Mickey Callaway's future depends how Mets view manager's job - New York Post

All right, let’s get to it. On the night when the Mets were eliminated from the playoff picture despite another masterpiece delivered by presumptive repeat Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom, Mickey Callaway declared himself the best man for the job to lead the team to the promised land in 2020.

But is it 20-20 hindsight to suggest that in spite of the club’s admirable resurrection over the second half of the season and entry into the race, much of the reason such dramatic reversal was required following a 40-51 stumble over the season’s first three-plus months is at least partially due to a number of the manager’s incomprehensible decisions?

Actually, the decisions themselves weren’t necessarily as incoherent as the attempted explanations to justify them. Callaway always seemed less sure of his answers than he did of the moves that sparked postgame inquiries. The reasons he would give for pitching moves were difficult to discern and those relating to lineup decisions were at times head-scratching.

But maybe, just maybe, that is because many of those decisions were out of his hands and many of his moves, both pregame and in-game, were ordered by his superiors in the front office, including omnipresent general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. So there is that to consider as the Mets, 83-75 with four games to go, are assured of finishing with their third winning season since 2008.

If the manager was delivering management’s and the Wilpon ownership’s message on a daily basis, are those in the executive suite really going to be so quick to change messengers no matter the manager’s foibles? There was, after all, one meaningful homestand this month. If that was the bar, the manager might have cleared it.

Callaway sure was on point following Wednesday’s 10-3 rout of the Marlins that became immaterial with the Brewers’ 9-2 victory in Cincinnati that drove the Mets to extinction. There wasn’t a fractured thought or misapplied notion in there when, asked if he thought he deserved another shot at it next year, he issued his pronouncement.

“You know, obviously I have the utmost confidence in myself,” said Callaway, 159-160 as a big league manager in two years with the Mets after being hired by previous GM Sandy Alderson to replace Terry Collins. “I’m never going to give up, never going to quit, and I think I’m the right guy to lead that team in there and I’m going to do that to the best of my ability as long as I can.”

The Mets did not surrender to the elements under Callaway’s watch. For that, they deserve some recognition, but not nearly as much as they seek to claim. Because trying hard from beginning to end is a minimal requirement of professional athletes. There is no need to throw roses at the Mets because they turned around their season, barged into the race by going 27-9 after dropping the first game following the All-Star break and were within a game-and-a-half of a playoff spot on Aug. 22.

But then, fortified with a rotation of management’s dreams that featured deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Zack Wheeler and pre-deadline acquisition Marcus Stroman, the Mets lost six straight at home to the Braves and Cubs and were essentially done even though they continued to scrap. The fact is, the Mets had gone 13-15 in their previous 28 games before taking the last two from the Marlins. The race, and the playoffs, slipped away from them.

If the bullpen represented the place for tragicomedy, with Van Wagenen’s featured winter acquisition, Edwin Diaz, slipping on banana peels more often than Charlie Chaplin, Callaway’s handling of the pen hardly brought order to chaos. First, Diaz was going to be used to get three outs and no more. Then one day, maybe four. Of course, he was often unable to get the one that was necessary.

But Callaway, a pretty darn successful pitching coach in Cleveland before getting this gig, did have his rotation that remained remarkably healthy throughout the year, with deGrom, Syndergaard, Matz and Wheeler accounting for 122 starts. Any manager would have wanted that.

He had Pete Alonso, now one shy of the big league record for homers in a season by a rookie after cracking No. 51 in the second inning. He had reinforcements. He had a general manager who decided to go for it at the deadline. The Mets were on the verge. Then they weren’t.

No doubt there are managers more acute who might have been able to coax extra victories out of this group, who might have been able to avert the first-half calamity, who might have driven the team to the postseason. But does anyone envision ownership and Van Wagenen giving a strong manager in the mold of a Joe Girardi or a Buck Showalter or a Joe Maddon the keys to their car?

Callaway has declared himself the man for the job in 2020. Whether that can be considered realistic is dependent on just how the hierarchy defines that job.

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