We’ve already been through the let’s-get-serious sit-down and somber-vote-of-confidence stages. The Mets have continued to stumble. Inevitably, the question has moved along the scale from a whisper to a shout: should the Mets fire manager Mickey Callaway?
Tim Britton of The Athletic comes right out and answers it (subscription link), arguing that the club needs to make a change: “But if Callaway is not the problem for the Mets, he’s just as clearly not a part of the solution.” Joel Sherman of the New York Post portrays Callaway as a “nice guy trying gangsta” in panning the sophomore skipper’s recent attempts to drive production from the team. You won’t have to wade far into the deep reaches of Mets Twitter to find fans advocating for Callaway’s departure.
It’s exceedingly difficult to examine a manager’s performance from the outside. Callaway isn’t just operating on his own command; he’s following marching orders from the Wilpon ownership group and GM Brodie Van Wagenen. It’s worth bearing in mind that firing a manager can represent a PR move of its own. And what of the alternatives? As many have pointed out, the Mets have a ready replacement (at least a temporary one) in bench coach Jim Riggleman, but who’s to say he’ll be any more successful at squeezing value out of a roster that obviously isn’t without its flaws?
There have been suggestions at times that the Wilpons would rather not pay Callaway his salary while also ponying up for a replacement skipper. As we’ve discussed previously, that seems unlikely to drive a decision with Callaway earning only $850K for the year. The club already ate quite a bit more than that in cutting loose catcher Travis d’Arnaud. A replacement skipper may or may not cost much extra, depending upon whether the club goes outside for a big name or turns things over to Riggleman or another internal option, but that amount of money is a relative pittance for a major league club.
There are many angles to consider. At the end of the day, it’s a yes or no question. Where do you come down?
(Poll link for app users.)
The Mets should fire the Mets.
Was thinking the same thang lol
Miklo trying gangsta.
Seriously, who would want that job.
:raises hand:
(I could be a mole like Jeter but only to help my Bravos instead..)
Like Rodney Dangerfield said, “If you had your life to do over again (Mets), don’t do it!”
What do you expect with a first time Manager!no different then any Rookie that makes mistakes,that’s on the Muts Management as usual
This guy looks like Tony LaRussa compared to Davey Martinez
I don’t ever remember seeing a major league manager look as absolutely stressed out as Martínez has since he assumed that position. WAS should fire him just to prevent his inevitable nervous breakdown.
Two Teams run by Junk Managements
Should’ve been fired after the sit down. Everyone knows what it means when they have a big sit down and press conference. Better be updating your resume!
They should start with Chili and see how that goes. The Mets’ slugging for everyone not named Alonso is atrocious.
Give Jeff McNeil a bump and have him be the interim hitting instructor. Dude hits everything.
Seriously. McNeil can hit in his sleep
Cubs fans tried to warn them…
I have not seen many Mets games and can’t base my opinion on how he manages games , but it seems to me that the players are not performing or are hurt. Typical NY mob needs someone to blame for a bad year
I agree, I just watched their 4 game series against the Dodgers and they didn’t loose 3 of 4 because of managing, they performed poorly late in games and that falls mainly on the pen.
The pen is definitely bad, but everyone knew the pen was bad. Mickey Callaway should have known the pen is bad. A good manager would realize that the bullpen is a weakness and avoid using it, just like the Brewers did in 2018. They understood that their starting pitching was a weakness, so they pulled pitchers early every game. That is why they had the 4th fewest starting pitcher innings in the NL.
How does a manager avoid using their pen?
Let Syndergaard finish the 7th…or blow it himself.
The same way other teams avoid using their pen. Let the starters pitch deeper. The Brewers avoided using their rotation just fine. the Nats routinely have amongst the lowest bullpen innings in baseball because they know their bullpen is a disaster and avoid using it.
We can definitely debate the stupidity of having an awful bullpen in the first place, and Brodie/Mets deserve criticism for that. But from Mickey’s position, it’s his job to minimize those problems. It’s not an untenable situation. He’s simply failed.
…..but then you have the questionable durability of the Muts Starters,can’t have it both ways,sometimes it’s just Players/Pitchers not performing,there’s guys in that Bullpen that have a good Track Record not performing,sometimes it’s not you Year?
