As you undoubtedly know by now, manager Terry Collins decided on Friday to kill the six-man rotation he had been lobbying and trying to justify for the greater part of the last two weeks.
In an amazing and bizarre twist, Collins completely caved in and told reporters he was nixing the plan because it had “literally” become a pain in the ass. “I’m just tired of answering all the questions.”
So after all the preaching and all the deliberating about how the six-man rotation was so vitally and critically important to the franchise because they wanted to protect their young pitchers, it was aborted and squashed after only two days and before it even went through one turn of the rotation.
So much for how the six-man rotation was innovative and ahead of the curve and how all teams would follow the Mets’ lead within five years…
This is pure Terry Collins. For a position that is usually manned by a decisive, confident, and strong-willed leader, the Mets are plagued with a manager who is incapable of standing by his own decisions.
They are burdened with a manager who is as indecisive as he is obtuse. A manager with little in the way of firm convictions and one who lacks the confidence to do what he believes is right. Even if it’s not.
And if the constant second guessing of his own decisions wasn’t enough to leave one excruciatingly numb, there’s an even more bizarre side to Collins that speaks to a deeper and more disturbing issue with how he manages the team and makes decisions.
Terry Collins operates in a perpetual state of paranoia. He is so absorbed and obsessed with how his decisions will be perceived by the media and fans, that he often avoids making critical decisions to improve the team, preferring instead to punt and do nothing at all.
For one example, just this past week after we learned that David Wright would be out indefinitely and that we needed a realignment in the infield, Collins admitted that moving Ruben Tejada to shortstop and sliding either Daniel Murphy or Wilmer Flores to third base was the best defensive and offensive solution for the team in its current state.
However, Collins refused to implement the change and said he would hold off on moving Flores because he knew it would “give writers a headline.”
Sadly, that’s not the first time he’s said something like that this season. In fact it’s almost like a running joke between beat writers on Twitter when Collins flip-flops on something or delays making a decision because he’s worried about how it will be portrayed by them or by social media. Cripes.
Most of the time Collins comes off as being so indecisive – as well as clueless – that it becomes tough to figure out who’s actually running the team.
Whether it’s with who bats leadoff, the pitcher batting eighth, carrying a four-man bench, who goes to the bullpen, and now this six-man rotation debacle, every single major decision this season has come off looking like a complete three-ring circus with Terry Collins as ringmaster.
Look… This really isn’t about the six-man rotation and I do realize that the Mets are in first place, but I find it extremely difficult to envision Terry Collins ever leading this team to a championship. I just can’t see it.
He lacks far too many vital leadership skills and shockingly the most important one – self-confidence – is one of them.
The way he makes decisions on Monday and then abandons them on Tuesday should be of great concern to Sandy Alderson.
And don’t think it hasn’t affected the players. This week alone we’ve seen grumbling from Matt Harvey, Dillon Gee, Jon Niese and Daniel Murphy and it all stemmed from Collins’ indecisiveness.
This may sound insane, but I actually believe that Collins is now using the beat writers and social media as some deranged Litmus test where he can bounce some of his decisions off of them, gauge the reaction, and then decide how he will proceed.
I’m sorry, but the Mets need a manager who has more conviction in doing things the right way without worrying about how they will be received in the media.
Sure we’re in first place, but I would argue that we’d have a 5-6 game lead instead of just a half-game if not for the many decisions Terry Collins has bungled so far this season.
We can’t keep delaying good decisions for fear of making back pages and headlines. If the team is better off with Flores at second or third, then do it. If the team is better off with Dillon Gee in the bullpen, then do it. Stop worrying about what Mike Puma or Bob Klapisch will write, and start acting like the kind of manager this team really needs right now. In other words, man-up.
