35 Years of Misery & Counting
They say a manager really only makes a difference for a handful of games during a long, 162-game season, but I don’t necessarily believe that. Girardi was always my 1st pick for our new manager. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if Brodie Van Wagenen made the right decision in hiring Carlos Beltran instead of Joe.
Here we go again, the best manager available on the market and we can’t get him. To make matters worse, he signs with our division rival Phillies. I’ll tell you what: whoever Brodie Van Wagenen does hire, they go up or down together.
Do the Mets have to make everything hard? I mean, Beltran played for us, had some great years as a player, is a borderline HOF’er and seems like an all-around likeable guy who would especially appeal to the Latino players on the club. But like Mickey Callaway did before the Mets hired him, Beltran also has zero managing experience (at least Callaway was a pitching coach) and thus would need someone with a wealth of experience to serve as his bench coach. And I get whole ex-players-with-no-managing-experience-becoming-managers being a trend of late, but when you got the kind of experience, know-how, passion and winning that comes with Joe Girardi, to me should be a no-brainer: hire Girardi already.
Even though they didn’t make the playoffs this year, 86-76 and 3rd place in the NL East is still a big improvement from 2018. And of course, who isn’t excited about the breakout season’s J.D. Davis, Pete Alonso and Seth Lugo had? Plus, there’s a good possibility of back-to-back Cy Young’s for Jacob deGrom. That said, I place most of the blame for us not making the playoffs on Edwin Diaz and Mickey Callaway. Diaz was a disappointment all season long and Callaway’s in-game decision-making at times was not only head-scratching, but atrocious. But Diaz is signed for next year and thus, most likely isn’t going anywhere soon. While Callaway, after two straight season’s of not making the postseason, could be let go, esp. since he wasn’t Brodie Van Wageman’s hire in the first place. And if Callaway is let go, to me the Mets search for a new manager starts and ends with Joe Girardi (if he wants the job), a proven winner, a guy with plenty of experience, know-how and a New Yorker tried and true.