METS’ CURVE
Surprise hiring of ex-Indians pitching coach Callaway as manager a refreshing change
Mickey Callaway will be the Mets’ next manager. The Indians’ pitching coach and the Mets have agreed on a three-year deal for the 42-year-old former pitcher to succeed Terry Collins, who was not offered a contract after seven seasons at the helm.
It was the first big decision for the Mets in a crucial offseason and it is at the very least an interesting one. It is a new name, a new face who comes from an organization without ties to the Mets or Sandy Alderson and who can bring in fresh ideas.
If the Mets’ GM isn’t going to call the 2018 team a rebuild but a “reset,” well at the very least he needed to make it a fresh reset that brought energy back to the organization.
On the surface, it’s the outside-the-box hire the Mets needed to make to inject some life into the franchise. It could bring the energy that they are looking for back to a clubhouse that was beaten down by injuries and losing by the end of 2017.
A Cleveland source told the Daily News that Callaway is a “miracle worker with pitchers, even-tempered, smart and a great communicator.”
He is the first pitcher to manage the Mets since Dallas Green.
Alderson and Mets ownership should be commended for not going with a recycled candidate or sticking with what they knew.
But at the same time, this has to be put in perspective of the 2018 season. And the only cure for what plagued the Mets this season, the only way they can look at this last year as a blip or down year, is if those new ideas and energy convert to performance on the field.
That means getting their players healthy and keeping them that way. Alderson said the Mets are reorganizing their medical and training staff — long-time head trainer Ray Ramirez was let go — but at the same time controversial strength and conditioning advisor Mike Barwis is still involved.
It means filling the holes they have with players that have proven they can play at the major league level. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud is expected back, and possibly Asdrubal Cabrera if they pick up his option as expected. Yoenis Cespedes is coming off a season where he played just 81 games because of injury and Michael Conforto is coming off shoulder surgery and not certain to be ready for spring training.
It also means that the Mets have to get their stable of pitchers going for their last chance as a power rotation.
And that’s where this hire is really interesting.
He is credited with improving Indians pitchers Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevinger and has guided Cy Young winner Corey Kluber. Indians manager Terry Francona, who hired Callaway despite having never heard of him before going to Cleveland, thought so highly of Callaway’s contribution to the Indians’ 2016 World Series run that he included him in an ALCS press conference to make sure he got credit.
Callaway certainly comes to Flushing with the credentials to help the Mets pitchers. For the most part they were all stung when the front office fired pitching coach Dan Warthen, with Noah Syndergaard insinuating that after he and Jacob deGrom publicly spoke out to say they did not want him fired it would be an insult to them. Maybe a manager with a pitching background will help ease some of the hard feelings.
And maybe Callaway’s ideas, with a fresh look at these pitchers, can help them rebuild. With all but deGrom coming off injury and a frustrating season, that pitching staff is critical to any Mets’ success. So the next item on the offseason to-do list — hiring a pitching coach to replace Warthen — is going to be important too.
It may not be the only big decision Callaway has to make quickly.
The future of Kevin Long, who interviewed and was seen as the frontrunner for the job as late as this weekend, is also an uncertainty for Callaway’s first Mets team. While Alderson said the hitting coach would be back, Long, whose contract expires on Oct. 31, indicated that he may not be. With five teams changing managers, there are several openings for hitting coaches.
These are all interesting decisions that will contribute to the Mets’ future on the field, but it won’t really matter if they have a roster of kids and hurt players like they did in September. The Mets made the choice for a manager; now they have to make sure he has the players to make him successful.