Terry keeps it going
The last man standing in Terry Collins’ starting rotation, at least the one he started with, is 43 years old. So much then, at least for now, for all those big young arms that were going to steamroll their way with big stuff through the National League for years to come. For the last time: You want to make the baseball gods laugh? Tell them about all your plans for young starting pitchers.
So Collins’ starting rotation, led by Bartolo Colon, now has Robert Gsellman in it, Seth Lugo, Gabriel Ynoa. Who had them in their fantasy leagues before the start of the season? I keep waiting for Tim Tebow to get a start.
Lucas Duda is back playing first base for the Mets, which means that Collins is working with half the infield that he took north from Port St. Lucie. An indispensable part of that infield is suddenly T.J. Rivera, a 27year old out of Lehman High, Bronx, N.Y.
Collins has gotten next-to-nothing out of Jay Bruce and now benches Bruce — who has never looked as if he wanted to be here, not for five minutes (or five strikeouts) — in big moments in the most important games of the Mets’ season.
But somehow, with all that going on, with all these players coming and going, people always want to talk about what Collins isn’t doing. They want to talk about all the things Collins should or shouldn’t have done every time the Mets lose a game or two — or even three to the Braves — as opposed to a managing job that stands with anything that anybody is doing in baseball in September of 2016, whether the Mets make it to the playoffs or not. I saw another headline on Saturday about Collins maybe managing for his job. Come on. He is 67, in a business increasingly dominated by young, whiz-kid general managers who occasionally have to fight the urge to let their iPads manage the game being played on the field. But all the people who think the Mets would be better off without him need to ask themselves where they think the team ought to be after a Biblical amount of injuries, so many of them to guys who were supposed to be top guys for Collins this season, what we all thought might be another World Series season at Citi Field.
“You play the cards you’re dealt the best you can,” Collins told me the other day.
You know he might not make it and the Mets might not make it. But it was just the other day that they were 60-62 and now here they are, with no Matt Harvey and no Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz with a sore left shoulder and even Noah Syndergaard with strep throat at the worst possible time. And, oh by the way, if you can name all of the relief pitchers that Collins keeps running out there, you have a chance to win some valuable prizes.
Joe Girardi did a tremendous job with the Yankees this season, refusing to give up after Brian Cashman seemed to have traded away this season for the future. Collins has done an even better job with the Mets, and that is saying plenty.
And yet: If it is supposed to be Collins’ fault every time the Mets lose a close game, where is the credit for what his team has done over the last month? Duda and David Wright were the first to leave the room. You know what the parade has looked like with Harvey and the other starters and Neil Walker.
You know how many Mets fans are always looking to jump Collins first chance they get, who want him gone. You know there is a loud, angry chorus who will never forgive him for not bringing in Jeurys Familia to pitch the top of the 9th in Game 5 against the Royals. So Mets fans like that are probably thrilled at the suggestion that somehow Collins is supposed to be fighting to keep his job.
Only that’s not the story here, or the headline, or a fair take on this particular Mets season. No. The story is the job Collins has done to keep his team fighting. If you can’t see that, you’ve been watching the wrong movie.