Mickey Callaway isn’t the Mets only problem, far from it. That said, he has been a disaster for a second straight season. The talk about firing Callaway has quieted after the Mets big turn around in July, but it shouldn’t.
These Mets are a playoff team, or at least they should be. Callaway has mismanaged the bullpen, lineup construction, pinch hitters, and double switches all year. It’s cost the Mets multiple games, and it’s not hard to see the Mets as running away with the second wild card if they had a competent manager. These Mets are dragging Callaway to a record above .500, but that shouldn’t save his job.
There’s been multiple public issues that have come out of a Mickey Callaway overseen locker room. Whether it was Jason Vargas nearly punching a reporter, Noah Syndergaard‘s numerous confrontations with him, or Jacob deGrom calling out the team for their handling of Devin Mesoraco there has always been something with this team. Something needs to be done to fix this situation in 2020 because this team is too talented to spend another year out of the playoffs. That leaves just two questions for the offseason; Will the Mets fire Mickey Callaway, and if they do who will replace him?
The Wilpon’s have a history of being fiercely loyal to employee’s they like. According to Adam Rubin formerly of ESPN, they didn’t want fire Omar Minaya, but rather reassign him, Minaya even said “The fact is that it’s not fair to give me another role. If you’re going to bring in another GM — first of all, I don’t think the GM would want to have me aboard, and vice versa. Whoever the GM is, I would have to make the decision if I want to work with that person.”
Then the Mets replaced Minaya with Sandy Alderson, on the recommendation of Bud Selig, again according to Adam Rubin. They Let Terry Collins hang on for years too long. They let Willie Randolph hang on after the collapse of 2007.
Mickey Callaway might be another example of this. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the only reason Mickey Callaway wasn’t fired halfway through the season was due to him being the cover guy for the Mets front office and ownership, and at the time of his writing, it was still believed that Mickey Callaway would be fired in short order, he wasn’t.
It’s very possible that the younger Wilpon will do the same this offseason. He’ll likely make an argument that the Mets finished the year over .500 and the players rallied behind their manager when they were at their worst. That would not be truthful based on all the reports from multiple reports this year.
If the Wilpon’s trust in Brodie Van Wagenen then it’s possible Mickey gets fired. Brodie had been leading the charge against Mickey earlier in the season, even reportedly throwing a chair in a meeting with Jeff Wilpon and Callaway due to his frustration. Anyone who has watched the Mets this year would understand that Mickey Callaway is not capable of being an MLB manager at this time. Mistake after mistake has been made and it’s cost the Mets their season. If this was any other franchise Mickey Callaway would be fired after a second straight disappointing year created by his own mismanagement. However, the Mets aren’t any other team and often disregard common sense.
With all of that said, it’s not possible to say the Mets will fire Callaway at the end of the season. The only way they do so would be because they have a manager ready to take his place that they feel comfortable with.
Potential Replacements
If the Mets do fire Mickey Callaway there are plenty of men ready to replace him. Some of them have a history with the Mets and the Wilpons, many don’t. No matter what though, they are all more qualified to run an MLB team than Mickey Callaway has shown to be.
Let’s start with the highest-profile candidate. According to multiple reports, Joe Girardi and the Mets had been doing research on each other as far back as May. Joe Girardi is a well thought of manager in MLB circles and is regarded as one of the highest-profile names in the game. His star rivals that of legendary managers like Joe Madden and Bruce Bochy.
It all started in Miami for Girardi, who became the Marlins manager in 2006, the Marlins finished the year just 78-84. Despite the poor record Girardi was named Manager of the year for his work with the young, and poorly thought of Marlins. He had very quickly become a rising young star in the managerial circuit. That wasn’t enough for the Marlins who fired Girardi at the end of the year.
After being fired in Miami Girardi became selective of his next job. in June of 2007 Girardi was offered the Orioles manager position, but turned it down. It was in the following offseason that the most prestigious job in baseball became available. The Yankees interviewed just three people for the job Girardi, Don Mattingly, and Tony Pena. Girardi got the job and quickly won a world series. In 2009, just his second season with the club, The Yankees won their 27th title. Girardi would hold the Yankees job until the end of the 2017 season. He finished over .500 in all 10 of his season with the Yankees. Overall he was 910-710 with the Yankees.