Generally, I don’t like to blame the manager for a team’s poor performance but this series against the Dodgers was actually a rare case in which the manager may have been at fault. Callaway sent in Edwin Diaz to protect a 3 run lead in the 9th which is routine. However, after giving up back to back homeruns to the first 2 batters he saw, it was clear that Edwin did not have his stuff that day. It was at this point that Diaz should have been pulled and another reliever could have had the chance for the save. Unfortunately, Callaway decided to trust his closer (Diaz) who in turn gave up 2 doubles, a walk, and the eventual walk off hit without recording a single out in the inning.
Edwin Diaz is an elite closer, you can’t take him out. How many times did Girardi or Joe Torre takeout Rivera? You have human beings on the team too, not pieces of meat and in most cases you need to run a team like a team and that means keeping personalities under wrap.
Should Diaz have come out before he gave up the lead? No, should he have when he gave up the lead? Yes. By that time, Diaz was probably humbled having probably never given up that many runs in an inning.
“I admit, I have no idea about what I’m about to comment on, but here goes…” What a dopey thing to say.
Well, to be fair, Mets and dopey are like PB and J.
they blocked my comment but it said to go f yourself
I have watched nearly every game and it is 100% Mickey’s fault. You can’t sit there and say you don’t watch them and then bash NY. Time after time we see Familia in the same role blowing the game. Management needs to do a better job with MANAGING that situation.
Gsellmen was doing great and now not so much. Streaks happen, it’s baseball… However, when he is clearly struggling and you have Edwin Diaz in your bullpen, you don’t need to watch Gsellmen struggle, walk multiple batters, and blow the game… go for the 4 out save with one of the leagues better closers.
Mickey is way in over his head with a bad hand dealt by the Wilpons and Brodie. However, we can all probably agree that the problem starts with the Wilpons. There is more than one problem here, but removing Mickey is a good way to fix one of those issues.
The article rightly says that it is exceedingly difficult to measure a manager’s performance from the outside, yet here we are, outsiders all, doing just that. And if MLBTR writers think it’s exceedingly difficult for outsiders to measure a manager’s performance, why are they conducting this poll at all?
Measure isn’t the same thing as evaluate. IE: you don’t need a measuring tape to observe that a building is incredibly tall compared to other buildings.
It is difficult to put a strict quantification on how awful Mickey Callaway (or any manager) is. It is not difficult to determine that he is indeed awful.
I sure can Bash NY because I live here and attend Yankees/Mets games alike and listen to uneducated fans speak baseball. there is a complete lack of patience in this city and it’s due to the culture. A managers job is to place his players in a position to succeed but we ultimately never want to blame a player for not doing his job or not excecuting. imagine if the manager could release players at will.
I agree the Manager sometimes gets a bad rap for stuff. Calloway has for sure made some bone head calls. But I also say the Mets players minus a few have been a joke. It’s sad to watch every night. I mean losing to the Giants? They score like 3 runs a game. Pitiful.
Yes!
Bad year…..and more.
Callaway has continued to show his ineptitude after managing 222 games.
There is no hope with him at the helm.
He needs to GO.
One thing I absolutely hate about this sport is how vulnerable the manager position plays out to be and how the GM/PO always gets a free ride.. I’m not saying that MC or every manager deserves keep HIS job, but I find it extremely annoying how they get fired only to get rehired or extremely sought after a year or 3 down the road and it’s not like they changed a thing (Gardenhire, maddon, Francona, Mattingly, baker, ausmus, Girardi, Showalter, Yost, buddy black, etc etc..)
I say you let the clubhouse vote the managers in and out and the upper management worry about supplying the adequate means necessary to give him a fair shake whether through a rebuild, mediocre, or contending franchise. Stop always making these dudes the scapegoats while 70% of the time theyre not the issue.
Same thing happens with players, they get traded or released or not re-signed when they don’t perform well…and usually a different team ends up signed or trading for them. Do you think people should never be jettisoned from organizations just because they are not 100% permanently washed up/bad?
You know who else needs to be fired? Dipoto and Servais.
Dipoto was brought in to tare apart the roster, and is doing a solid job.
