Mets: Mickey Callaway was ill-prepared for a win-now New York team

Mickey Callaway’s time as manager of the New York Mets has ended after two seasons. Was he ever prepared for the job?

When the New York Mets hired Mickey Callaway after the 2017 season, they were giving a successful pitching coach an opportunity to succeed at the next coaching level. Callaway had never managed before, which in hindsight, was probably a mistake on the part of Mets management to hire him in the first place.

We won’t have to wonder what the team will look like with him in 2020. On October 3, 2019, it became official; Mickey Callaway would not be returning to the Mets for a third year.

When Callaway took over, it looked like the 2018 team was prepared to return to the playoffs after a layoff. After back-to-back trips to the postseason in 2015 and 2016, the team was more than ready to go back in 2017. Instead, poor performance and injuries dragged the club down into the basement of Major League Baseball. With a still talented roster intact for 2018, it looked like the team could get back to October baseball.

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It wasn’t all Callaway’s fault the team missed the playoffs in 2018 and 2019. The offense failed to show up regularly at all in 2018. Because the bullpen was so bad in 2019, I think many of us also forget how untrustworthy they were in 2018 as well.

Callaway’s tenure wasn’t all atrocious. In late 2019, we saw the best argument in favor of keeping him. The Mets players fought hard down the stretch. Those who liked Callaway or perhaps just didn’t like Brodie Van Wagenen used this as their number one reason to let him return in 2020.

I like Callaway as a person, but this is a rather weak argument. To suggest players are playing for their manager is a little too simple for me. They’re playing because they are competitors. They are at the height of their field and getting paid a lot of money to do it. Teams can give up on a manager. Fewer, I believe, will try harder for one.

Managing a baseball team may feel easy from our comfy couches at home. Callaway may have even thought he could ease into the role after watching Terry Francona do it so easily while with the Cleveland Indians. What Callaway may not have realized is that before Francona was leading the Indians and the Boston Red Sox before them, he was struggling to find his footing as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Callaway may eventually get another chance to manage in Major League Baseball. When he does, he’ll have something more valuable on his resume: job experience.

The Mets and Callaway never felt like a good match to me. His carefree attitude, player’s first mentality, and Southern charm was a big change from Terry Collins.

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In a different city with a team prepared to suffer a few losing seasons, Callaway would have probably gotten a greater shot at improving. In the New York City spotlight, there is no patience for underachieving.