Buck Showalter Deserves Another Shot In Baseball
Veteran manager should get another job following Mets departure...
Buck Showalter won’t be managing the New York Mets in 2024.
He should, however, have an opportunity to resume his distinguished managerial career elsewhere next year. That shouldn’t even be up for debate.
It was announced on Sunday, by Buck himself of all people, that the Mets have opted for a change of direction and will be looking to hire a new manager for the 2024 season.
In two seasons with the New York Mets, Showalter went 175-147.
Showalter revealed prior to the Mets’ final game of the regular season against the Phillies on Sunday that he was informed by general manager Billy Eppler on Saturday night that the Mets were going to go in a different direction at manager. Per Mike Puma of the New York Post, Showalter was told he would be fired if he didn’t resign.
Here’s what Showalter had to say when addressing the media earlier:
“I was honored to get a chance to manage a second New York team,” Showalter said. “I’m proud of what the Mets did. We won close to 180 games in two years. Especially last year, as much fun as I’ve ever had in the game. It reminded me of why I always loved this kind of work.
“I wish things could have gone better this season. I thought the Mets fans deserved that. In my heart, I’m always wondering what could have happened if this hadn’t happened or that hadn’t happened, but I try not to live in that world. Steve and Billy, they’ve got good leadership and good ownership here, and they’ve got a perfect right to go in a different direction.”
Mets owner Steve Cohen and GM Billy Eppler both released statements on Showalter’s departure:
“Buck is a generational manager, and we value what he has done for our team, including leading us to a 101-win season and postseason berth last year,” Cohen said. “The commitment and heart that Buck brings to the game will be felt by our organization for years to come. We wish Buck all the best in the next chapter of his career.”
- Steve Cohen.
“As we look toward the next chapter for the New York Mets, we felt that making a managerial change was the right course of action.”
- Billy Eppler
After two completely contrasting years in Queens, Showalter is now out. He was under contract for the 2024 season.
With the Mets expected to officially announce David Stearns as the franchise’s new president of baseball operations on Monday, it makes sense that ownership would want to wipe the slate clean for the new sheriff in town.
Given that 2024 is also likely to be a transition year for this team, allowing Stearns to bring in his own guy, hit the reset button across the organization and rebuild from Ground Zero ticks all of the logistical boxes.
And, of course, there will be a loud group of fans and critics who will argue that Showalter had this coming. After all, he oversaw what was one of the biggest and most disappointing busts in New York sports history, not to mention in the long history of baseball too, in 2023. The Mets, with the highest payroll in MLB, missed the postseason with a 74-86 record and they were the opposite of competitive for a large chunk of the year.
With that on his resume, some would argue that Showalter deserved nothing else but to lose his job.
That thought process is fundamentally, flawed however.
Like with anything, you’ve got to look at this through a wider prism and not be caught in a prisoner of the moment mindset.
Showalter didn’t just morph into a bad manager overnight. It wasn’t like he lost his mojo or misplaced his managerial chops.
He arrived in Queens prior to the 2022 season with a pristine reputation as one of the most respected figures in the game. Period. He’s an absolute baseball savant with an undying passion and unrelenting enthusiasm for the game. His attention to detail is legendary. He brought a much-needed infusion of professionalism and leadership to a Mets clubhouse that badly needed it. This was a team after all that wrote the book on being a dysfunctional dumpster fire.
Showalter changed all of that. He eradicated the stinking toxicity from the clubhouse in record time. He helped the franchise clean up its act. He was all in and the players loved him for that. He had their back and they had his.
With as shrewd a baseball mind as you can get in the dugout, coupled with the financial might of owner Steve Cohen, the Mets rattled off 101-wins in 2022, securing a return to the postseason. Sure, that accomplishment was quickly wiped out by a crushing loss to the San Diego Padres in the National League Wild Card Series. But the seeds were there. They just needed a little bit more watering.
Or so we thought.
Despite a second consecutive offseason in which the Mets outspent the rest of Major League Baseball, including signing sure-firer future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander to a big-ticket, two-year, $86.6 million deal, the wheels soon fell off. Injuries and players not performing to the back of their baseball cards led to a slumping start that the team could never recover from. After being the gold standard in the NL East for so long in 2022, the Mets spent all of two days in first place this season, the last of them coming as far back as April 2. They were out of contention before they were ever really in it.
You can’t pin that on Showalter though. He shouldn’t carry the can for key players going down hurt at critical points, and he shouldn’t bear responsibility for the likes of Verlander, Max Scherzer and a slew of offensive players laying Godzilla-sized eggs on a nightly basis. It wasn’t on Showalter that the organization ultimately decided to dramatically pivot at the trade deadline, selling off a myriad of veteran pieces in order to rebuild the farm system and look ahead to the future.
None of that is on Showalter.
That’s not to say the longtime manager is completely blameless. Far from it. He had his warts, and they were ugly and there for all to see at times. They were also visible in the latter stages of 2022 when, after spending an absurd 289 days in first place - more than any other team in 2021 - they collapsed down the stretch and handed the NL East Division right back to the Atlanta Braves. That condemned the Mets to a three-game Wild Card Series against the Padres, in which they were never really competitive.
Some of the questionable, and sometimes mind-boggling, in-game decisions we saw from Buck down the stretch last year were all of a sudden more frequent in 2023. Especially when it pertains to the pitching and the bullpen. Showalter struggled to manage his staff, and he didn’t get the best out of what he had. The Mets lost games this year because of their manager, and that is a rare thing to say about a Buck Showalter-led team.