I really don’t understand the hate. He’s done a fantastic job building up the farm.
He’s torn the roster apart for 4 straight seasons, it’s not working lol
Build up the farm he traded a few of there top picks in years for pennies on the dollar in return for very little. There farm ranks as one of the worst in the league lol he is a horrible gm did same thing with angels and diamondbacks.
dipoto continues to sell assets for pennies and will give up an elite prospect for just a dime of salary relief. Just because he makes numerous trades and occasionally hits on one, doesnt mean he is the best guy for the job.
Servais got 89 wins out of the 2018 mariners who’s Pythag says they should’ve been a 77 win team. Let’s not jump to conclusions. Dipoto should probably be fired, I mean how do you not make the playoffs once? Then I look into how the rebuild’s gone and I got to admit he’s done a good job.
He’s acquired a lot of guys like Segura and Mitch Haniger for nothing. Got rid of Cano and most of his contract before Cano fell apart. Got Vogelbach, Dee Gordon, Domingo Santana for lesser pieces. He’s done a fine job, with Nelson Cruz leaving and the rotation the way it was with Felix looking like a shell of his former self with him draining $25M a year it was always an uphill battle for the Mariners.
At some point the blame needs to go on the players under performing. Other than the lineup and bullpen decisions, a manager can only do so much. Is it his fault that most of their players are under performing? Maybe yes to an extent. But firing some guy 2 months in seems a bit ridiculous. Unless there is something internally wrong with the way he handles losing and failure. Maybe its his lack of energy idk
I could manage this team better than Callaway he’s supposed to be a pitching guy but he can’t manage a bullpen for his life. Bringing in Diaz in NON SAVE SITUATIONS and then when he needs a day off from pitching 3 straight days we actually have a save situation. Callaway is a clown
Accusing the Dodgers of “cheating” was ridiculous and really shows a lack of leadership.
The mets should fire upper management and ownership. Organization is a train wreck – why you are putting band-aids on it and not reloading is beyond me – and im a Braves guy. But they drank the cool-aid that the new GM sold them. Need young core and to be solid up the middle. Org would serve itself well to sell pitchers and really do a rebuild instead of making the Manager the fall guy. ChopOn.
I don’t see how the manager is responsible for awful starting pitching and a horrendous bullpen. Last night’s decision to pull Syndergaard seems silly, but Syndergaard hasn’t exactly been pitching well this year.
Mickey is likely getting fired, but I don’t see the Mets being much better than .500 even with the best manager on Earth.
Well thats just it, we’re definitely not better than a .500 team, however Mickey is NOT helping at all. With a mediocre team you need to squeeze as much value out as possible, and that means putting the right guys in positions to succeed. So far that has not been the case going on 1.5 years now.
They should fire Fred Wilpon.
Unfortunately owners cannot be fired, so the only ways he can lose the franchise are either 1.Death. 2.Selling the Mets. 3.Give them to his children.
Donald Sterling. Start the rumors
4. Invest in another pyramid scheme.
Sure he hasn’t said anything racist or sexually harrassed anyone?
The Mets should fire everyone except Jeff McNeil…
Sure, the Mets suck, but Callaway needs to go.
What if Mickey Callaway fires the Wilpons and the WIlpons fire Mickey Callaway at the exact same time? That’s what I vote for.
The Wilpons can’t be fired, though.
They can be fired into the sun. Which fits perfectly with your username, by the way.
The Like button doesn’t cover this for me
I do think Calloway needs to go, but Brodie needs to go more. That deal for Cano and Diaz was typical Mets stupidity. Brodie was just trying to “make a splash” and get his name all over Now York media in his first Mets offseason. I am sure Seattle was shocked and relieved they could find some idiot GM to take that Cano contract off their hands. I can’t believe that anyone thought he would be anywhere near good enough over the next half decade to pay him that kind of money on an albatross of a contract. Mickey can only work with the players he has. They were a 4th place team last year, and the roster didn’t really get much better. They are lucky the Nats are doing so bad. That’s the only reason they even made it as high as third place. I had them pegged to finish in 4th place again. The manager is actually over performing when everything is considered.
The Mets put Jeurys Familia in charge of firing Callaway and he blew that too.
