Skipping over Girardi, Showalter and Baker is certainly a telling sign
We may never know the real reason why Joe Girardi was not hired as the Mets manager. We may also never know why neither Buck Showalter nor Dusty Baker even got an interview with them. Experience in winning in the majors — something all three had — should have been the primary criteria for the Mets after the disaster that was Mickey Callaway.
In the end, was is money since Girardi, Showalter and Baker all would have been expected to command a minimum of $3 million a year, as experienced, successful major league managers? I have to believe that was a factor, as well as upper management’s concerns a veteran, accomplished manager with too much status might be difficult to control down the line. That’s what happened with Girardi with the Yankees: Toward the end of his 10 seasons at the helm he grew increasingly tired of the daily intrusions into the onfield baseball operations from assistant GM Michael Fishman and Brian Cashman’s analytics team. As a result, relations between he and Cashman strained and Girardi was fired, purportedly because of a lack of communication with the younger Yankee players.
Was that also a factor in the Mets’ hesitance to pull the trigger on Girardi despite immense fan support for his hiring? If it was, then it’s quite ironic because that was precisely the reason Phillies owner John Middleton wanted Girardi. Word was both the Phillies president Andy MacPhail and GM Matt Klentac favored Showalter for the job, but were overruled by Middleton who wanted Girardi because he was younger and could therefore, in his mind, better relate to the players. Middleton was also enamored with Girardi’s winning Yankee pedigree, particularly his one and only World Series championship in 2009 in which he defeated the Phillies.
Truth be told, however, Girardi really wanted the Mets job and probably would’ve also taken the Cubs job (if offered) over the Phillies. Middleton, who spent $330 million on Bryce Harper and another $115 million to bring in Andrew McCutchen, Jean Segura and David Robertson last winter in expectations of instantly transforming the
Phillies into a World Series team, still believes they are close to being that, even though they are not.
Girardi is no dummy. He knows the Phillies play in the most competitive division in baseball — with the talent-rich Nationals and Braves and the Mets seemingly also a team on the come up — and he’s surely looked over their roster and seen the trouble spots at center field and third base, the mysterious decline of Rhys Hoskins at first base and the black hole in the starting rotation behind Aaron Nola. Only time will tell before Girardi develops a strained relation with the owner’s boy, Harper, who won’t listen to any of his coaches.
But Girardi wanted to get back into managing and couldn’t afford to wait around any longer for the Mets to make up their minds, so he took the bird in hand. So where now does this leave the Mets?
Their unhappy experience with Callaway notwithstanding, they appear once again bent on hiring someone who has never managed in the major leagues — or in the case of Carlos Beltran nowhere at all. The only managing experience of two other reported candidates, quality control coach Luis Rojas and ESPN analyst Eduardo Perez, were in the Dominican summer and winter leagues. Similarly, Twins bench coach Derek Shelton’s managing experience was three years with the Yankees’ bottom rung rookie league/ short season teams. I’m sure they are all quality people, astute in their knowledge of the game, but are the Mets really going to entrust the fortunes of Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Jacob deGrom, Michael Conforto et al to someone who’s never or hardly ever managed … again?
As long as they’re heading down this “no major l eague experience necessary” road again, it would thus seem to me Nationals first base coach Tim Bogar, the fifth candidate in the field, has far and away the best credentials. In addition to having been a bench coach for the Mariners, Red Sox (where Mets assistant GM Allard Baird was in the same capacity) and Rangers, and an assistant GM with the Angels, the personable Bogar, who grew up in the Mets organization as a backup infielder in the ’90s, managed five years in the minors with a .576 winning pct. and was Manager of the Year in three different minor leagues. He also had a brief stint as a major league manager, going 14-8 for the Rangers after taking over as an interim for Ron Washington at the end of the 2014 season. He was passed over for the full time Rangers’ job — a lot of people felt unjustly — and maybe now his time has finally arrived. We’ll find out as soon as this World Series is over.