While the Mets had intended to conduct a second round, the team jumped at the chance to hire Mickey Callaway as manager after his first interview, Marc Carig of Newsday writes. He stressed a need to engage the team’s players as “human beings and individuals,” while GM Sandy Alderson cited a need to establish “rapport [and] empathy.” In other news relating to the hiring situation, Carig also notes (Twitter link) that the club interviewed Mark DeRosa before reaching its decision. The long-time big leaguer currently works for MLB Network; his candidacy had not previously been reported.
Here’s more from the National League:
- Trimming payroll down to a reported $90MM obviously represents a big challenge for the Marlins. The challenge is made all the more difficult, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes, by the state of the team’s rotation. With some paring of veteran assets seemingly all but inevitable, it seems likely that the team will look to bring back some new arms if at all possible. Of course, the organization will surely still be looking to rely on internal options to fill out the staff. A team source had some rather harsh words for two such candidates, telling Jackson that promising youngster Dillon Peters “needs to lose weight” and charging that the struggling Adam Conley fails to accept instruction and “thinks he has all the answers.” Neither of those two southpaws produced appealing results in 2017, though the former drew a ton of groundballs in his first 31 1/3 MLB frames (and was also quite good at Double-A) while the latter had quite a lot of success in the prior two seasons.
- The Reds’ pitching staff has easily been the worst in baseball over the past two seasons, but there are certainly some useful pieces in place. MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon takes a look at one such pitcher, southpaw reliever Wandy Peralta. The 26-year-old was a pleasant surprise in his rookie campaign, working to a 3.76 ERA in 64 2/3 frames with 7.9 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 to go with a 54.2% groundball rate. Peralta has a diverse slate of pitch offerings — a pair of big fastballs along with a slider and change — that he utilized nearly equally in 2017. Given the number of questions marks among Cincinnati hurlers, hopes are obviously high that Peralta will continue to cement his status as a solid bullpen asset.
- The pitching coach carousel seems to be a particular area to watch in the coaching ranks this offseason, with Jim Hickey among the notable names on the market. Per MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat, via Twitter, the former Rays pitching coach held a chat with the Cubs today. He has also already engaged with the Giants and Cardinals, she notes.
Mattimeo09
Picking Callaway as manager is a risk, but I’ll bet it works out well for the Mets. Calloway has seen Francona manage firsthand for 5 years and has helped perfect an incredible pitching staff.
The Mets have the talent, all they need is the right man to lead them and a little luck.
oldleftylong
The Indian pitching wasn’t quite perfect nor incredible in the playoffs.
jdgoat
That is only a five game stretch though…
Drewnasty
SSS
itslonelyatthetrop
I wonder if DeRosa will join the Mets coaching staff, every spot is open except for 3B coach. I think it’s paramount that he have an experienced former skipper as his bench coach, tho.
SundownDevil
“He stressed a need to engage the team’s players as ‘human beings and individuals,’ while GM Sandy Alderson cited a need to establish ‘rapport [and] empathy.'”
Ohhhhhh boy, just what the Mets need… coddling their players. Callaway might as well hire Barry Zito as his pitching coach so he can light some incense or candles, bring some aromatherapy pillows, play a little acoustic guitar, and nurture Thor’s inner child while he’s at it.
kbarr888
“Everyone Gets A Trophy”……………….UGH!!!
davbee
Yes, because baseball players respond so well to military-style discipline. Look at the two Managers in the Series, both Roberts and Hinch are players’ Managers. You probably want the Mets to bunt more too.
davbee
Anonymous down votes but nobody wants to refute my post. Typical.
Cubbie75
I don’t have an option to down vote. or up vote. all I have is a reply button. Does everybody else have vote buttons?
xtraflamy
are you using the app? no voting for app users. you have to log in on the web as far as I have discovered.
mikeyank55
The Mets need new owners. Everything flows from there. In the meantime, “as the world turns in flushing.” This site has so many fans in denial we should organize a weekly meeting.
Caseys Partner
Can the Mets sign Bryce Harper? Absolutely. Manny Machado? Of course.