The WONTPONS have paid for a team of Mediocrity. They don’t care about being good or competitive as long as the ceiling is $165 million. Mickey is at-best a Mediocre manager. He has delivered exactly what BVW and the WONTPONS have give him to work with.
At least the Mets have had a positive draft
Fire Calloway so the Tigers can hire him as pitching coach! Nothing wrong with Rick Anderson, the current one, but I don’t think he wants to serve as pitching coach for the next 5-7 years when Mize, Manning, Faedo, and Franklin Perez develop.
They should fire him and the coaches as well.
Fire everyone from the GM down to the secretary’s. They need to start breaking necks and taking checks.
Fire the fans!
I might call my worst enemy a dog, but never a Mets fan.
Not the secretary!!!
Mickey seems like a good guy and was a very respected pitching coach in Cleveland. However, he has no clue as to how run a pitching staff. Granted, the cupboard in the bullpen is threadbare, but he relies on the same arms every day and they are gassed. When he has a chance to extend a starter, he doesn’t. I never like to see someone get fired, but a change needs to be made while there is still a chance.
….can we trade Carl Willis for Mickey Calloway and international bonus pool money? We’ll throw in Jordan Luplow if you’d like…
The only reason I’m hoping Callaway gets fired is my pipe dream that CLE will offer him his old job back and get rid of Carl Willis once and for all.
Brodie deserves more blame for this than Mickey imo. They get Cano as their big offensive weapon? The Lowrie deal was dumb as well. Could have gotten DJ to play second and traded for a guy like Mitch Haniger. The roatation will come around. They kept talking about spending money and going for it. Getting Cano and Lowrie was the soft way out. There were several other guys out there.
A bit to unpack here…
1. What exactly makes the Lowrie deal “dumb”? The fact that he hasn’t played all year? Sorry, but it doesn’t work like that. When he signed the deal, Lowrie was a guy who had played 310 combined games in 2017-2018 and had been a solidly above average major league hitter in both of those years. Anyone who tries to claim that they knew he was going to miss the first 1/3 of the season is lying. It wasn’t a “dumb” signing. It is just an unfortunate outcome.
2. You say they could have gotten DJ LeMahieu and Haniger… but could they have? What makes you think Haniger was even available? He didn’t end up getting traded. Who says DJ wanted to be a Met? This isn’t a video game. I’m also a little suspicious of anyone who hasn’t seen DJL play every day claiming that they would have preferred him over Lowrie entering this year. His fangraphs page doesn’t really tell you all the little things he does to help a team. As a Yankee fan I wasn’t thrilled with the signing when I first heard of it. Then I watched him play and it made sense.
I know they should make him shave. Same for the Rangers manager. They look homeless.
There is no “pittance” too small for the Wilpons to ignore. Aren’t they the ones who tried to make minor leaguers pay to exercise during fall workouts a few years ago? Even Tampa Bay, the kings of cheap, wouldn’t stoop that low!
Just be glad that you’re not Baltimore, the real kheap kings
“I admit, I have no idea about what I’m about to comment on, but here goes…” What a dopey thing to say.
He’s supposed to be a pitching guru. But the Mets pitchers have actually regressed under his watch.
Anyone else not shocked the Mets we’re going to struggle this year? I called this one out. That new manager tried to do a 2015 padres with the Mets instead of breaking it down and starting from scratch.
Gee, it’s almost as if making the agent of one of your players the general manager of your team was a bad idea. Who da thunk it?
They should get rid of him in the offseason if they really think it’ll help. Firing him now won’t do anything though, aside from make the fans feel better until they realize that their problems run deeper than Callaway. At least if they fire him during the offseason they can address their other issues at the same time and maybe trick the fans into thinking that firing Callaway actually accomplished something.
I’m not sure. Was he a Brodie client before he became the GM? If so, he’s probably safe for life.
Calloway is a baseball genius. It isn’t his fault he has not one good player
Put Mickey out of his misery already. Let him go be a pitching coach somewhere. I’m sure he’ll be much happier.
MLB should just fire the Mets
#FreeMickey…….so he can return to Cleveland and take over for Willis.
