Mets manager Mickey Callaway has been on a warm seat for a good bit of his tenure. The temperature has gone up and down at various points, but has never fully cooled — even as GM Brodie Van Wagenen offered near-term support for the skipper. After a disappointing season featuring good-but-not-great results following significant roster investments, should the team move on?
When we asked back in June whether the Mets should dump Callaway in the middle of the season, two-thirds of respondents were in favor. The club sank further from that point but then bounced back and will likely finish the season with a winning record. But the postseason won’t happen barring a total miracle. (Current odds, per Fangraphs: 0.3%.)
It’s awfully difficult to blame Callaway entirely for the way things have gone. Injuries and lack of roster depth in key areas have hurt. Not all of the baseball operations decisions have worked out as hoped. The bullpen has been a mess beyond Callaway’s control, even if his management of it hasn’t always been optimal. He has at least held things together through an undeniably difficult stretch. And he’s already under contract for 2020 with an option for another season.
On the other hand, Callaway has now been at the helm for a pair of seasons without a postseason appearance to show for it. He wasn’t hired by Van Wagenen, for what that’s worth. There’s year-to-year improvement in terms of wins and losses, but it’s also fair to wonder whether the overall mix is one that will allow the Mets to break through in a tough division. Roster maximization is always the key, but there’s an argument that a makeover in the dugout leadership would be a sensible accompaniment for some other offseason changes — if only to instill a sense of urgency. There are some venerable former managers out there in search of new gigs, with more potentially soon to join them.
In the unlikely event that the Mets somehow sneak into a Wild Card spot, it seems fair to presume that Callaway will be safe. But if the season ends in the manner it’s likely to — nice try, but falling short — what ought the organization do? (Poll link for app users.)
I’d like the Mets to pick up Girardi personally. Pay the man what he wants and have a real leader making decisions
Girardi will probably be managing the Cubs.
Bochy will be managing the Cubs before Girardi will. And since Bochy won’t be managing the Cubs and neither will David Ross nor Ryne Sandberg, it will be someone like Loretta or someone relatively unknown.
Hence the word “probably”, and not the word definitely. “Bochy will be managing the Cubs before Girardi will” There’s not a chance on earth Bochy waives retirement for the Cubs vs managing the Padres.
Nah…safe bet is David Ross
Ozzie Guileen
He’s an asshat and no surprise he hasn’t been in demand as an MLB manager.
Is your name in relation to the Great Ivan Putski by any chance??? He was one of all-time favorite old school wrestlers, along with Bruno Sammartino.
I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE to have Ozzie frickin Gillien as Mets manager, just for the press conferences ALONE?!! LOL, not only is he a solid manager, he’s FUNNY AF!!!
Still waiting to see the former white Sox manager’s name spelled correctly….bueller? feel like I’m on Ozzie Gilligan’s island right now.
Edgardo Alfonzo.
Girardi as Manager..Callaway as pitching coach
Has any Mets pitcher gotten better the past two seasons? Syndergaard wants to blame Ramos, Wheeler will most likely be gone, Matz has had a decent second half but still is a #4 at best, Stroman is still a question mark, every relief pitcher outside of a Lugo has just been terrible. As a manager who is supposed to be a pitching guru, don’t you think he would have had some influence by now?
This is two years in a row he was handed one of the best pitching staffs in the game and what has he done with it?
Never happen. Not going to go from manager to being demoted to PC. Cut the cord; let him go. Doesn’t know how to manage a game in the NL. Made some really poor decisions that makes me scratch my head; how does a guy who’s been in baseball so long make such inane decisions?
Absolutely he’s the worst in game manager I’ve ever seen-somehow worse than Jerry Manuel. I expect him back though given that he’ll finish over .500 this year and the Wilpons are fine with .500.
Then you never watched Alan Trammell manage.
Why is there an option for no? Is it for Nats, Phils and Braves fans? Can’t think of another valid reason 🙂
As a Braves fan…I hope they sign him to an extension!
Exactly was I was thinking, snit is the chit
He will get at least one more year as manager because of the second-half turnaround and near playoff appearance after being 11 games under .500 in July.
As for the criticisms of his bullpen management, he has had to spend most of the season with only two relievers that can be trusted with a slim lead (Seth Lugo and Justin Wilson). Managing that over a long-stretch is a logistical nightmare for anyone. The easiest way the Mets can improve next year is to figure out what happened to Familia and Diaz and see if they can return to their pre-2019 forms.
