NY Mets Manager Search: How much does it really matter?

What got Luis Rojas relieved of his managerial duties? Although not fired, his option for 2022 season wasn’t picked up and he will no longer be the manager of the New York Mets when the team returns to action. It’s pretty much the same thing.

Was it his poor decision-making? Did he not get along with players? Were there too many mistakes along the way?

I don’t think any of these factors really played into it. What made Rojas a casualty is that his team didn’t win. And if they did win a few more games, he would have likely remained the manager, no questions asked.

Luis Rojas lost his job as Mets manager because of what the team did

When you vote for the MVP, you don’t vote for a guy just because he plays on a winning team, do you? It’s one of those debates people get into whenever a really good player outduels an even better one in the award voting.

With managers, it’s far more subjective. You can agree or disagree with what they do. It’s easy to second-guess their choices. When Jeurys Familia comes into the game and gives up a two-run double, you never know if Trevor May would have given up a three-run home run.

I don’t think the Mets are necessarily looking for a manager who can do anything more than pass along their message from the front office to the batter. Rojas did this well enough but the results weren’t there. Somewhere from a nerd’s stat sheet in the analytics office to the strike swung through by a Mets hitter a few seconds too early when he was guessing fastball and he got a changeup, something was lost.

Unlike players, managers can lose their job based on team performance with no questions asked. In the modern baseball world, managers have less impact than ever on what happens between the lines. They are, essentially, glorified PR spokespeople who occasionally make in-game decisions. It’s possible they even make far fewer of those choices than we even realize. But because their job description includes being the whipping boy, they take the blame.

As the search for the next manager rolls on, some fans will demand the team hires an experienced skipper. Others may want some fresh blood or even direct back to Carlos Beltran, the man originally hired before Rojas took over.

Whoever they choose, we’ll know he’s good if the team wins and question him if he loses. That falls on the players far more than the managers. The game isn’t played by simply plugging numbers into a spreadsheet.

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Get the right players and the wins will come. The manager will look good even if he isn’t.