Are these players ever connected to the Mets? Is there anything written about where the Mets fans generated revenues – which are enormous – is disappearing to every year?
It’s not just CNN, MSNBC and the NYT lying us into wars that’s FAKE.
Even the corporate sports media is fake.
padam
Ugh…
Chris Sale Amateur Tailor
let me guess; you get your real news from youtube?
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
Can the Mets sign Harper? Possibly. Will he want to go to the Mets. Highly doubt it.
User 4245925809
Go back at least until the year 2000 and the NYY of Jeter’s teams played on never dipped below 100m+. What happens when all those former yankees he brought over that he wants to show off with those rings and the players with the marlins start asking.. Well can we have a 200m payroll also.. Like those teams did??
CompanyAssassin
Yankees of 2000 had a payroll of $92M which is about $130M today (USD).
Caseys Partner
The Yankees payroll was first or second in MLB in 2000. First or second in MLB is a lot higher than $130 million.
CompanyAssassin
Yes but markets change. While the Yankees’ had a $130M payroll, the rest of the league averaged ~$95Mish. The days of $200M payroll are new, the market has changed.
Chris Sale Amateur Tailor
only 2 million more than the proposed payroll for Jeter’s 2018 Marlins!
tylerall5
You do realize that New York is one of the, if not the biggest, market in the U.S. so it stands to reason that the Yankees payroll would reflect that.
mikeyank55
Hey Tyler… all mets fans are blind to the rules of engagement in a large market. They promote their rhetoric to justify supporting a team that milks the fans with major market income opportunity and CHEAP WILPONS behavior that robs the fans of a consistently competitive team.
Solution: boycott all income opportunities for the Wilpon’s.
Let’s go little metsies fans–take issue!
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
It guess Jim Hickey will go to the cubs then they’ll sign Alex Cobb. Getting hickey will only help to get Cobb. 4/75 for Cobb
Find another controllable arm
Give Bryant 14mil in arb
Hendricks will get 10mil in arb
Anything less than that for either is low balling. Bryant will soon get that 280mil deal. I think he should do it winter 2018. Winter Meetings are in Vegas so that could help.
aff10
Why would they pay way more than necessary in arbitration? That doesn’t make any sense
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
Why wouldn’t KB get that much. They might as well give him a huge payday now before they sign him to a massive deal
rememberthecoop
This very site has a arb guy who is pretty good at predicting salaries. Hendricks is expected to get 4.9 million. You might want to check it out.
JKB 2
If they “low ball” in arbitration they just risk losing. Its called Arbitration. If they do not agree on a figure the arbitrator decides. Why should they bid against themselves?
Hendricks will not even ask for ten million in arbitration but you want the Cubs to just offer that?
Why does the fact that winter meetings in 2018 help Bryant get $280 million?
We all know he is from Vegas so you have no scoop there, but why does that help him?
STLShadows
I would love Jim Hickey to come to the Cards especially after they added Oquendo and McGhee to the staff yesterday. But he will probably end up with the Cubs since him and Maddon were together with the Rays…
CompanyAssassin
It’ll probably be more about who will pony up the most cash.
JKB 2
Money talks, that is true, but I assume money would not be an issue in Cubs offer. Hickey is also from Chicago, that coupled with his relationship with Maddon, national appeal of the Cubs, chance to win, all lead to a Cubs deal.
rememberthecoop
I’m kind of surprised that Hickey seems to be getting more love than Maddux
JKB 2
I do not think its necessarily more love for Hickey over Maddux but with Hickeys Chicago Connection and Maddon Connection coupled with the fact that its rumored Maddux may land the managerial position with the Nationals, just leads to the fact Maddux may not be available and also if he becomes available it may not be for a few weeks, why risk losing Hickey who is terrific as well
CompanyAssassin
As long as the Cardinals get one of either Hickey or Maddux, I’m sure they’ll be fine. Definitely an improvement from the previous coach.
RARAM2
Let’s hope Hickey reunited with Maddon. The Cubs have a lot of issues regarding pitching this offseason, but Hickey would be a good start!!!