Mets Fire Mickey Callaway

The New York Mets have fired Mickey Callaway.

Dispite the fact that Mets turned around a season where they were 11-games under .500 to finish the year 10-games over .500, and in the thick of the wild card race, Mets brass decided it was not enough to save Callaway who has been on the hot seat for well over a year.

The rumor that Callaway would get the axe has been coming since May. When the Mets were swept by the Miami Marlins in mid-May many thought that the Mets would fire Callaway after that series, but General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen and ownership decided to stay the course.

A month later when Callaway got into a heated argument with reporters, where one of his pitchers, Jason Vargas threatened to physically punch the same reporter, the Mets stood by Callaway again.

Amazingly even with all the losing early in the season, the players never gave up on Callaway, which is really the only good thing one could say about his tenure in Flushing.

One of the many major flaws for Callaway during his time in New York was his odd inability to manage the pitching staff – an oddity considering he was a pitching coach, and a successful one in Cleveland.

Callaway finished his Mets tenure with a 163-161 record, two games over .500.

With Callaway out the door, the pressure now turns up on VanWagenen to find a replacement.

Keep in mind VanWagenen is solely responsible for the makeup of the Mets roster, namely the horrid additions of second baseman Robinson Cano, closer Edwin Diaz, reliever Jason Wilson and Jeyrus Familia, and infielder Jed Lowrie.

The Wilpon’s are now entrusting the managerial search in the hands of a novice General Manager, which should make Mets fans extremely nervous.

Will he be so bold to pursue a top-flight manager like Joe Girardi, or Joe Maddon? Or will Van Wagenen go the safe route and pick a manager that he can control?

The guess here is the Mets are going to go cheap and young. And there is precedent for this. Callaway was one of baseball’s lowest paid managers, and the Wilpon’s do not like spending money.  So the chances that the Mets would comfortably pay someone like Girardi $4 million or more annually would be shocking.

Most likely the Mets would consider candidates like Luis Rojas who is the Mets current quality control coach, or Joe Espada the bench coach from the Houston Astros.

In short, Mets fans are probably going to be very upset if their baseball team does not sign a big name manager.