

One of the biggest storylines involving the Mets throughout Cohen’s ownership has been the presence of Sandy Alderson, who is currently the president of the Mets. There was a narrative back in the winter that Alderson’s heavy presence in the front office was off-putting to a lot of potential GM candidates, especially with Alderson’s son also involved with the organization.

There are some who believed that with general manager Billy Eppler in place, Alderson could eventually move on but Cohen made it clear that the long-time baseball executive still has a big role to play with the Mets.

“Listen, Sandy is going to continue to be a part of this,” Cohen said. “He’s been invaluable to me and he will continue to help me in any way that he can.”

Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Keeping the Band Together

Cohen was asked about the large number of key free agents the Mets will have to deal with after this season, including the likes of Jacob deGrom and Edwin Diaz. While revealing that contract discussions have not yet really begun with any of their players, Cohen did stress that those decisions will be made when the time is right and that the Mets will be competitive in trying to keep the players they want to.

“To be perfectly honest, we haven’t really sat down and we’ve been so busy thinking about what is going on in the present,” Cohen said. “We will sit down at the appropriate time and go over what our needs are for the next season and who we want to bring back. We’ve got a lot of great ballplayers here, they are doing extraordinary things, they are all free agents and they’ve earned that right. That is part of the deal and this is a big moment for them. I’m sure they will entertain offers and they should. Hopefully we will be more competitive and we will make those decisions when the time comes. We’ll see what happens.

“No one has an unlimited budget. The numbers can get extraordinary. We’ll have to figure it out and we will, we just haven’t got there yet.”

Cohen was then asked to dive a bit deeper on the futures of deGrom and Diaz, with the latter recently going over to the Cohen house for dinner.

“I haven’t had a direct conversation with Jacob on this,” Cohen said. “Obviously he’s been a great Met and he’s somebody that I would love to have back, but it is appropriate to have that conversation after the season. He’s been very clear that he wants to opt-out and he’s earned that right. At the appropriate time we’ll sit down and talk. I said it the other day and I’ll say it again; he’s the best pitcher in baseball and we’ll do whatever it takes to bring him back.

“I had Diaz out for dinner a couple of weeks ago. Terrific guy and he’s just had an extraordinary season. He’s just a great person and he’s got a great demeanor for the role, so calm, just comes in and does his thing, very likeable and I would love to have him back. They are people and they are not just employees. This isn’t just an impersonal relationship. They are important to me and I want them to know that they are important to me. It is not just you give me performance and I pay you, I think it should be beyond that. It is a great opportunity to get to know them, get to know what makes them tick and it is my style. It is what I do in my Hedge Fund. I always use the opportunity to get to know people on a personal level. It has worked for me and it is the proper thing to do. I’ll continue to do it.”

The fact that Cohen has built personal relationships with his players can only be a good thing when it comes to free agency, and it is also another clear-fire sign that the Mets owner is determined to do things the right way and make the organization one current and potential future ballplayers want to play for long-term.

Being Disciplined Financially

When it was announced that Cohen would become the new owner of the Mets, one of the biggest topics of conversation was just how much money he would spend given that he automatically became the richest owner in all of baseball. That naturally concerned a few of the other owners in MLB, and it has been a narrative that has stuck throughout Cohen’s tenure.

However, while Cohen has flashed the dollars in terms of bringing the likes of Max Scherzer and Starling Marte to Queens, he’s been pretty consistent in being sensible and not completely blowing through the luxury tax threshold. And, after being asked about the payroll in particular, Cohen addressed what the payroll may look like next season.

“We’ve been very disciplined this year,” Cohen said. “You’ve got to remember that we had a bad contract with Robinson Canó and we eat that contract, so I think we’ve been pretty disciplined in that regard. You’ve got to remember that we’ll be paying Canó next year as well. We’ll see what happens but I haven’t really even thought about what we’re going to do next year as far as the budget. I haven’t sat down with Billy (Eppler) and the rest of the team but that’s going to happen after the season. We can figure this out pretty quickly so I’m not worried about it. These decisions aren’t that hard. It really depends on who we want to bring back, what the other opportunities are out there and we’ll figure it out. That’s part of the process.

