With Mickey Callaway out, there’s just one name who makes all the sense in the world as New York Mets manager, Joe Girardi.
The Mickey Callaway era in Queens is over. New York Mets fans can rejoice.
The questionable managerial decisions that made you scratch your head, cursing out a Newsday reporter in the clubhouse—it was all part of the Callaway era.
Enough is enough. This is a professional baseball team. Not a clown show or reality television program.
Mickey Callaway has been relieved of his duties. #Mets
?: https://t.co/ZXOBnKyOXS pic.twitter.com/WOhmu2moPK
— New York Mets (@Mets) October 3, 2019
Now that the Callaway era is over, it’s time to bring in former Yankees and Marlins skipper Joe Girardi as their new manager.
On Wednesday, Girardi told Chicago’s 670 The Score that he’s definitely interested in being a manager again.
“When you look at managing in Major League Baseball, there are only so many jobs,” Girardi said on The Score’s “Mully & Haugh Show. “So, obviously, anything that comes across your desk, you’re going to be very interested in. You can’t just go to another city and say, ‘I’m going to be an orthopedic surgeon here.’ You can’t do anything like that.
“So, there are 30 jobs. Obviously, there are 10 teams in the playoffs, so those jobs probably aren’t open. You start to look at the other jobs available and obviously I have a lot of ties to Chicago. Any job out there is going to interest me, because I would like to manage again.”
Girardi has managed in New York, won a World Series in the Big Apple as the Yankees manager in 2009, won Manager of the Year in 2006 with the Marlins and currently serves as an analyst for MLB Network.
Girardi has been here and done that. He understands what it takes to manage in New York, can win the big games and, most importantly, handle the pressure of New York City. This city is brutal. Nothing like it. It will chew you up and spit you out. No mercy.
He’s heard the criticism. Dealt with the critics. Done the weekly spots on New York sports talk radio. Been roasted by Mike Francesa and Joe Benigno. His every move questioned.
Callaway was a first-time manager. Brodie Van Wagenen was an agent at CAA. No front office experience.
This team wanted to make a splash with a new name. We all saw how that worked out. Terribly.
What a concept it would be for the Mets to actually bring in someone with experience. Callaway has owned the back page of the New York tabloids. They’ve had a field day.
Would it be crazy to think this team could make a move that actually makes sense?
The Mets showed promise in the second half of this season. You have a will-be two-time Cy Young award winner in Jacob deGrom. NL Rookie of the Year and rookie Home Run king (53 jacks this year) in “Polar Bear” Pete Alonso. Star-studded rotation. Plenty of young talent.
These Players need someone they can buy into. That represents them and will go to bat for them. Girardi is that guy. He’s a veteran baseball man who can properly execute in-game decisions.
Other names at the top of the list are Joe Maddon and Carlos Beltran. Maddon seems to be most intrigued by the Los Angeles Angels and the west coast.
Beltran is a fan-favorite in New York, but it might take some mending of that relationship between the two after the way his tenure in Flushing ended.
Once again, he has no experience. Don’t go down that road again. Regardless of how it’s worked out for the Yankees with Aaron Boone, it just can’t be the Mets path at the moment.
In Girardi’s final season, the 2017 Yankees weren’t projected to make the playoffs. Their season ended one game away from the World Series, falling in Game 7 of the ALCS to the eventual champion Houston Astros.
Girardi helped lead them there. You could argue he never should’ve been let go in the first place. That’s NYC for you. He knows first hand how it goes, all too well. A record of 910-710 during his tenure in the Bronx (200 games over .500) headlines the resume.
They cannot bring in a guy with no managerial experience, someone none of us have ever heard of. If you want to be relevant, bringing in a veteran is what they need to do.
Firing Mickey Callaway was the right move. The writing’s been on the wall. We’ve all been waiting for the notification on our phones.
Open up your wallet and bring in Girardi to Citi Field right now. I’d be stunned if he didn’t take this job in a second, if offered.
The New York Mets and “logical moves that make sense” don’t usually fall in the same sentence. Prove me wrong. I dare you.
A manager with a ring on his finger. A manager who has won in New York. Over a decade of experience. You can’t teach that.
Do it. Sign him. Thank me later.
