The Mets formally removed Terry Collins from his post as manager earlier this month, shifting him to a front office role and embarking on a search to replace the longest-tenured manager in franchise history. Since that time, they’ve been connected to a flurry of names, some speculatively and others more definitively. Reportedly, the Mets began interviewing candidates earlier this week.
As we’ve done with the Tigers, Phillies, and Red Sox, we’ll house all of the managerial chatter for the Mets in one place and update accordingly as candidates either further their case or are removed from consideration. Here’s where the Mets’ search stands, at present:
Latest Updates
- The Mets appear to have wrapped up their first round of interviews, per Marc Carig of Newsday (via Twitter). New York doesn’t have plans to meet with Indians coach Sandy Alomar Jr., though Mike Puma of the New York Post hears Alomar or even other candidates could conceivably still enter the picture.
- What is clear at this point is that there’s a slate of five candidates to have completed first-round interviews: Joe McEwing, Kevin Long, Alex Cora, Mickey Callaway, and Manny Acta. As Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald writes, though, the expectation remains that Cora will end up getting the Red Sox’ job, which would potentially knock the field back to four. There’s no indication as of yet as to which of these candidates will be brought back for a second meeting, though Puma says that process will begin next week.
Will Interview/Have Interviewed
- White Sox bench coach Joe McEwing has had his interview, as Mike Puma of the New York Post recently reported (via Twitter). The former big league utilityman has been in the Chicago organization since 2008, working as a minor league coach and manager before being promoted to the big league coaching staff; McEwing served as the bench coach last season after five years as the Sos third base coach.
- Mets hitting coach Kevin Long has interviewed for the position, as Mike Puma of the New York Post first reported. Long has minor league managerial experience in addition to 11 seasons as a Major League hitting coach (2007-14 with the Yankees, 2015-17 with the Mets). Long, Puma writes, has earned the trust of the Mets’ front office with his communication skills and grasp of analytics. He’s not currently signed beyond the 2017 season. [Update: Long has had his interview, Newsday’s Marc Carig tweets.]
- ESPN’s Marly Rivera reports that Astros bench coach Alex Cora is part of the Mets’ first wave of managerial interviews (Twitter link). Cora has experience managing in winter ball in addition to his current role as Houston’s bench coach and is a coveted managerial candidate; he’s also reportedly set for an interview with the Tigers and has been connected to the Red Sox as well.
- The Mets sat down with Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway on Wednesday, per Mike Puma of the New York Post (via Twitter). Previously, we had learned that the team was “expected to show interest” in Callaway, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweeted. Callaway is regarded as one of the game’s best in his current role, but he’s beginning to garner managerial interest around the game as well.
- New York is also interviewing Manny Acta, per ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (via Twitter). Acta is currently the Mariners’ third base coach — a position he once held with the Mets — and has previously skippered the Nationals and Indians.
Not in the Mix/No Longer in Consideration
- While the Mets had “serious interest” in recently dismissed Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, according to Peter Gammons (Twitter link), that was evidently not reciprocal. Ausmus has decided not to pursue the position. Former White Sox skipper Robin Ventura, too, is said not to have much interest in the opportunity. (Ventura tells Puma that he was not specifically rejecting interest from the Mets. Rather, he is “not pursuing any of the [current managerial] openings,” he says.) Likewise, Dodgers bench coach Bob Geren and A’s third base coach Chip Hale aren’t under consideration, per Marc Carig of Newsday. Those potential candidates were among the preliminary names under consideration, as listed by Carig (with FanRag’s Jon Heyman, the New York Post’s Mike Puma, and Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News also reporting).
- One other previously cited possibility, Indians first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr., is not presently scheduled to meet with the team as it moves to second-round interviews, Carig tweets. But it’s at least theoretically possible still that he or others could yet be considered, Puma writes.
- Carig reports that the Mets don’t have interest in pursuing recently fired Red Sox skipper John Farrell (Twitter link).
- Rays third base coach Charlie Montoyo, who had previously been rumored to be in the mix for the job, is not a consideration according to Puma (on Twitter).
This isn’t an accusation, just a general question:
What are the rules to a team claiming they “will interview” someone and avoiding any sort of tampering? If that someone is currently under another contract, wouldn’t they have to have permission to interview?
I thought this too when reports surfaced that they’d be interested in Girardi.
That is a good question but there are strict tampering rules in place to prevent a Club from talking to another club’s employee while under contract. So if a team has interest in say a Alex Cora, they would have to ask Houston’s permission to interview him. A lot of what you read on blogs are educated guesses and in some instances, propaganda influenced by a agent of a perspective client.
That certainly crossed my mind, that some of this could be pure speculation. Or even that a journalist spoke to someone in the F.O. and they made mention, “in a perfect world, we’d love Girardi.” And ran with it.
I guess part of this could be journalists thinking their suspicions are fact.