“I’m part of a community and I don’t want to just be flippant about what I want to do relative to what is going on in the rest of the baseball community – I’ve got to live in this world. I can’t just act like it doesn’t exist. We’re almost at $300 million – you should be able to build a pretty good team at $300 million dollars. If you can’t do that then that’s a problem.”

Old Timers’ Day

It took over two decades for the Mets to bring Old Timers’ Day back and Cohen was at the forefront of those efforts, culminating in a very special day at Citi Field a couple of weeks ago. Cohen also sprung a major surprise during the celebrations in retiring Willie Mays‘ No. 24 jersey, and Cohen finished his interview by explaining the decision behind that.

“It was really my decision,” Cohen said. “When I heard there was a promise made to Willie by Joan Payson and there was no follow through on that, I just felt there was an obligation by an owner that needed to be kept. I was going to follow through on that and I just felt that was the right thing to do. I had spoken to Willie, he had confirmed that and I’m glad I followed through on that. We want celebrate our history, I was very clear on that from day one and there will be others.”

All in all, it was a really insightful conversation with Cohen who hit all the right notes on a number of important issues. He gave some really honest answers on things like payroll and the crop of free agents the Mets will have to deal with very soon, and it is refreshing to here the owner of the New York Mets speak so in-depth and so candidly on a public forum.

Mets fans can listen to the full interview with Steve Cohen on The Show – A NY Post Baseball Podcast with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman – by clicking here.

The post Steve Cohen Addresses Winning Now, Payroll in Recent Interview appeared first on Metsmerized.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY

3 UP

Mets Offseason Put Into Motion

The New York Mets spent the offseason trying to rebuild the roster not just to win the division, but more specifically, to beat teams like the Atlanta Braves. In what was a pivotal series, Billy Eppler looked like a genius.

Max Scherzer, the crown jewel of the offseason, got the Mets started on the right foot by dominating the Braves over seven innings. He picked up the win after allowed just one earned on three hits while he walked none and struck out nine. Since returning from the IL, he’s allowed just one run over 13 innings while striking out 20.

Like Scherzer, Chris Bassitt picked up the win after pitching very well. Over six innings, he allowed just one earned while striking out six. After he struggled over a five start stretch from May 19 to June 8, he has rebounded and been a top of the rotation pitcher again. Over his past five starts, he is 3-2 with a 2.41 ERA while averaging 6 2/3 innings per start.

If it was just the starting pitching, that would’ve been enough. However, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar both had excellent series.

Canha was 3-for-11 with a homer and an RBI. Escobar was 3-for-12 with a double, homer, and RBI. That homer was his longest of his brief Mets career, and it set the tone for a dominant win to take the series.

Middle Infield Brillance

The Mets acquired Francisco Lindor because he was a star who could impact the Mets culture to make them winners. Part of that is showing up big in big moments.

As we know, Lindor has struggled after breaking that finger, and he has the giant oven mitt on the bases to remind of us the injury. If the finger was still bothering him, we would have no idea after he was 5-for-14 with a triple, homer, and four RBI. He also made a number of strong plays in the field.

Oh, and as for Dansby Swanson making the All-Star team and Braves fans yapping he’s better, Swanson was 0-for-10 in the series. It’s been easy for him to feast on the awful pitching the Braves have faced for a month plus, but when he faced the Mets, he had nothing.

In addition to Lindor being great, Luis Guillorme was as well. Again, Guillorme is showing he’s an everyday player, and more than that, he’s starting to show he is a big game player.

In this series, Guillorme was 4-for-10 with two doubles, a homer, and three RBI. Seeing his production in this series, his serving as the protection for Pete Alonso in the lineup didn’t look nearly as absurd.

Guillorme is going really well right now. Over his past five games, he’s hitting .471/.550/.824. That’s stepping up in a big series and at a time when the Mets are dealing with some injuries.

Nimmo Walking Again

One of the most baffling things this season was Brandon Nimmo going a stretch from June 11 to July 3 walking just once over 82 plate appearances. There are 780 players in the Major Leagues, and Nimmo is just about the last player in the majors you’d expect to have a stretch like this.

