The 2016 American League Wild Card game will always be brought up when discussing Buck Showalter‘s managerial career. It was Showalter’s decision to not use his closer who went 47-of-47 in save opportunities during a winner-take-all game.
But, closer Zack Britton would “100 percent” play for Showalter again if the opportunity arrived.
With over 3,000 games managed in his career, Showalter brings accountability and experience that the Mets two prior managers have lacked. Both are desperately needed in the New York clubhouse that had its fair share of disputes and antics in 2021.
“He apologized to me, which I didn’t think he needed to do,” Britton told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. “I think there were some guys on the team that were frustrated by the move. He just said: ‘That’s my bad. I messed up.’ And it was done with.”
The move is still discussed today. Both Britton and Max Scherzer are members of the players union’s executive subcommittee. Scherzer asked Britton about the ordeal and told him “No, that’s not that big of a story.”
“Everyone always talks about it,” Britton said. “But he had his reasons. I’m not 100 percent sure why, but it didn’t matter. I always knew Buck was thinking through it. He always had a plan. Maybe it didn’t go according to his plan, and then it kind of backfired. But he was willing to take that risk, sticking with the plan.”
Showalter’s ability to qualm disputes and hold himself as well as his player accountable will carry the Mets far.
A young Manny Machado had a dust-up with Josh Donaldson in 2014. Machado was irate with Donaldson after having felt disrespected from a hard tag applied. Both benches cleared as a result.
“You don’t single one guy out,” Showalter said. “Everyone knows who you’re talking about. But there’s nothing worse than supporting something you know is wrong. That tears a club up. It’s: ‘Your actions reflect on everyone. Let’s make sure we’re fighting for a just cause.’”
“You get numerous opportunities like that throughout the course of the season where something could come and break apart a clubhouse,” former Orioles catcher Matt Wieters said. “Buck kind of saw that right away. He was like, no, we were going to go as far as we could with everybody involved, everybody together. He knew that is how we were going to win. He saw (the Machado-Donaldson dust-up) as something that could kind of come between guys. And he didn’t want that to happen.”
After watching the Mets clubhouse divide itself over not following shifting philosophies and getting into physical altercations or signaling thumbs-down to show displeasure with booing fans, a controlling figure like Showalter is what the Mets need.
“He can take teams and make them think about baseball like they’ve never thought about baseball before,” Wieters said.
