Green grass, blue skies, bright sunshine, and talk of Mets October Baseball… What could be better… And yet, something is amiss…
According to John Harper of the Daily News, there are visible signs of mounting friction in Port St. Lucie between GM Sandy Alderson and his manager Terry Collins. Read on…
Some level of tension between the GM and manager has always been inevitable, writes Harper, simply because Alderson’s decision-making style is more dictatorial than democratic, at least as it trickles down to the clubhouse.
But things seem to be escalating.
“With Collins’ job very much on the line this season, there are subtle signs that this relationship could get testy, especially if the Mets start slowly.”
“It was only last August, sources say, that Alderson was fast losing faith in the manager, carping on player mistakes to the point that Collins was miserable and steeling himself for news at the end of the season that he would be fired.”
In the new book about Sandy Alderson, Baseball Maverick, the author documents an incident last August when Sandy Alderson told Steve Kettmann that Collins had only a “51 percent” chance of returning for 2015. “Frankly,for me, that percentage has been eroding.”
Another source says there was a faction in the Alderson front office that had issues with Collins’ strategic decisions “on a regular basis” and was at least nudging the GM to make a change.
There’s been at least a dozen instances in just the last month alone where Collins and Alderson were clearly not on the same page.
- There were the occasions when Collins was in the dark about Edgin’s need for elbow surgery and not completely aware of the details surrounding Zack Wheeler’s elbow injury either…Suffice it to say that when reporters got the information before Collins on such matters, the perception is one of at least some dysfunction or discord.
- Collins emphatically said the Mets need a lefty in the bullpen to replace Edgin. But Alderson “has downplayed such a need, saying it’s more important to simply have quality relievers, even if they’re all right-handed.”
- Collins said often that Tejada could win the starting shortstop job, that “Flores hasn’t won anything yet.” Alderson had to quell the confusion in a press conference, assuring reporters that Flores is and will be the starting shortstop.
- After Collins suggested that Steven Matz is MLB ready last week, and said “why not? about the lefty breaking camp with the Mets – presumably in the bullpen – Sandy told reporters that Matz would not be used in any relief role, and that he will pitch in Las Vegas to begin the season.
- Harper cites another instance last week when the Mets sent Noah Syndergaard to the minors only minutes after Collins told reporters in a press conference how much he was looking forward to seeing the righthander pitch against the Tigers the next day.
“For that matter, when a Mets player was told that day about the apparent Syndergaard mix-up, he smiled and said, “That seems to happen a lot around here.”
Most of you readers on MMO have picked up on this all offseason long and not just the last four weeks in Spring Training. It’s been well documented on this site how often Sandy and Terry are so often on totally different pages. So this article by Harper should be nothing new to the majority of you.
But seeing all these instances summarized and documented and those quotes including the one from a player, is all a bit troubling with Opening Day just 12 days away. The two of them need to clear the air and get their shit together. We got some huge expectations for 2015 and the last thing we need is trouble in paradise.
