NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Buck Showalter was officially introduced as the 23rd manager of the New York Mets Tuesday, and spoke to WCBS 880’s Howie Rose and Wayne Randazzo about his coaching philosophies to what he missed most about the game.
Showalter wasn’t allowed to speak about any of the individual players on the Mets roster due to the current MLB lockout.
Will losing time to get to know players on the roster cause problems for the new manager? He said he won’t use it as an excuse.
“That would be a really convenient excuse … in some ways it might be an advantage, I want all of the players throughout the organization to go listen, ‘I’ve got a fresh start,’ whatever’s happened in the past, if it’s good, I’m aware of it … if it’s been some challenges, there’s a clean slate here,” said Showalter.
Showalter did express hopes that the lockout would end by Spring Training, saying shortened preseason activities have been hard on pitchers in his experience.
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The 65-year-old manager reenters the game after three years away since departing the Baltimore Orioles at the end of 2018.
"Sometimes I look and I go, ‘Gosh, the last couple of years have been really tough, maybe somebody was looking out for me, why I was doing what I was doing,'" said Showalter.
And over those two pandemic-affected baseball seasons, the influence of analytics in the sport have only continued to expand. Showalter, who first managed a MLB team in 1992, said between his gut and the numbers, he’ll be taking an “all of the above” approach.
“Every situation is different. To say there is a blueprint of a robotic way to handle everything, I think (GM Billy Eppler) and (Team President Sandy Alderson) see it as well as anybody, theres a heartbeat, theres a human element to it. There’s a lot of things I’ll know about that people won’t know about," said Showalter, who will be managing in New York for the second time, after a few seasons with the Yankees in the 1990s.
Simply, Showalter said sometimes you just have to “wear things” as a manager, including making decisions that others might see as “off-key.” In the end he wants to take in all information possible in order to make a decision.
“If you think everyone’s going to understand and be sympathetic to it, you’re in the wrong business,” he said.
Showalter inherits a team looking to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The Mets looked primed for a return after sitting in first place for several weeks in 2021, but ended up faltering to the finish.
“In baseball you play so many games, every strength and weakness shows up sooner or later,” said Showalter, who talked in-depth about the unpredictabilities injuries bring to a 162-game season. “I think that’s one of the things I, we, need to bring consistently is, OK, where do we go if this physically or the ability to execute goes away? You better be able to go to plan B.”
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The team still has some coaching staff decisions to make. The team kept on pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, but positions like bench coach and hitting coach remain open.
When asked if he’d rather get someone more experienced at bench coach or a younger figure with future managerial potential, Buck simply said, “Yes.”
“It comes in all shapes and sizes,” he continued. “Somebody that fit real well in places I’ve been may not fit in this situation. So I’ve got to keep that in mind. I don’t bring in buddies, I bring in people that can deliver for the players.”
Showalter, with his fifth team as a manager, is aiming to deliver the Mets’ first World Series title in over three decades. Despite three Manager of the Year awards, Showalter himself has never managed a team to a World Series.
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