You can have Dusty Baker
So, it’s Dusty’s fault that
Turner hit .143
Wieters hit .143
Zimmerman hit .143
Werth hit .167
Rendon hit .176
Harper/Murphy hit .211??
Nats the new Braves of early 2000’s…dominate regular season and then get bounced 1st round of playoffs every year. Feel your pain…
Dominate the N.L. Least.
Fixed that for you.
Braves made it to the World Series….
Not in the early 2000’s when the commenter was mentioning. Braves made it to the World Series a few times in the 90’s, but only got out of the division series once in 2000 & beyond.
It’s Dusty’s fault that he routinely mismanaged games though. And those averages are also in incredibly small sample sizes.
First of all, blaming a manager for not winning a championship based on principle is stupid.
Second, all Dusty Baker does is win—everywhere he goes. In fact, he’s won more games than most active managers has. More proof that you have to be perfect to get any respect when you’re a person of color in this screwed up world.
I can guarentee you that this has nothing to do with race. I don’t think he’s an incredibly bad manager, I just don’t think he’s a very good one.
You should know incredibly bad managers goat, supporting TC over the past few years.
If we’re limiting the discussion to just this season, maybe you have a point.
You don’t lose multiple series over multiple seasons and continue to dismiss the manager from responsibility.
Harper choked when it matters the most. No way does he get close to $500 million now.
I wouldn’t bet 500 mil on that statement.
He was never getting $500M. He’ll still get somewhere in the $350M-$450M range most likely, and this series will do nothing to stop that from happening. You think one bad series is going to deter a team like the Yankees or Phillies from offering him $35M for 10-12 years?
You forget the three other teams he managed into the ground
Runners left on base
Werth 7
Harper 2
Zimmerman 11
Murphy 5 hard to win if you can’t come up with the big at bat
It’s Dusty’s fault how the pitchers were hooked throughout the series.
Dusty Baker is not a winning manager. I am thinking….Marty Shotenhiemer from football.
Life long Mets fan, I can remember back in the 70″s there were rumors of aDave Kingman to the Dodgers trade for Dusty. I didn’t want him then. I want him less now
I’m sorry, but if you win more games than you lose, you are a winning manager
So if you have teams that should have a win % of say .550+ and you have a .532 win percentage, one WS appearance and no titles with some talented teams you are a winning manager?
Good managers/coaches can take a below average team and make them better. Then there’s the Dusty’s of the world that take above average or good teams and underperform.
Hey DT-then he’s perfect for the Mets
Well Dusty had a nice career in a dodger uniform so the guy could play ball. No need to be critical of his playing days…
When the Nats hired Dusty I knew that they wouldn’t win. He’s not a good manager.
Ventura????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
McEwing was the White Sox’s third base coach, but as of this year he’s the bench coach.
Alex Cora could be a really good choice. Young and analytical could relate to the teams youth perhaps better than an older manager. With that said hope they look at Gardenhire, I know he used to play for the Mets years ago.
Sorry don’t know why that posted twice.
What happened with Tim Bogar that he is no longer the hot candidate to be a future manager?
Other names that should be on lists:
Mark Kotsay
Gabe Kapler
Pat Murphy
Bogar would rather be a GM than a manager, especially now that teams are managed by computer-based algorithms behind the scenes.
Mark Kotsay isn’t looking for job, got to remember he left during season because of his daughter eye injury… Don’t think he looking to be back until that all taken care of as family first
Pete Rose?
Mike Schmidt?
Tom Glavine?
Harold Reynolds?
Kevin Millar?
John Smoltz?
Curt Schilling?
John Kruk?
Mike Pizza?
Al Lieter?
You are JOKING right? Rose could never be a manager in MLB again
Someone hitting the sauce a little early this Monday ? Pete Rose?
Actually his senior moment occurred Sunday…
Did you just list all the MLB Network personalities and suggest the Mets would hire them?
If you were a GM and you look at how competitive and how well the Phillies played in September, wouldn’t you want a veteran manager like Pete Mackanin? Despite a poor record the players continued to play hard and they finally started to win once he was given a more talented group.
Mackanin was never going to be the long-term answer at manager, so it was smart to get rid of him sooner rather than later. Yes, the Phillies will likely be better next season, whether Mackanin is the manager or not, but if he was still in the dugout they might end up feeling obligated to let him continue manage…and get stuck in mediocrity.
Do you believe Mackanin is the guy who is going to lead the Phillies to championship? Do you seem him here enjoying a run like Manuel had? If your answer is yes, then it was a mistake to dump him. However, if you don’t believe those things, and think that Mackanin is and always was just a placeholder for the long-term manager, then why keep him? To fire him later? That doesn’t make much sense.
How old is Pete? 80?
Dusty bungled the Giants chances against my Angels in the 2002 WS. Bless you, Dusty!
Nice to know they’re basically leaving no stone unturned.
“The Mets have serious interest in Brad Ausmus,” according to Peter Gammons (Twitter link). However, with Ausmus only recently fired by the Tigers, the team feels Ausmus could benefit from a year away from the game.