When you look at the numbers and the name this seems like a slam dunk hire, but it might not be. The big problem with Girardi as his Yankee’s career wound down was in the locker room. Girardi is not a player’s manager and didn’t know how to connect to the younger Yankees. If that’s true it might not be wise to bring him into the Mets clubhouse. This Mets team is dominated by it’s younger players. Guys like Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto, Noah Syndergaard, Amed Rosario, Brandon Nimmo, and Jeff McNeil make up the Mets core. If Girardi can’t connect with those guys and becomes stand-offish as he did with the Yankees it could breed discontent and ruin a great young core for the Mets.
Joe Girardi would also be as anti-Wilpon as they get. He will likely require a large salary and a large amount of control over his lineup and roster. Both things that the Wilpons have been very reluctant to give up before. Joe Girard would be a name that excites the fan base and would certainly promote Brodie Van Wagenen’s win-now mentality, but it doesn’t seem like the right fit for these Mets. Still, If he’s hired you can’t be too mad considering his history of winning and his qualifications.
Like Girardi, Buck Showalter was a name that came up in reports earlier this year. Showalter is a long-time student of the game, and one of the longest-tenured managers in baseball. Showalter is well known for his ability to connect to players. He is known to be one of the best locker room managers in baseball. The issue is his lack of winning.
Showalter’s managerial career started in New York with the Yankees. He took over as manager in 1992 and would remain in that position through 1995. He as the manager who had finally brought the Yankees back to relevance. After not having been to the playoffs since 1981 Showalter managed the Yankees to the best record in the strike-shortened 1994 season, and finally got them back to the playoffs in 1995. 1995 would be his last year in New York, by choice. George Steinbrenner had offered Showalter a contract extension after the season, but Showalter decided to leave the Yankees instead of fire his hitting coach Rick Down as Steinbrenner wanted. The Yankees hired Joe Torre and the rest is history. Overall Showalter was 313-268 with the Yankees.
After leaving the Yankees Showalter agreed to become the first manager of the Diamondback in 1996, two full years before the franchise came into existence. Showalter and the Diamondbacks quickly made an impression on the league. In 1999, just their second year in the league, the Diamondbacks won 100 games but lost to the Mets in the NLDS. The Diamondbacks regressed in 2000 winning just 85 games, and Showalter was fired. Like with the Yankees the Diamondbacks won the World Series the year after Showalter left. Overall Showalter was 250-236 with the Diamondbacks.
Showalter would become an analyst on ESPN until 2003 when the Texas Rangers dragged him back into the dugout. Showalter’s stay in Texas was an uneventful one. In four years Showalter failed to make the playoffs. He also failed to get the team to finish better than third place in the four-team AL West. After going 319-329 in four seasons the Rangers moved on from Showalter.
Midway through 2010, the Orioles came calling and once again Showalter was a manager. Showalter’s career in Baltimore is one of the most up and down you will ever see. Showalter came in and the Orioles finished the 2010 season as the fourth-worst team in baseball. Just two years later in 2012 Showalter had the Orioles competitive again. They had made the playoffs for the first time since 1997, the Orioles lost in the ALDS. After a disappointing year in 2013, the Orioles won the AL East in 2014, this time getting to the ALCS before bowing out. In 2016 Showalter would get the Orioles back to the playoffs once again. This time in the wild card game, though they lost. That was the end of the good days in Baltimore. The Orioles finished last in the AL East in both 2017 and 2018. Overall Showalter was 669-684 in Baltimore.
He’s won the manager of the year three times for his efforts. The issue is that he can never get his team over the hump. He’s only won one playoff series in his long career. Maybe he’s the guy to reestablish a winning culture in the Mets locker room, or maybe he’s simply not good enough to help this get over the hump.
Along the same lines as Buck Showalter is Dusty Baker. His defining characteristic is his ability to bring a clubhouse together. That didn’t work out well for the Nationals, but they did perform better under him than they did under any manager previously. He’s still the only manager to lead the Nationals to a back-to-back division titles. That’s still true if you include the history of the Montreal Expos. Overall, Baker was 192-132 in his two years in Washington. That’s right, despite setting that record, he was fired for his inability to win a playoff series.
Prior to the Nationals, Dusty had been the manager of three other teams. The first of which was the Giants. Baker became the Giants manager in 1993, and he would hold the position for nine years. While with the Giants, Dusty won three manager of the year titles. He had a record of 840-715 with the Giants, but that’s not the story with Dusty. Like Showalter, Dusty has failed in the playoffs. Baker won just two playoff series in three trips to the playoffs. He won both of them in 2002 when the Giants went to the World Series. The Giants lost that series in seven games. The loss has been put on Dusty and his poor ability to manage his starters and bullpen. Specifically his decision to remove Russ Ortiz in game six despite only allowing four hits. After the World Series, Dusty and the Giants decided not to work on a contract extension.
