WASHINGTON — The second round of Mets interviews appears over, and a few people briefed on the agenda say this time it was quick and with just Jeff Wilpon and Brodie Van Wagenen meeting with candidates.
Wilpon and Van Wagenen will have the strongest say on the next manager, but a sitdown with one or two finalists — possibly next week — with patriarch Fred Wilpon is still on the agenda. Still, comfort with Jeff Wilpon and Van Wagenen was at the forefront this time around.
That Joe Girardi left his second interview Tuesday and was so soon after in agreement to be the Phillies manager strongly suggests such connection with the Mets’ top brass was not made. Girardi did not sense he was a frontrunner or even enough of a favorite to hold off an opportunity in Philadelphia. It was not a well-guarded secret that Phillies owner John Middleton was prioritizing Girardi.
It was clear that Mets leadership was not, since they recognized Girardi had other options and still methodically went about interviews Wednesday with ESPN’s Eduardo Perez and Twins bench coach Derek Shelton, Thursday with Nationals first base coach Tim Bogar and Friday with Carlos Beltran. That foursome is said to all have left a positive impression and without a shocking reversal the manager will come from that quartet.
Mets quality control coach Luis Rojas also received a second interview, yet more and more the organization has given a sense that Rojas has a bright future (they hope with them), but this is not yet his time.
Whoever is chosen will lack major league managing heft. That the sum major league managing experience of the quartet is 22 interim games by Bogar with the Rangers has made this Mets search generally unsatisfying (or worse) to large segments of fans and media, especially because Girardi was a championship manager in New York.
But Van Wagenen has shown a willingness to fearlessly (recklessly?) pursue his own path in his year as general manager. And, really, the GM has to work so closely with the manager; they must be in such synchronicity that Van Wagenen cannot hire a manager just to do what is popular. The Yankees’ hiring of Joe Torre was so unpopular after the 1995 season that George Steinbrenner tried to undo it and convince Buck Showalter to return. Fortunately for The Boss, that didn’t happen.
Still, there may be a way for the Mets to get the manager they want while allaying fan concerns, to some degree. This, however, is not about appeasement, merely common sense. The Mets can pair the new manager with a seen-it, done-it bench coach. Now, the Mets tried that in Year 2 of Callaway by enlisting Jim Riggleman, and it was better than Year 1, but still not great.
They should move higher on the food chain — namely with Showalter. When reached, Showalter did not want to discuss such a possibility. But he has now finished as the runner-up to Joe Maddon with the Angels and Girardi with the Phillies — places where he had powerful allies in Angels owner Arte Moreno and Phillies president Andy MacPhail. Therefore, at 63, he may have no other way back into uniform as a manager.
The Mets never even contacted Showalter about replacing Callaway, in part because they were concerned about a reputation for not always sticking to his job description. So maybe I am silly to think that he would not try to undermine a manager to get the big job. Instead, I think he would be a great ally and resource. He particularly has a long-standing relationship with Perez from their time at ESPN together.
Would anyone for a second think that the ultra-prepared, detail-fanatical, 21st-most-games-ever-managed (3,069) Showalter would ever allow the manager next to him to be unaware of anything that has or could happen on a field?
Now, it doesn’t have to be Showalter. Shelton, for example, was Toronto’s quality control coach in 2017 for John Gibbons, who when contacted indicated he would only take a bench job in a “perfect” situation. There are other wise hands. But nobody would be more familiar with the rulebook, New York, running a detailed spring training and the art of managing than Showalter.
The Mets, therefore, still have a chance to get Van Wagenen’s partner and a wise manager before this process is done.