The “mystery team” reared their head amidst a flurry of managerial moves on Monday: Craig Counsell, now former Brewers skipper, didn’t follow David Stearns to the Mets but instead went to…the Cubs???
Indeed, Counsell will spend 81 games going forward in the other dugout at Wrigley, and Sal Licata is a little confused.
“Logistically it makes sense, as he wants to be in area geographically, kids going to the Big Ten, whatever it may be,” Sal said, “but David Ross is their manager! What does that mean for him? Is he fired? I'm sure they're gonna move him within the organization, right? Wouldn’t you just think if they didn't fire him, they hire Counsell with David Ross, who I'm assuming has a great relationship with the Cubs?”
BT has no idea, but he does know this:
“I know he’s not coming here, and this might prove to be the worst move in Mets history, which, which would be saying something,” BT said, “but I gotta tell you, I’m generally in the business of trusting smart people and allowing them to do their job. And until I see the evidence that Stearns colossally butchered this, I'm gonna say that he made a great pick.”
Emotionally it’s maybe not the right pick, but in BT’s eyes, Mendoza is seen as a good choice fundamentally.
“Rather have does not prove they’re better, I don’t know,” BT said. “I know that Mendoza is thought of very highly throughout baseball, not just with the Mets, but throughout baseball.”
Of course, Sal noted ‘so was Mickey Callaway,’ and yeah, that didn’t work out, but even though ‘no matter how bad Mendoza is, it won’t be as bad as Mickey’, Sal wants more.
“We’ve heard this before, but what I want is more experience, a known commodity,” Sal said. “There’s always going to be an unknown because it's New York, but now you've got a guy who hasn't managed before, and is in New York! Being a bench coach on the Yankees does not mean you have experience in New York, I’m sorry.”
“I get that, but it also doesn’t mean just because you are on Aaron Boone's staff that you are going to do things exactly the way he does them,” BT replied. “Maybe that's where the independent thought and that's where we really need to trust David Stearns here. There’s a lot of things about the Yankees to love and there's a lot of things to criticize, and if he was able to identify with Mendoza that there's enough of the good stuff from Boone, but his philosophies splinter off in a different direction with the things that we don't care about, maybe it winds up being a really good hire.”
Listen to BT and Sal’s entire convo about the hires above!