In 2003, Dusty found work in the Cubs dugout. In his first year in Chicago, Dusty led the Cubs to their first division title in 14 years. That was the year of Steve Bartman and the infamous fan interference. The Cubs wouldn’t make the playoffs again during Dusty’s time there. Overall he was 326-322 in Chicago.
After taking a year off in 2007, he came back to baseball to manage the Reds in 2008. After two disappointing years in 2008 and 2009, the Reds made noise in 2010 by winning the division. That was the Reds first playoff appearance in 15 years. The Reds would win another division title under Dusty in 2012, though this time losing the wild card game to the Pirates. With a record of just 2-7 in the playoffs, the Reds had seen enough. Baker was fired after the 2013 season. The Reds have not won more than 76 games since they fired Dusty.
Dusty suffers from much of the same deficiencies about winning in the playoffs that Showalter does. Like with Showalter you could overlook it if you thought he could pull the team together and make the right decision to give you a chance. However, Dusty has the biggest of red flags on his resume. That’s the fact that he hates analytics. He is as old-school as you get, he pushes starters until they break, he hates playing prospects over established veterans, he’s also known to shrink and overwork his bullpen. One quote from Baker tells you all you need to know about him, while talking to the Cincinnati media in 2015 Dusty Baker famously said “putting men on base can be unimportant and merely clogging up the bases.” The Wilpons love them some old-school managers, but this might be going too far even for them.
The Mets have made an effort to become more analytically conscious the last few years, and hiring Dusty Baker would be a step back in that aspect. However, he has a long history of winning despite this. If the Mets hire, Baker you can at least take solace in knowing that he is a better manager than Mickey Callaway, though that’s not saying much.
The Mets quality control, Rojas has been in the Mets organization since 2006. He began his career with the DSL Mets for 2006 and 2007. He was brought stateside in 2008 to coach the GCL Mets. After two years in the GCL, Rojas was promoted to the A-Ball Savannah Sand Gnats in 2010. He would stay there for just one year before being sent back to the GCL. In 2012, he would be called back up to Savannah. This time he stayed there for three years. In 2015, Rojas became the manager in St. Lucie and after two years there, he became Binghamton’s manager in 2017.
Rojas may not have ever played in the majors, but he has connections who have. Rojas is the son of Felipe Alou, making him former Met Moises Alou‘s brother. Moises Alou came to the Mets in 2007, one year after the Mets hired Rojas.
According to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, many in baseball including the Mets, view Rojas as a future manager in the league. The 37-year-old knows baseball and does his best to bridge the gap between the old-school baseball his father taught him, and the new school sabermetric methods he’s learned. Rojas was Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil’s manager in Binghamton when they both broke out in 2018. He was also Amed Rosario’s manager during his break out year in the minors in 2015. He managed Brandon Nimmo from A ball through AA. He knows this young Mets core better than just about anyone and orchestrated their break out years.
If anyone on the current Mets coaching staff is going to replace Mickey Callaway, it’s going to be Rojas. It remains to be seen whether or not he’s ready to be a major league manager, but he paid his dues in the minors and to great success with the Mets top prospects.
This is the longest of long shots. Wright has shown time and again that he can connect with the young players. He did it time and again as a player, and he made it a point to mentor Pete Alonso during spring training this offseason. Still, Wright has said on multiple occasions that he has no interest in being a manager, rather he enjoys the front office side of baseball. He is currently stationed in the Mets front office as a special assistant to Brodie Van Wagenen.
If Wright were to come down to the clubhouse he could offer something nobody else can. He has a glowing relationship with the Wilpons, knows most of the players on the roster, and most importantly has played today’s baseball. he knows what today’s game is about. That’s something that can’t be understated. Of the 12 managers either in the playoffs, or currently fighting for a playoff spot, six of those managers were players in this century. Of the six teams winning their division four of them played no later than 2004, and three of them played in 2009. It’s clear that managers who have played in modern baseball have an advantage when managing in modern baseball. It doesn’t guarantee success, but it does set them up for it. Wright would have that advantage.
He’s too perfect a fit for the role on paper to not even ask him if he would have interest in the job.
Picture courtesy of the Brooklyn Cyclones Twitter account
The star of the Mets minor league system. Edgardo Alfonzo has been the Brooklyn Cyclones manager since 2017. Alfonzo led the Brooklyn Cyclones to their first New York-Penn League title this year. He has shown that he has the ability to manage young players, and help first-year players transition to professional baseball. Remember, the players in Brooklyn are often players who had just been drafted, and it’s up to Alfonzo to help them transition to their new lifestyle. He is the only manager other than Joe Girardi on this list to have won a title as a manager at any level of baseball.
