Mets hire Buck Showalter as manager

After weeks of speculation, the Mets have hired their new manager. Buck Showalter will take over the reins of the team, according to a tweet from team owner Steve Cohen. Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports that Showalter received a three-year contract to manage the team.

Last week it was reported that Showalter had advanced past the initial pool of candidates and moved onto the second round of interviews for the managerial opening. This represents another close call at helming a dugout for the other two finalists, Tampa Bay’s Matt Quatraro and Houston’s Joe Espada. Despite reverence around the league for the latter two coaches, industry insiders quickly tabbed Showalter as the front-runner for the Mets position.

The veteran skipper will now take over a Mets dugout that has seen its fair share of shakeups in recent years. Following the short-lived hiring of Carlos Beltran, bench coach Luis Rojas took over the manager’s mantle in 2020. The past two seasons saw Rojas sport a 103-119 record, a disappointing sum for a team with so much star power. While Rojas can hardly be pinned as the sole reason for the team’s underperformance (the cross-town Yankees promptly hired Rojas as a coach following his dismissal, speaking to his abilities), he did oversee a collapse this past season. After spending 114 days in first place, the Mets were no longer able to weather injuries and underperformance, ultimately limping to a third-place finish in their division.

For the Mets, Showalter is a proven commodity. Over the course of 20 years and more than 3,000 games, Showalter sports a .506 winning percentage and has taken home Manager of the Year hardware with three different clubs.

While Showalter has never won a World Series as a manager, many around the league have cited his leadership skills as a reason teams become postseason contenders. Most recently, during his 2010-2018 season run with Baltimore, Showalter helped turn a rebuilding club into one of the American League’s winningest teams. After a 69-win inaugural full season with the club, Showalter quickly saw the team post non-losing records in the next five seasons. The Orioles made the playoffs three times during that stretch, including once as a first-place team — no small feat considering the financial powerhouses that reside in the AL East.

It’s been some time since Showalter managed one of those very powerhouses, last managing the Yankees in 1995. Improbably, he’ll now helm a team with even greater resources at its disposal. In a series of win-now moves, the Mets have launched their 2022 payroll to new heights. RosterResource pegs the Mets to open next season with a franchise-high $263M payroll, a number that is handily the highest in all of baseball and was more astonishingly reached with months (and plenty of free agents) left in the offseason.

With the likes of Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar already joining the Mets this offseason it’s become imminently clear the NL’s New York club isn’t content to idle under .500.  Pair these additions with star holdovers Jacob deGrom, Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso and the Mets are teeming with top-shelf talent. That collection of players, plus all of the other bounce-back talent on the roster, will give the team’s new manager plenty of firepower to claim a division that has belonged to Atlanta the past four years.

In the ensuing weeks, Showalter will round out his coaching staff, while the Mets might  still add players to their club after the lockout is lifted. Whatever changes are made before the 2022 season starts, however, many pundits and fans will point to this hiring as the team’s key move of the offseason. Hiring a widely respected stabilizer may be just what the Mets need to capitalize on their potential and get to the postseason for the first time since 2016.