Best case scenario for sure
They should fire Wilpon
Hire Joe Girardi, he’ll do well.
cant blame him for the lack of talent and injuries, so why fire him?
“There have been suggestions at times that the Wilpons would rather not pay Callaway his salary while also ponying up for a replacement skipper”. Imagine that. And that is so much of the problem. I voted to can Callaway, but only because I think at this point they should blow the whole thing up and rebuild. And Mets fans can hope that as the next core comes up, they end up with ownership willing to spend money to supplement that core with actual good players.
The blame isn’t solely on Mickey Callaway, many of the signings by BVW are not panning out.. BUT, Mickey has no clue how to manage the bullpen. He also will not stop double switching Alonso out of the game when he isn’t a bad defender.. the main issue with this is often times he’s pulled from the game and then his bullpen decisions backfire and we need his bat again. I’m tired of the same song and dance that is going on with Callaway and the FO. I have much more trust in somebody like Girardi to at least not make the same mistakes with the personnel on the field that Callaway is making. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m trying to be as optimistic as possible and not be extremely toxic like most fans on MLBTR and Twitter have been.. doesn’t change anything.
Agree with Alonso getting yanked
It’s silly best bat
Dominic Smith needs to play thou
How about BVW being blamed? He traded for Cano who looks like a 36 year old second baseman (with 5 years remaining on his contract). The Familia signing (3 years-30Mil) was an overspend. I just feel like BVW didn’t do enough to drastically improve this roster. Other than Alonso they don’t have any significant hitters in the lineup.
While it’s a story, Taking a poll is in poor taste.
Two words: Wally Backman
WILPONZI
Sure, the current mess has lots of blame.to go around… But doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result is insanity, so something has to change if the Mets aren’t throwing in the towel on the season
The big problem with Calloway is that while he may not be doing a lot obviously wrong, he’s also given the Mets painfully few reasons why they need to keep him. He appears, at best, easily replaceable, so might as well replace him and see if it makes any difference
Riggleman is nit the answer and if a change is made in season, he is there to take over. Better to let this play out. Thor threw him under the bus and regardless of him being right or not, Calloway needs to step up as the manager and put him in his place. I’d skip his rotation turn. Could actually unite the players to see no one is above the team. If not, Calloway has at this point nothing to lose.
Riggleman doesn’t have to be the replacement.
And Callaway doesn’t appear to have any answers of his own. Something has to change, and the manager is the easiest thing to change.
Art Howe, Jeff Torborg, George Bamberger were better Mets managers than callaway.
Callaway is a glorified pitching coach
Get rid of him.
Absolutely not. Its all Van Waganen. He made that comical trade with Seattle where Dipoto took him to the cleaners. He handed out awful contracts to Familia and Lowrie. Ramos has been very meh. Brodie thinks he is the $&it when in reality he is a donkey.
Yeah, I mean if Lowrie ever comes back where would he even play? I do like the Ramos pick up in my opinion. He is a legit hitter. But the Familia pick up is ridiculous.. And this isn’t hind sight. I hated from day one he was signed just like I am sure a lot of us was. I don’t know if he’s injured or he has hit the wall.. But he at no point can be trusted. And you see it when he pitches to any part of the batting order.
And he sucked last year
Yep. And he’s signed for like another 2 years?
Callaway was brought in because of his experience as a solid pitching coach. The pitching has sucked from rotation to bullpen. His strong suit is the weakest area of the team
I know there is a million issues with the Mets.. But can somebody please tell me the last time Famila has pitched a 1-2-3 inning? I swear every time that dumpster fire comes in it’s always a walk or a hit or a hit batter or a run. He’s a disaster. He can’t come into any game unless there is a 15 run lead.. and even then it will get dicey.
Time for some Rigglementum!
Mike Scioscia
Callaway should be fired simply because of all this drama surrounding his position. I doubt it’s not bugging him. It’s not fun to hear your job is on the line day-in and day-our,
Callaway is so overmatched, it’s painful to watch. He has no business being a manager, classic case of someone who needs to stay with what they’re good at. His personality is so out of place for NYC. With that being said, a mid season switch to Riggelman probably won’t bring in much for results. The team simply has too many holes and BVW did a poor job this offseason.