Like Wright, Alfonzo has the connection to the modern game playing until 2006. He also has a connection with the organization and fans that not many can match. With the Mets manager position possibly becoming available, Alfonzo feels like a choice that offers the best of both worlds to the Wilpons. They get to trot out a big-ticket name that would get Mets fans in seats, but also provide them with a manager who has a winning pedigree in his coaching career.
Ideally, you’d like Alfonzo to work his way through the minor league system like Rojas, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll still be available the next time the Mets need a manager. A similar situation happened with Clint Hurdle. Hurdle had worked his way up the Mets minor league system as a manager prospect only to be scooped up by the Rockies in 1997. Hurdle has since become one of the longest-tenured managers in baseball with the Pirates, and led the Rockies to a World Series. Hopefully, the Mets learn from their mistakes and name one of their two rising managerial stars in Alfonzo and Rojas to a high profile job soon, or risk losing them before they can make their mark for the Mets.
Matt Quatraro
It’s become a tradition now for the Rays bench coach to become a manager. Matt Quatraro is the latest Rays bench coach to become a managerial candidate. The Rays continue to win despite a low payroll due to their advanced understanding of analytics. Like the Astros, the Rays just understand the modern game better than everyone else does. Quatraro has spent the majority of his career learning in that organization. He spent only four years of his 15-year coaching career outside of the Rays organization, from 2014-2017 he was in Cleveland. That’s a pretty good track record of organizations to work in.
Quatraro is likely to come with a great understanding of analytics, and his work as a hitting coach and base coach prior to his bench coach job have likely given him a wide understanding of how to work with position players. Quatraro’s biggest downside is his lack of recent managerial experience, having not been a manager since 2009. Quatraro also never played major league baseball. Those are the two biggest knocks on the guy. If you are willing to take a chance on a potentially innovate mind from one of the most innovative franchises in baseball, Quatraro is as good as it gets.
Vizquel has been interviewed for a few managerial positions since he transitioned to coaching. Namely, the Tigers, White Sox, and Rangers have interviewed him. While he hasn’t gotten any of those jobs it is worth noting that he has been a managerial candidate before. Vizquel is one of the greatest defensive players of all-time having won 11 gold gloves, second all-time at SS behind only Ozzie Smith. He also had nearly 3,000 hits. Vizquel is a borderline hall-of-fame player, and that carries weight in the locker room.
Vizquel began his coaching career with the Los Angeles Angels. There he was an infield coach for a single year after the 2013 season ended the Angels chose not to renew his contract. The Tigers quickly hired Vizquel to become their first base coach, infield coach, and baserunning coach. Vizquel held all three of those positions until 2017 when Brad Asmus was fired. It was then that Vizquel got his opportunity to interview for the manager position, but lost out to Ron Gardenhire.
After that Vizquel was determined to be a manger. He left Detroit and went back to the White Sox organization becoming the manager of the A+ Winston Salem team. In 2018, Vizquel was promoted to Double-A to manager the Birmingham Barons. He was there again this year. Out of the former players listed here, Vizquel best fits the mark of modern player transitioning to coaching. He has experience with minor league managing and major league coaching. If the Mets want to take a shot at a former big-ticket name with a ton of coaching experience at different levels Vizquel is the guy to look to.
Let’s wrap up the list with another former Met. Barajas has found success in coaching after his playing days have ended. In 2014, Barajas was named the manager of the Arizona Fall League Padres. The next year Barajas had been promoted all the way up to Double-A to manage the San Antonio Mission. Another year later Barajas became the Padres manager of El Paso, the Padres Triple-A team. Barajas would stay in AAA until this season. Prior to this season, Barajas was promoted to the Padres bench coach. His rapid ascension through the Padres minor league coaching system is impressive, to say the least.
Unlike the other former players on this list, Barajas doesn’t have name recognition. Many fans might not even remember that he played for the Mets in 2010, or even know who he is at all. Despite all of that Barajas looks like the best future manager. His rapid ascent paired with his work as a manager is impressive. His resume screams future manager.
It has become a trend in recent years for teams to reach out to former players who have become hot managerial candidates to take the job. The Dodgers and Dave Roberts, the Brewers and Craig Counsell, the Twins and Rocco Baldelli, the Yankees and Aaron Boone, the Red Sox and Alex Cora. Barajas returning to the Mets to become a manager would fit that trend. If his track record is any indicator of the future he will join that list as one the better managers in the MLB sooner rather than later.
