Buck’s left unable to talk with all his new players

The 2022 Mets will feature some of baseball’s biggest and most competitive stars. There’s Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Starling Marte, Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor. And right now, the newest and most curious member of the Mets organization is not allowed to talk to any of them.

Due to MLB’s owner-driven lockout, new Mets manager Buck Showalter is not permitted to be in contact with players. The same goes for Mets owner Steve Cohen, team president Sandy Alderson and GM Billy Eppler. The sport being frozen is cramping the Mets style on what has otherwise been a successful offseason for the team.

For one, Showalter reached out to players as his first order of business when he was hired as manager at his previous four stops. The offseason is the perfect time to get to know a new clubhouse, and Showalter in the past has gone as far as visiting players at their homes to familiarize himself in an intimate, meaningful way. It served as yet another example of how Showalter was able to get one step ahead and set his teams up for eventual success.

With the lockout expected to last right up until the start of spring training, or perhaps even delay camp, Showalter must wait until MLB’s owners and the Players Association come to terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before he can get to know his new players. A stickler for preparation, Showalter is planning for three separate potential spring training start dates and how that will impact the team’s readiness. “I’m hoping that doesn’t happen for the Mets fans and for us,” Showalter said, adding that a normal start to the season would be the best-case scenario.

“We have to prepare for the what-ifs of a short spring training,” Showalter said this week. “That’s going to be a challenge, and the communication part of it, that will catch up very quickly. The onus is on us to get that done. I want to make the players’ path as easy as possible.

“Getting the team ready in a potential short spring training is going to be, shame on us if we’re not prepared for that if it happens,” Showalter continued. “Usually in a normal spring training you’ve got a buffer period where if you have a setback, you’ve got time for that to come back and make the start of the season. But if you shorten up spring, that buffer or safety net won’t be there. It’s going to be tough.”

For someone like Showalter, a 20-year veteran manager who puts his players’ needs before everything else, the inability to talk to, or even mention, player names are a learning curve. He slipped up a few times during his introductory press conference on Tuesday — naming Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Lindor — before catching himself. “I can’t mention names so I’m going to shut up,” he said. Showalter’s wife, Angela, sat beside him for the hour-long presser and elbowed him when he mistakenly said a player’s name.

Mets fans also have not been able to enjoy reactions from players on Showalter’s hire. Much like the rest of the industry, Mets players should be — and likely are — ecstatic about the former Yankees, Diamondbacks, Rangers and Orioles manager coming back to New York. They just can’t talk about it.

That excitement from the players to compete for Showalter, and work toward finally getting him and the Mets a World Series ring, would only add to the frenzied buzz of optimism that has taken over Queens. And it works both ways. Fans didn’t get to hear about Showalter’s enthusiasm to manage specific superstars, like Scherzer and deGrom, because the new Mets skipper was not permitted to talk about them.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know these guys and basically finding out what they need from me and the coaching staff,” Showalter said.

The lockout is also a wrench in Steve Cohen’s flow. The Mets billionaire owner, in his second year at the helm, likes to communicate and meet with his players in person. The new Mets, headed by Cohen, Alderson and Eppler, value collaboration and player opinions. At least as long as the lockout persists, that tension between players and team officials is the last thing Cohen wants for his organization. Still, Cohen is new to the old boys’ club and has little choice but to toe the party line. All 30 MLB owners voted unanimously to lockout the players this offseason, after all.

While the lockout is dampening the way these new Mets like to operate, the silver lining is every other team is in the same boat. Showalter is confident communication with his players won’t be an issue — it never has been in the past — and the Mets will hit the ground sprinting as a team that is pledging accountability and consistency once the lockout is over.

“There’s nothing better that could happen than waking up tomorrow and knowing [the owners and players] come to an agreement, and I can start communicating with the players,” Showalter said. “It’s not like the 29 other teams are able to do something we’re not. But I do wish I could play a little catch up.”