He has been a horror to the bullpen. Last year burning out lugo and gman by July, burning out familia last year as well and going to Sewald more than once ever is a horrendous decision. The same can be said this year. He burnt out gman again, this time even earlier. Diaz was atrocious but was used a lot in April, which is never a good thing. He has left key guys on the bench during these past two weeks of must win baseball and played Frazier wayyyyy more than he should have. Yes he had to work with what he has, but so does the athletics, and the brewers, and the rays, and the twins. And they seem to make it work just fine. He is not a manager. He never was and never will be. I love the idea of girardi but that won’t happen because the Wilpons want a yes man. As for the comment below this regarding a new gm, honestly, what did he do wrong this year? Nobody could see Canó’s first half (evident by his much better past month and a half). Nobody saw arguably the best closer last year being worse than the above mentioned sewald, and nobody saw the baseball changing making pitchers like Diaz familia and Noah have trouble, and nobody mentions Davis or Ramos or Wilson or avilan etc. or bringing up alonso at the start. Maybe give the guy a couple years to see what he can do before jumping on him!
Pretty good pitching coach…not great manager. I also don’t think he’s the right man for a) a New York team or b) a Brodie Van Wagenen led team.
Yet he hasn’t really managed the pitching staff that well. And I fully believe that the pitchers are mostly to blame.
They should replace their gm this fall
Rick Hahn is available
amen
Replace the Owners and the General Manager first
wilpons gotta go…no f.ing doubt
Therein lies the problem. Especially Jeff.
The amount of turmoil in his clubhouse that has made it out the public is reason enough to let him go. That is poor leadership at its core. They need someone in there that can get the entire team on the same path and instill a winning mentality. It’s hard to do that when the team is looking down and in at itself instead of up and out to its competitors.
Girardi
Some injuries affected team’s performance – some egos too. That thing of a player/pitcher telling his manager he wants x or y catcher to caught his pitches is beyond ridiculous. Who is in charge?
@julyn82001 Seems like players/athletes in general are getting more control and power over that stuff these days then in the past, or at least trying to take it. Switching sports here for a second, but we just had 2 CB’s in the NFL demand trades because they don’t like the way the team is using them.
Should the coach/manager be in charge of that stuff rather then any one player on the team? Yes, but seems like players are getting/taking more of a say in it.
pitchers have been asking for a “personal” catcher for many years. think about Steve carlton and Tim McCarver. the thing is though, it usually never gets out of the clubhouse.
Did anyone seriously expect the Mets to still be mathematically alive on September 24th at the beginning of the season? Even if they don’t make it in, to even be in the conversation at this point means Callaway has done a phenomenal job with the team they have. If anyone deserves to be let go it is the agent posing as a GM. Nearly every trade he made worked out better for the other team than for his team.
I expected the Mets to run away with the division.
I completely agree, hiflew.
This is an easy question. Callaway can’t manage his way out of a paper bag. Makes terrible decisions with the daily line up and is an awful in game Manager.
However, I would be surprised if they make the change. This organization loves that they can manipulate Callaway. That is all that matters to them. Hiring someone else who is more forceful may present a problem so it’s not gonna happen. At least this off-season.
SHOULD Callaway be replaced? Nah, the Mets are playing to just about their talent level.
WILL he be replaced? Oh ya. Brodie loves the spotlight. And he inherited Callaway.
Will Giradi go there? Nah. Joe is a GREAT, GREAT manager. But, like the similarly talented Larussa and Showalter, he knows it; and has the ego to match it. There’s not enough room in the whole Big Apple for Brodie and Joe.
The Mets talent is mostly fine. It’s their bullpen. They blew almost 30 games. Give them a half way decent pen and that’s an additional 10-12 wins. Puts them right up there with the Braves. Mickey makes bad decisions on top costing them another 10. They just need a pen and a competent manager
Callaway isn’t good but the real problem is with the GM.
Fire the owner instead.
amen
Poor bullpen management. Always looks like he’s in over his head. Time for a change.
Showalter would be great given the team’s youth.
As much as I hated Mickey’s decision making, he deserves credit for a tremendous 2nd half. He also had a good second half last year.
With that being said, it’s time to move on. The Mets have a very small window now to win with Degrom and Thor as their marquee players. IMO An experienced manager like Girardi, Hurdle, Or Maddon would be great fits for this team.