Whatever the reason for that overly aggressive approach which coincided with him struggling, Nimmo has gotten back to being Nimmo. Over his past 10 games, he has drawn six walks over 48 plate appearances. That is a much more Nimmo-like 12.5% walk rate (still below his career 13.9% walk rate).

It should come as no surprise that Nimmo has thrived over this stretch hitting .268/.375/.537 with two doubles, three homers, and eight RBI. With him getting back to being Nimmo, he again leads the Mets in WAR, and again, he should be an All-Star this season.

Mark Vientos, Photo by Richard Nelson

3 DOWN

Vientos in Triple-A

On the one hand, Sandy Alderson will say the Mets need to address their DH spot, but then he won’t actually do anything about it. reminiscent of the 2015 stretch where we were subjected to Darrell Ceciliani and John Mayberry rather than the Mets calling up Michael Conforto. Finally, on July 24, the Mets had no other choice than call him up.

Truth be told, Alderson, Eppler, and the Mets completely screwed up the DH situation. They knew Robinson Cano was a shell of himself, but they stuck with him early in the season. For a brief moment, J.D. Davis looked like he had the job, but he’s been mediocre (102 wRC+) at best.

Dominic Smith seemed to get some momentum going, and then he was benched against left-handed pitching despite his hitting left-handed pitching better than Davis. Smith hasn’t rebounded after sitting out that one game, and he’s back to the point he was when the Mets sent him down.

That brings us to Mark Vientos. Since May 8, Vientos is hitting .293/.364/.581 with five doubles, 15 homers, and 37 RBI.

Yes, we can criticize his defense. Sure, his striking out 31.8% over this stretch is troublesome. In the end, you have to just say so what?

Whenever there’s a left-handed pitcher, the Mets completely ignore the data and season stats to shoe-horn Davis into the lineup for a couple of strikeouts, ground outs, and pop outs. He’s horrendous defensively and striking out 30.7% of the time with zero power. Are we really going to believe this is a better option than calling up Vientos?

As Mets president Sandy Alderson recently noted, the Mets need to get more production out of the DH spot and why not see what you have in Vientos before the trade deadline.

Bullpen Shallower than Kiddie Pool

Look, we know Andy Fletcher completely blew the call. Dansby Swanson should have struck out before the Matt Olson at-bat. If that call is right, maybe the inning and game goes differently.

However, lost in that was David Peterson going through the lineup a third time. When that happens, batters begin to tee off on him with a .480 SLG. To that extent, you could almost say the Olson homer was expected.

Going back to Los Angeles, Buck Showalter had lifted Peterson in an at-bat where he allowed a long foul to Mookie Betts. Showalter didn’t have that option in this game after Olson had done the same because of the state of the bullpen.

With Edwin Diaz pitching three days in a row, he was understandably unavailable. Seth Lugo, who pitched poorly in his second inning of work, has been uneven. Left-handed batters are killing Drew Smith, and he’s becoming homer prone.

It’s at the point Adam Ottavino has become the most reliable set-up man, but he was unavailable due to fatigue. Keep in mind, about a month ago, Ottavino was viewed as unreliable.

Taking the bullpen into account, you really only have confidence in Diaz. That’s it.

Yes, there may be something there with Colin Holderman, but Showalter isn’t putting him in high leverage spots quite yet, at least not in a set-up role. Trevor May is rehabbing, but we don’t know when he’ll be back.

All told, the Mets need multiple relievers at the trade deadline. Either that, or pitchers need to start pitching well. Actually, the Mets need both.

McNeil Criticism

Congratulations to Steve Covino of Covino and Rich. If you didn’t know, they have a radio show and podcast with Fox Sports. The world knows about it because Covino had to be that idiot who criticized Jeff McNeil for missing a series because of the birth of his child.

You would’ve thought we would have been done with this discourse after Boomer Esiason and Mike Francesa came off as morons criticizing Daniel Murphy for doing the same in 2014. Like McNeil, Murphy was an All-Star in 2014.

There are many ways to respond to Covino’s desperate search for attention, but the best came from Howie Rose when he said this “is the height of Neanderthal, inane ‘thinking’.” As Howie said, “Family first. Period.”

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