Then there was the issue of Showalter’s handling of young players. He fumbled the bag when it came to Francisco Álvarez’s playing time early, and he also made mistakes when trying to get Brett Baty and Mark Vientos used to the pressures of playing on the biggest stage. Maybe that played a part in the Mets opting for a fresh start given that 2024 will be a transition year for this team, and more rookies will likely be given a chance to shine. However, it has to be said that the myth Showalter has always been bad at dealing with prospects and rookies is vastly overblown. Do a quick search on Google and there are plenty of players, including the likes of Manny Machado, Zack Britton and Ryan Flaherty, who all speak glowingly of Showalter when it comes to his handling of their first couple of years in the bigs.
But, on the flipside, Showalter wasn’t helped by some questionable calls from his general manager in Billy Eppler, who failed to ever address a hot mess of a bullpen. He also built a fatally flawed lineup that was short on power and was way too dimensional. Showalter was also done no favors by superstar reliever Edwin Díaz going down hurt before the season even started after suffering a freak injury at the World Baseball Classic.
You can’t blame Buck for that.
And, to flip the script a little, I’d strongly argue that Eppler should carry more responsibility for what transpired this year. If I’m dishing out blame, I’m sliding more over to Eppler’s side of the table than I am to Showalter’s side.
And it isn’t even close.
It is also important to understood the true role of a baseball manager in the modern era when discussing a change in the dugout. We know analytic departments have huge roles in how a game is scripted and managed, but a manager still has a crucial role to play when it comes to intangibles and keeping a clubhouse together.
Showalter was a master of that. This group of players loved him. Look at his relationship with Francisco Lindor. And indeed Lindor’s family. It shouldn’t be looked upon as a coincidence that, after a rough first year in Queens, Lindor really began to put it all together with Showalter in the dugout. And, when things got tough this year, it was Lindor batting hard for his manager in both words and actions and striving to make sure the rest of the team never quit. That speaks volumes. And it says a lot that, in the midst of a train wreck of a season, Showalter didn’t lose the clubhouse. Sure, there were whispers. There was chatter that Verlander and Scherzer didn’t get along. There was always noise about certain players being a disturbance in the room. But none of that was ever really proved to be true. It was just the kind of bad press you attract when you stink out the building on a nightly basis.
And, anyway, the eye test speaks for itself. When handed a rotting bag of ingredients in which to fill out his lineup card with after the trade deadline, Showalter ensured that mish-mash of veterans, rookies and unheard of Triple-A journeymen played hard every single day. Sure, there were ugly days at the office but, for the most part, Showalter got the most out of what he could from a minor league lineup and they proved to be a tough out at times down the stretch.
Hey, even the best baseball manager who has ever lived wouldn’t do much with the Mets team as was constituted down the stretch.
They took games from a slew of contenders down the homestretch, and that probably wouldn’t have happened if Showalter lost the clubhouse. But he never did. And that should say a lot about his standing among his players.
And look at what Showalter did with DJ Stewart. A veteran who began the year in Triple-A, Stewart got his chance in the majors after the trade deadline and absolutely thrived under Showalter’s guidance, hitting .242/.333/.503/.837 with 11 home runs and 26 RBIs. Stewart was mired in baseball wilderness prior to this year, but he benefitted from Showalter’s intricate attention to detail and now he has a chance to earn a full-time role with the Mets in 2024.
And therein lies the rub. Showalter supports his players to the death, and he goes the extra mile with an insane eye for detail, a boatload of professionalism and an unmatchable level of experience. That went a long, long way with the players in the Mets clubhouse and they loved him for it, giving Showalter everything they had in the process.
That should count for a lot and it is partly why Showalter deserves one last kick at the can in Major League Baseball.
With a 1,726-1,664 record as a manager across a 22-year career, including four years with the New York Yankees, three with the Arizona Diamondbacks, four with the Texas Rangers, nine with the Baltimore Orioles and now two with the Mets, Showalter has earned the right to stick around for as long as he wants to.
He still has plenty to offer. Of that I’m sure.
Again, Showalter has his warts and his flaws. For one, he has never really won in the postseason and that was borne out with the Mets once again in 2022. He ranks inside Major League Baseball’s Top 20 in all-time wins, losses and games managed, yet he’s won just one single postseason series in 22 year as a manager. Showalter is never going to be able to escape that narrative until he wins deep into October.
However, what manager doesn’t have flaws? Show me
I’m sure there will be an army of irate people stepping out into their backyards as we speak and yelling at the clouds that there is no room in this current incarnation of baseball for old school managers anymore.
But I couldn’t disagree more.
No amount of fancy data, no amount of dressed up stats and no amount of jumped-up, self-entitled nerds with a degree from Harvard or Yale will ever replace the skillset and the intangibles that a Buck Showalter brings to the table.
You still need feel in the modern game. You still need the eye test. You still need to be able to go with your heart and your gut in certain situations.
And no nerd will be able to convince me otherwise. Throw as many complex spreadsheets at me as you want, you aren’t changing my mind on that.
Buck Showalter, a four-time Manager of the Year Award winner - which is tied for most all-time with Hall of Famers Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox, by the way - can still be a successful, winning manager in today’s age of baseball.
You won’t get anyone more respected, you won’t get anyone more prepared, and you won’t get anyone more driven.
If a veteran team needs new leadership this offseason, they would be wise to give Showalter a call. His famous ‘attention to detail’ will give put any team in the best possible position to succeed night in and night out.
Don’t let one bad year with the Mets mask the bigger picture. And that is a manager who has proved that, at the age of 67-years-old, he can still impact winning at the highest level.
While some may feel today could be the end of Showalter’s career as a manager in the bigs, it shouldn’t be.
He’s proved he can still lead a Major League Baseball team into the heat of battle and succeed.
He deserves another shot.
Buck Showalter should be given the chance to manage again in 2024. He still belongs in Major League Baseball. He still deserves a seat at the table.
Period.