Former Met Lenny Dykstra stays in the News.. was in it again just yesterday for skipping out on a celebrity boxing event. Maybe his fiery attitude could be channeled in a positive way to get the team to focus and win? he’s always been a NYM 1st and foremost, just like old NYY manager Martin was, the drunkard he was who drew negative publicity, but DID win and got the team focused.
Different times, yes, but could Dykstra do something like Martin did?
Hell no!
This is the worst idea I’ve witnessed on this site. I hope it’s a joke.
Edgardo Alfonzo, Moises Alou, Luis Rojas, Omar Vizquel, and David Wright should be the managerial candidates. no way can Callaway be back next year
Another year with the same routine with the Mets.
1) Fire Manager
2) Hire new manager who is touted as the savior
3) Make overrated moves during the offseason to outshine the Yankees in the NY news that the Mets Hype Machine, beat writers, and fans consider game changers that will lead them to the promised land.
4) Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, and the rest of the broadcast team continue to serve the Kool-Aid at the stand.
5) Some point during the season, reality kicks in.
6) Mets fans and beat writers call for the head of the manager, front office personnel, ownership, and even Mister Met.
7) Wash…rinse…repeat…
*Of note: The same thing happens with front office personnel.
At least they entertain the rest of the fans in the NL East that root for the Braves, Nats, Phillies, and Marlins. No matter how bad any of our seasons go, we can always count on the Mets on taking the spotlight away from that by being the laughing stock of the division…every…single…year…and counting.
MarlinsFanBase the oxymoron of all oxymorons.
Yeah, like the Mets had a full house when you count the empty seats last night. However, everyone knows that you Mets fans all bail out on your team when the weather ain’t fair to the point of the bandwagon cancelling it’s ride.
the Marlins have NO ONE @ their games on DAY 1 in a city owned park..AZZ kissing TV personalities. The cheapest team around. with the. double A players. You gave away 2 MVP in 2 years. they went from Florida Marlins to Miami Marlins and soon to be triple A Marlins. Please
“Azz kissing personalities”? We don’t have Darling, Hernandez, and Thorne.
BTW, I loved seeing all of the empty seats last night….again. I guess the weather is no longer fair to be riding in a badwagon…if it’s even running anymore this year.
That shows what little you know, Hernandez got a Met manager fired because he called him out, Darling does national(TBS, MLB) broadcast and you must not watch the Met game because Gary Cohen does the Mets TV games.
Craig Minervini is a Met fan, Todd Hollandsworth thinks every Marlin player is going to be great,, Paul Severino knows nothing about BB. and then they have some fluff on the sidelines bring no info at all. 16 TV announcer since they began.. I since you LOVE SEEING EMPTY SEATS you must really be a Marlin Fan because in that CITY OWNED park you have to have DOGS in the PARK and Saturday games, or are the DOGS the Marlin player dates. woff woff
Are the Mets dedicated fans going to fill the seats today or have you all bailed out to go watch the Jets…uh…the Giants…uh…the Knicks…uh..?
Marlinfanbase—and you are the ONLY Marlin fan. Ya you won 2 W/S when you had an owner who spent money BUT YOU DON’T HAVE THAT ANYMORE. Also Citifield was only empty when the stinky fish came up to NYC. Stinky fish—-
.
LOL at “…when you had an owner who spent money BUT YOU DON’T HAVE THAT ANYMORE.”
I love love love when you all show that you know nothing about any team other than the Mets. Every single other fan base on the planet knows that Jeffery Loria did not want to spend money. Under his watch, multiple times the MLBPA filed grievances against the Marlins for their usage of revenue sharing. That’s how bad it was! All the contracts for Stanton, Chen, etc. were deferred to the exact year, months after, he sold the team and the new owners were officially leading and responsible for payroll. LMFAO at you!
Oh yeah…and we were dancing in the streets of South Florida when Loria and David Sampson were officially gone!
Know before you make statements that are insanely laughable.
I notice that all Mets fans are doing here is taking shots, but not one of them can deny my ‘same routine with the Mets’ comment above. It must be that the truth can’t be argued and that it hurts at the same time.
I can copy and post that message many many many many more years. It will still ring true.
Wash…rinse…repeat…
You know what the same routine is:
W. L. PCT. GB
MIA 55. 103. .348. 41.5
Wash. Rinse . Repeat. Fool!
Uh, we don’t repeat the same season over and over again. But since you’re obviously one of those Mets fans who doesn’t know anything about the other 29 teams, you wouldn’t be aware of this.
