MICKEY TAKES METS’ MANTLE

Gamble on ex-hurler can’t be a wild pitch

There always is sizable risk involved when a new manager or head coach is hired in professional sports, whether via the recycling route of the same old names we’ve seen so often or in being the team to take a chance on a relative unknown with little or no experience in that position.

Mets GM Sandy Alderson has undertaken his share of managerial searches over nearly three decades, first with Oakland and then San Diego and for the past seven years in Flushing, and he’s gone both ways in that regard.

The hiring of 42-year-old Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway, who officially was tabbed as the 21st manager in team history on Monday, just might turn out to be precisely the type of inspired and out-of-the-box decision Alderson and the Mets need to get their pitching-rich but injuryplagued team back on the fortuitous path it seemingly had been headed when it unexpectedly reached the World Series just two short years ago.

With another Fall Classic slated to kick off without them on Tuesday in Los Angeles, the first significant hire Alderson and Mets ownership executed after pushing out manager Terry Collins at the conclusion of a wretched 70-win fallback 2017 campaign certainly impressed at his introductory press conference. Even if it wasn’t as readily apparent how exactly he apparently blew everyone away during the interview process.

But now the process of winning over a couple of different rooms — the fractured Mets’ clubhouse, most notably, and the local fans and media, to a lesser extent — truly begins.

As we’ve witnessed through the years in Flushing, those sometimes are quite disparate factions than some power lunch with the Wilpons, who once were similarly wowed by Art Howe, or the front office.

“I think you’re always taking a gamble,” Alderson admitted at the conclusion of a nearly 60-minute press conference at Citi Field. “It’s the basket of qualities and qualifications. You’re always taking a risk on somebody. Nobody is the perfect candidate or the perfect interview, either. There’s always risk in choosing one out of six (candidates) or one out of 36. But we feel very good about the basis on which we made a selection.”

Alderson recounted the process that resulted in Callaway’s first managerial gig as starting with a loose list of approximately 35 candidates, some with ties to the organization and some with more experience than others, before whittling it down to a final six that also featured Mets hitting coach Kevin Long, ex-Mets Joe McEwing and Alex Cora (until the latter was hired by Boston), former Mets coach Manny Acta and in a surprise revelation, Jerseybred former big-league infielder and current MLB Network analyst Mark DeRosa.

Still, as Alderson put it, “We had planned on having a second round of interviews but ended our first round and decided there was really only one man for the job.”

That man was Callaway, who was named after Mickey Mantle with a brother named for Casey Stengel. Yes, Mets fans, a Yankees family, apparently.

Either way, he arrives in town one year older than Davey Johnson was when he took over the Mets in 1984 before leading Doc and Darryl and Kid and Mex and the rest to the franchise’s most-recent World Series victory two years later.

That resurgent era in team history was built around several emerging young arms, just as this one was before getting besieged by injuries the past two seasons, including largely lost 2017 campaigns for Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz.

“Obviously, two years (ago) is not a long time…Some of these players were integral with that,” Callaway said. “We’re right there. We just need to make sure we do our due diligence and keep guys healthy.”

Callaway himself endured a brief and injury-riddled pitching career. Among those he played for in parts of five majorleague seasons were Mike Scioscia in Anaheim (with Bud Black and Joe Maddon on that coaching staff) and Buck Showalter in Texas, before spending the past five seasons working closely with Terry Francona in Cleveland.

The Indians’ rotation — led by likely Cy Young winner Corey Kluber and excellent years by secondary starters Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco — set a major-league record for strikeouts and led the majors in ERA (3.30) in 2017. Alderson often cited that ability and willingness to “collaborate” with both players and the front office as an appealing tipping factor in Callaway’s favor.

The new manager also interestingly stated multiple times that Mets players would feel “more loved than they ever have been before.”

Both of those quotes certainly sounded like shots at Collins, although Alderson stressed: “I don’t think anything that has happened should be taken as any sort of implicit criticism of what happened before.”

Alderson, who still must work with Callaway to fill out a coaching staff, did hire another former pitcher, Black, as his manager in San Diego in 2007. Black spent 8½ seasons there before moving on to Colorado, where he led the Rockies to a wildcard berth this year. “On the one hand, people are reluctant to name pitching coaches as managers or former pitchers as managers,” Alderson said. “On the other hand, in our situation, short-term, pitching is everything.” Which definitely makes this move feel like a worthwhile gamble for Alderson and the Mets. It is still a gamble, all the same.