Reese Kaplan -- A Trio of Rookie Managers

At the end of each season there are the inevitable personnel changes made in the management teams due to strained relations with the front office, poor performance on the field or simply a need to move in a new direction.  For the Mets the change from the seven years of Terry Collins was probably a combination of all three.  I’m not going to rehash the confounding decision making nor the aggregate record setting totals for losing.  Suffice to say it was a necessary change.

For the Yankees they were in a very different position.  They had hired Joe Girardi after his single year at the helm of the then Florida Marlins.  He didn’t exactly hit the ground running.  He inherited a team that in its final year under Joe Torre was 94-68, finishing in first place.  By contrast, Girardi delivered a winning but somewhat lackluster 89-73 good enough only for 3^rd place and out of the post-season during year one.  Going backwards was something he had in common with his crosstown counterpart. Like Collins, he too made a single World Series appearance (though he managed to win his).

The Philadelphia Phillies have not been contenders since 2011.  Pete Mackanin inherited a moribund franchise from Ryne Sandberg, but didn’t have much more success.  After replacing the Hall of Famer midway through the 2015 season, the interim job by Mackanin was only marginally better.  He lasted the next two full seasons but never seriously flirted with .500, let alone the playoffs. 

Each club went in very new directions for 2018.  The Mets selected a very successful pitching coach in Mickey Callaway and entrusted him with the reins to run the whole show.  The Yankees went in an even stranger direction, plucking Aaron Boone from the broadcast booth and handing him arguably the most closely scrutinized job in all of baseball.  The Philadelphia Phillies surprised the Los Angeles Dodgers family by luring away former minor league manager, nutritionist and front office executive Gabe Kapler to become the club’s new major league manager. 

So how have these rookies fared in the first week on the job?

As of close of games on Friday, April 6^th the Mets sit atop the NL East with a 5-1 record.  He’s seemingly had a rather quick hook with starting pitchers but seems more concerned about their long term viability and pitch counts than innings pitched or wins and losses.  The end result has been mostly positive, buoyed by pretty strong relief pitching thus far.  There has been some good on-base action from the platoon of centerfielders, combined with others providing some home run pop.  You can’t argue with winning.  Pundits have criticized his aggressive base running which has resulted in some outs, but after watching station-to-station for the last seven years it’s exciting to see some chances being taken.  With the earlier-than-expected arrival of Michael Conforto there is a lot of optimism.

The Yankees went into the season with a fearsome foursome of power hitters, including Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez and Greg Bird.  The latter has had his wings clipped already and is on the shelf.  Of course, you also have contributors like Didi Gregorius and ex-Met Neil Walker to provide some run production as well.  He’s gotten off to a great start with his rotation, none sporting an ERA higher than 2.25.  The bullpen has been shaky and most recently coughed up 4 runs in the 14th inning on Friday night to bring the Bronx Bombers to an opening record of 4-4. 

Now Philadelphia is having some major growing pains with the erudite yet inexperienced exhibitionist Kapler.  In fact, there was a headline on Thursday, “What did Gabe Kapler F*** Up This Time?”  To say he’s had a rough start is putting it mildly.  He ran out of pitchers and was forced to use a position player on the mound.  He called for a pitching change with no one warming up in the bullpen.  He yanked a starter after 5.1 IP with only 68 pitches and no runs allowed only to have his bullpen cough up 8 runs.  He pulled arguably his best hitter in Rhys Hoskins after he went 2-3 with 2 doubles.  He used “advanced metrics” as his justification for benching Odubel Herrera in the opener, yet went against them only to have Nick Markakis go deep on Hector Neris against whom he has been a mere batting practice pitcher. The boo birds are out in full force. He's 2-4 thus far, ahead of only the Stanton-less, Yelich-less, Ozuna-less and Gordon-less Marlins.

A week’s worth of games is hardly worthy of making any long term prognostications.  However, the folks in New York in both game-playing boroughs have to be a whole lot happier in the young season than are the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia fans.  I’m man enough to admit and remind folks I had advocated that the Mets should have considered Kapler as a candidate to lead their team.  After two series he’s done the seemingly impossible – making Terry Collins look good by comparison.