Allow me to begin with a common stipulation for pieces such as this: I am not predicting here who will win NL Manager of the Year later today, but opining on who should win it.
Joe Maddon blew into Chicago, changed the culture of the Cubs and made them relevant in short order and ahead of schedule. Mike Matheny took a Cardinals team that, on paper, would have done well to win 90 games, and managed them to 100 wins and yet another division title.
But do either of them deserve the honor more than Terry Collins?
Since many or most will stipulate that TC held the fort – and the clubhouse – admirably if not perfectly for the first four months of the season, the BC (Before Cespedes) portion of the schedule, let’s focus on what he did in the AD (After Deadline) part. Because we all know that the last two months really were the season.
The challenge to him as the calendar turned to August is laid out here. He was finally given a team that could win in the present rather than the future.
So, given a virtual treasure trove of new or recaptured resources over the last two months, how much of a role did he play in the team’s success?
That is ordinarily a subjective judgment, but not so much in this case.
Because virtually everything TC did, virtually every move he made from August 1 to the end of the regular season, turned to gold. And it didn’t hurt to observe the stark contrast to Matt Williams, the manager of the team he was chasing, whose every move seemed to fail.
Was luck, pure dumb luck, involved? For example, did he know Captain Kirk and Kelly Johnson would hit crucial pinch hit HR’s late in two critical games in September in DC? Did he know Dario Alvarez, for heaven’s sake, would strike out Bryce Harper in a crucial situation earlier in that series? Or that Yoenis Cespedes would hit so many timely homers over an unforgettable six week stretch?
Of course not. But if you blame him for many of his moves over the years that didn’t work out, then he deserves just as much credit when things do work out.
How would the Mets have done with a different manager? Perhaps someone should concoct a Manager WAR (Wins Above Replacement) to determine how many more or less wins a team might have had with, for example, Matt Williams at one end and Bruce Bochy at the other.
Could another manager have handled the delicate situation with the team’s young pitchers, especially Harvey, any better? TC managed to express the frustration of the team, the front office and the fans at the Boras-induced crisis without losing control, not an easy task given that the Harvey bombshell was dropped in his lap right before the most critical series of the season in DC.
And yet, the Mets swept that series to all but clinch the division.
Should TC get any more or less credit for managing this rebuild over five years, as opposed to Maddon bursting on to the scene in Chicago and Matheny continuing to excel as the young but experienced skipper in the long-established winning culture of St. Louis?
It seems some credit is due TC for perseverance, a steady hand at the wheel and getting his team to play hard even during the dog days of July, the days of Mayberry and Campbell in the heart of the order, when TC had to be saying to himself this is all the offense I’m going to have to work with?
This is a hard call to make. Arguing against Joe Maddon as Manager of the Year is difficult. And what makes it more difficult is proximity. We saw all the moves TC made, but few of those made by Maddon. We do not have nearly the intimate knowledge of Maddon’s managing style as we do of TC.
And much as we might like to, we can’t be influenced by post-season. This award is for the regular season so the Mets sweep of the Cubs in the NLCS can not be taken into account….but that’s like saying don’t think about a pink elephant. That assures you will think about it.
Yes, I’m not objective. Yes, I didn’t see Maddon manage nearly as much as TC. And yes, 100 wins is an impressive overachievement for Matheny.
But when you consider the almost unprecedented night-and-day contrast between the LOL, laughingstock Mets on July 31, and the feared team they became over the next six weeks, that transformation is enough to justify National League Manager of the Year honors for Terry Collins.
