Why the Mets shouldn’t hire these three managerial candidates

The New York Mets have plenty of candidates for the manager job. Personally, these three are ones I would like to stay away from.

Now that the New York Mets have moved past the whole Carlos Beltran debacle, Brodie Van Wagenen and his team need to move quickly to make sure they don’t miss out on some good choices with the Red Sox and Astros also needing to fill their manager spot. With all the many rumors going around about the possible candidates, I do hope they are just rumors because I have not been impressed with some of the names that have been thrown around.

What also worries me is that there have been some stories and reports that I have read about that some of the Mets players including Robinson Cano will have input into who the next manager will be, and also had input in the Beltran hiring.

Let me say that, I was never a fan of the Beltran hire to begin with and thought that after the two-year Mickey Callaway disaster, why would the Mets want to hire another inexperienced manager to replace him?

You would think that after the damage that Callaway did in 2018 and 2019, that the Mets would look to hire someone who not only has the experience but had New York experience and would be able to handle the infamous New York pressure with no questions asked. But instead, the Mets hired Beltran and the rest is history.

With that now being in the past, I believe that Brodie has a good chance at a do-over and should look to hire someone more qualified, as he should have to begin with. Let’s look at some of the possible manager choices which I believe would NOT be the right fit to lead the 2020 Mets and beyond.

Dusty Baker

Johnnie B. “Dusty” Baker Jr. had a successful 19-year playing career with the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and Oakland Athletics. He finished his career with a slash line of .278/.347/.432/.779 with 1981 hits, 242 home runs, and 1013 RBI. He was a two-time all-star, gold glove winner, two-time Silver Slugger, NLCS MVP and was part of the 1981 World Series-winning team with the Dodgers.

He then started his managerial career in 1993 with the San Francisco Giants and started with a bang leading the Giants to 103 wins. But somehow they didn’t make the playoffs, since the Atlanta Braves beat them by one game in the standings and 104 wins (before we had the Wild Card).

Nine years later he did lead the Giants to the World Series, only to get beat by the Los Angeles Angels. Baker then went on to manage the Chicago Cubs from 2003 to 2006, the Cincinnati Reds from 2008 to 2013 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2017.

So yes, Baker does have much experience, but he is an old school manager that I believe is TOO old school for today’s game. Even though I think we do need someone with the right experience, we also need someone who will not only use his gut feeling when making decisions but also be willing to work with the front office and statistical analysis department to take advantage of all the stat gathering used to make decisions including player positioning and pitching changes.

Baker also has some situations in the past that really make you scratch your head. For example in 1993, in the last game of the season, the Giants needed to win to tie with the Braves and force a one-game playoff.

For whatever reason, Baker made a poor choice and decided to start Solomon Torres and his 4.03 ERA / 1.433 WHIP for this must-win game. Most Giants fan must have been cursing his name during that game since Torres ended up getting bombed and the Giants lost the game 12 to 1.

Eduardo Perez

The son of Tony Perez, one of the cogs of the famous Big Red Machine, is someone who is also being considered for the next manager’s spot. Perez had a decent MLB career, playing in the league for 13 years with the California Angels, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners. He finished with a slash line of .247/.326/.431/.757 as was primarily deployed as a corner guy playing first / third base and left / right field.

But since his coaching experience is extremely limited to just a short tenure with the Houston Astros, where in 2013, he was the bench coach for then-manager Bo Porter, another short stint with the Florida Marlins as their hitting coach in 2011 and managing the Columbian National team in the WBC also in 2013, he does not seem to have the type or amount of experience that I think would be needed to be considered qualified for the job.

Many people do think he is a good baseball guy, with a focus on statistical analysis, but maybe the Mets should have him first manage for a couple of years in the minors before being considered for the big job in Flushing.

Luis Rojas

The son of Felipe Alou and brother of Moises Alou is also considered to be one of the frontrunners for the job. But he is only 38 years old and many people in the Mets organization feel he is not yet ready to take that big jump from managing in the minors to looking to lead the big club in 2020 and beyond. Rojas has also served as the quality control coach under Mickey Callaway over the past two years.

Honestly, I am not really sure what that role entails, but we are not talking about making a product in a factory, but building a baseball club. I’m not sure how that role would have prepared him to be the next manager of the Mets, but at least he does have eight years experience as a minor league manager after fizzling out as a minor league player after one-year playing rookie ball in 2004.

Rojas does seem to have a close relationship with some of the current Mets players including Robinson Cano, who I guess is the de-facto advisor to Brodie and company. Not sure why any player should have any say into anything related to the front office and the general manager and do find that fact extremely troubling.

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I do hope and pray that the Mets look to guys that would make a good fit as a manager with the limited options we now have after the Beltran mess that was just cleaned up. I think guys like  Joe McEwing, Hensley Meulens, and Tim Bogar would be my top three choices and hopefully, they look to make a selection that makes a little more sense than what happened back in November.