Here’s some history:
Mets = 2 championships in 58 seasons.
Marlins = 2 championships in 27 seasons.
At that pace, I’d take the Marlins wash…rinse…repeat any day over the Mets wash…rinse…repeat.
Did a Marlins fan really just throw shade on another team? Is this real life?
It’s the Mets. Is there any fan base that can’t make fun of them considering their wash…rinse…repeat cycle of things every…single…year?
On another note…at least the greatest pitching staff in MLB history won all those championships in that Mets dynasty, otherwise, this would be a sad year for the Mets. Good job to those great years by deGrom, Syndergaard, Harvey, Matz, and Wheeler.
Doesn’t really matter who manages the games. All the calls come from Brodie and his clique.
I can’t help feeling like Callaway can’t handle the pressures of NY. He did well in Cleveland but that was as a pitching coach, not as stressful as manager. He’s probably done in NY. Gerardi has proven himself as a manager and being able to handle the hype and stress of the big apple, so I’m looking at the available options he’s likely #1. But if he wants it, or wants it under Wilson control is the question.
Wilpon.. not Wilson
Mike Scioscia come on in.
If the Mets are serious about winning now, they will go with a manager who has a proven winning record of improving teams, Dusty Baker. (I don’t know of any other person available that has a better track record.) They can hire a bench coach to observe and learn from Mr. Baker. They should also trade Familia. They should sign Bartolo Colon to eat up innings as the set-up man and closer. He could also mentor Diaz and the other young pitchers.
**
Dusty Baker
*He’s still the only manager to lead the Nationals to a back-to-back division titles.
Overall, Baker was 192-132 in his two years in Washington.
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.
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. 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.
He’s 70 years old. I don’t think he wants to manage anymore. He’s too old for this.
Callaway may be on the way out. I doubt they replace him with any manager like Girardi. What the Mets will get is another Callaway or someone along those lines.
There are reasons an older managers like Girardi no longer manages a team. Cost is only one of them.
The problem is first you have to come cheap. Second you have the be a suck up to Jeff Wilpon. Puke. Third, you have a GM who has proved nothing. So you’ll end up getting some third base coach who will make the same mistakes. So what’s the difference?
Its funny to remember that everyone thought Atlanta would be 4th place – behind the Mets.
Who thought that?
Many talking heads had them 3rd or 4th after winning the division last year, made for a good laugh.
Should the Cubs let Maddon walk, Callaway is gone and Joe is in.
Joe is smart enough to stay away from the Mets.
I think we should keep him. I think Van Wagenen needs to be in the hot seat bringing in Diaz and Cano. So we are locked up in Cano’s crap contract for 5 years 110 million still and a closer who blew 8 saves this year. What are we 5 games out of the wild card and if Diaz didn’t blow half these saves we are still one game out.Van Wagenen is the problem. He could have gotten a closer without putting us on the hook for another $100 million contract and we still would have the prospects we traded.That had to be one of the dumbest trades in Mets history. Cano’s numbers suck so bad.
Diaz blew far more than 8 saves.
Not a big Calloway fan, but look at the crap VW gave him. Injuries hurt, as well. Also didn’t help that Thor went belly up in his last five starts.
No matter who the new manger is (And, yes, there will be a new manager.) he’ll have dead wood Diaz and Cano on the team. Maybe even the injury prone Cespedes, too.
Frazier is gone as is Lagares. JD Davis proved he can play and a healthy Nimmo will surely help.
Wheeler? Tough call. He’s gonna want big bucks and he really didn’t pitch all that great.
1..girardi is most likely waiting for the cubs job to open up. 2.mets need to resign lagares. They have no right handed outfielders with defense( conforto , nimmo, mcneil all lefties, who know about cespedes) 3. If they can find a sucker for cano and diaz ,then make it worth while, make it a huge trade, throw in syndergaard, matz or stroman.. familia back at closer.all ifs but if they can unload cano or even cespedes you have 1 variation of davis, nimmo, conforto, lagares in the OF. And alonso,mcneil,rosario, and either resign frazier for 1 yr, or j d. At 3rd. Plus you never know who is going to get traded off.
Idk if it could happen but I had wanted the Mets to hire and new manager and just reassign Callaway to be the Pitching coach. Guess he wouldn’t want to take the step back and take orders from a new Supervisor essentially on the same team he used to run.