Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported this week that Terry Collins is likely to return to the Mets in 2015, unless they go into the toilet in September.
Well let’s hope for a flush in Flushing.
It’s time for the Mets to move beyond Collins, who has never finished over .500 as the Mets manager. If the Amazin’s finish under .500 again, it’s time to shop for a new manager this offseason.
Plain and simple.
Collins had his time to prove he could bring the Mets to the Promised Land and in all fairness, he didn’t have a lot of talent his first few years to play with. At the same time, last year and this season introduced some young pitching to the mix and still the Mets can’t sniff the .500 mark.
Even if it’s not all his fault, he has to go. It’s time to clean house and start anew.
He has been feeling the heat with the 65 year-old getting a little testy with his star player Matt Harvey and is getting somewhat snippy with the media as well.
This does not sound like a man who is looking to save his job. In fact he may feel he has some sort of Glen Sather-like job security.
As the pressure mounts, you also have to look at if he has the clubhouse. And there are signs that he’s losing it.
And we are not just talking about Matt Harvey, who beats to his own drum. But there are rumblings. Not anything direct but you can see it happening.
Let’s not talk about his in-game decisions, which are questionable at best and the poor fundamentals from his team are inexcusable.
Take tonight for instance where, his team ran themselves out of two innings. Thankfully the Mets won, but it could have been a terrible loss.
It’s just the cost of doing business with Collins.
If Collins goes who should replace him? It probably won’t happen but it should be Wally Backman.
Look, for all his off-field problems and worries, Backman has been a model soldier for the Mets. Remember, he managed in Las Vegas for two years – not exactly a puritanical town – and there have been no incidents of him going out late, gambling the team bus away, or having an open account at any gentleman’s club.
However, Backman is not a company man and will do things his way, which is why we still have Collins in the dugout.
That’s the worry. Sandy Alderson will hire one of his guys who will tow the company line.
Yet, let’s think about that. If Backman was not a company man, then why keep him at Triple-A teaching Alderson’s prized prospects. If he is so bad, then why has Wally been in the organization for five years.
Backman seems to have learned his lesson on his sins of the past and now seems ready to move into the prime time. It would create a buzz at Citi Field next year, while having a mentor to all the young Mets, most of whom he managed at one point.
In 1984, Frank Cashen also brought up a brazen manager in Davey Johnson from Triple-A and that worked out, didn’t it.
It’s Wally Backman Time.
The Mets should do it.
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