Reese Kaplan -- Experience Isn't the Same as a Winning Result

An interesting conversation evolved with fellow Mets fans late last week regarding who the Mets should be banking on making the grade as their new manager.  People have different opinions on the right way to go and there are legitimate options in each direction.  

Given the recent lackluster performances by Mickey Callaway and Luis Rojas, a great many folks are not ready for another green manager who will have to learn on the job.  This philosophy is perhaps valid since the frustration level over the end of the 2021 season is gnawing at fans' guts like spoiled Thanksgiving leftovers.  

Towards the experienced end of the spectrum you have a couple of mighty veteran options available to you, some of whom already have ties to either Sandy Alderson or newly minted GM, Billy Eppler.  Brad Ausmus' name has come up more than once and the man certainly has a track record in the managerial role once his playing days ended.  His first four years were spent shepherding the second division Detroit Tigers and his record there was uneven.

During his rookie managerial campaign in 2014 he finished with a very good 90-72 record which led his team into the October postseason.  Unfortunately the Orioles proved to be too much for the Tigers and they were quickly sent home with their dream of a World Series postponed for another day.  

The following year in 2015 while the Mets were on their own way to the real championship series with the Royals, the Tigers fell hard, finishing below .500 with a record of 74-87.  Needless to say, after reaching October baseball the year before the folks in Detroit were none too happy.  

In 2016 the Tigers bounced back to winning ways with a finishing record of 86-75 which resulted in a second place standing for Detroit's finest.  Unfortunately 2017 was more of the exhale as they dropped into 5th place with a dismal 64 and 98 record which resulted in his termination as manager.  He did not manage in the year 2018.

Ausmus somehow revived himself for a single season with the Angels where he was able to deliver another bad year with a 4th place finish of 72 and 90.  It was his one and only opportunity in southern California and he's not managed since that 2019 season.

Overall, Ausmus holds a career managerial record of 386-422 which puts him in the spectrum of other career losers like Terry Collins whose career is marred by a 995-1017 poor result.  Overall he doesn't look like an improvement.  

Bruce Bochy's name occasionally surfaces as he has a long quarter century of managerial experience with the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants.  During that 25 year stretch he's managed to finish in first place on 6 occasions, but he too has a career losing record just under .500 at 2003-2029.  He is a better choice than Ausmus, but at age 66 and having been out of baseball for two full seasons suggests that perhaps he's not a long term solution either. 

Buck Showalter is very familiar to New York fans given his tenure as the manager of the Yankees.  He's held similar roles with the Diamondbacks, Rangers and Orioles.  He has a 20-year record on the positive side, 1551-1517, but only has three first place finishes to earmark his managerial career.  He's just a year younger than Bochy and has been out of the managerial ranks since 2018.  

I'd like to throw one more name into the mix I've mentioned previously.  He's an experience manager but not quite at the tenure of these last two entries.  The Cardinals fired skipper Mike Shildt after the conclusion of the 2021 season and that move caught many by surprise.  

His four-year managerial record is a very impressive 252-199 during which time he has finished in first once, second twice, and third once (during his rookie campaign).  To hear the stories out of St. Louis he was terminated not for refusing to embrace analytics as was originally reported, but due to a philosophical difference with the long term direction of the ballclub.  He was cut loose with one year remaining on his deal, but the club has been pretty tight-lipped about what this difference was that put him on the unemployment line.

It was reported that Shildt was interviewing with San Diego before they pried Bob Melvin away from Oakland.  Other than that tidbit, Shildt has not been mentioned very much for managerial candidacies despite his record,  his NL Manager of the Year award and playoffs in each of the three full seasons at the helm.  

At age 52 he is senior enough that he should draw respect from the younger players and he has a track record that speaks for itself.  I'd love to see the Mets approach a proven winner for once and find out what philosophical differences were so significant that he was not kept with his winning ways for the redbirds.  

Of all of these veteran managers, Shildt should be at the top of the Mets' list for interviewing.  Then you can make a decision about hiring.