This is about as stupid as anything I’ve read. The Mets are seriously interested but want to wait one year. So what are they going to do? Hire someone for just one year and tell Brad that they’ll get back with him after the season? This sounds like a management group that has no clue.
Gammons talking about the Mets, a perfect match, this is ludicious!
Exactly. Its Just typical Peter Gammons mumble jumble talking out of his ass as usual saying nothing but taking both sides so if something happens he can say he was right. Gammons has always been an idiot. I have no clue why some respect his reporting
That’s a typical Mets move actually.
Leylandslung, that was about the silliest thing I’ve ever read. He didn’t ask them to find someone for a year he just said he’s not ready to find a new team and was going to take a year off. Which he certainly can do and look at teams who fire their manager next year. Common sense just isn’t so common.
It’s pretty sad when you consider Robin Ventura a valid candidate, and even sadder when he won’t accept your interest.
Well Dusty had a nice career in a dodger uniform so the guy could play ball. No need to be critical of his playing days…
It’s amazing that Farrell gets fired after a World Series win in Boston and 3 division championships and Dusty keeps job. Nats should hire Farrell.
I would really wish the Mets would take a look at Joe Madden’s right hand man, Dave Martinez. This guy is baseball smart and young too.
Only the Tigers, and they likely won’t make him a finalist. Too bad. He’s a good guy.
Wally Backman… he could make NY a dumpster fire
This is a tough gig. You are still playing in the New York media market, but you don’t have the payroll the Yankees do–and that’s going to continue for the foreseeable future until Mets ownership fully digs themselves out of the Madoff hole. Your pitching staff is a wreck because of injuries, and you can’t be sure whether it’s a terrible run of luck, or something in either your training or medical staff. You aren’t a real reclamation project–you were just in the playoffs the previous two seasons, but that roster looks a lot different.
Is Dave Martinez not even a possibility to manage anywhere? I would think he would be but I haven’t heard his name mentioned anywhere.
He interviewed in Detroit.
The Mets, to a high degree of probability, would likely be finishing their 3rd straight World Series Victory shortly, if only they had simply kept Justin Turner and Daniel Murphy. Our new manager’s first job should be to insure all future Daniel Murphys and Justin Turners are kept. All candidates must explain their personal “Identity and Keep Daniel Murphys and Justin Turners”plan as the start of each interview.
Losing Collin McHugh was pretty stupid too.
TJ Rivera will be an all star the second he leaves the Mets. Book it.
Career .324 Minor league batting average, Career .304 Major League Batting average. Definitely an interesting candidate. Give him ABs
Ignoring the fact that personnel decisions aren’t made by the manager (sometimes consulted), there are plenty of other choices to question, but these are examples where hindsight is 20/20. Hardly anyone was clamoring to keep Murph, and he had a hard time finding a job. No one was knocking down his door. He was the Nats 3rd choice behind Phillips and Zobrist.
Turner was let go by the O’s tooven those who didn’t like losing Turner didn’t think he was much more than a good utility player.
Murphy was already an established player, logging 2-3 WAR annually with the Mets. He was offered a QO, turned it down, and got 3 years 38 million from the Nats coming off a monster postseason, which the Mets should have taken more into consideration as evidence Murphy had finally turned the corner and unlocked his power potential. Basically,. Mets didn’t go hard enough for him because they wanted a draft pick. They should have matched the Nats offer.
Turner is more unforgivable because he was non-tendered even though he would have only cost 1 million or so for 2014, and had never been bad for the mets, putting up an average of 1 WAR / season off the bench. No reason to non-tender a guy like that to save a million dollars, especially when the Mets Bench in ’14 featured the decaying corpse of Bobby Abreu, Omar Quintanilla, and other players who should have been out of baseball.
Maybe you needed hindsight to see that Murphy and Turner would become perennial all-stars, but you didn’t need hindsight to see they should have been kept. McHugh for eric young jr. also required no hindsight to say “this is stupid.” Let’s take back Kazmir for Zambrano too, while we’re at it. And Jose Quintana and Nelson Cruz.
Terry definitely should have stepped up and said “Do not non-tender Justin Turner.” If he had, he might have still been with us today. Sad.
So let me guess, both of you knew that Turner was going to turn into the player he became with the Dodgers even though there was no evidence of him being better than a part time player on the Mets.
Hey King…do you write or direct soap operas for your day job. Everything is an excuse. The Mets do not have the money nor the minds to spend the slim funds well. You don’t blame letting Justin slip through your fingers on the previous team. They had him. They had holes in both corners. They let him slip away for a mere $1 million 1 year commitment. That’s called a NO BRAINER.
Most of these candidates will probably get injured during their interviews.
The Texas Rangers has an opening for general manger… Dumb ass John Daniels needs to go bye-bye and quick. Texas was winning when Nolan Ryan was large and in charge. Since J.D. railroaded him out the Rangers has done nothing but loose and stunk up the AL West