Life After Terry

What a long, strange trip it’s been.

That’s the most accurate way to describe the seven years Mets fans have spent with Terry Collins as manager.

Collins entered the Mets clubhouse after the 2010 season with little fanfare and – quite honestly – little optimism from most Mets fans, myself included. He wasn’t the sexiest name interviewed and didn’t seem to provide much in the way of hope moving forward. In all honesty, Mets fans saw Terry Collins as a caretaker. He was the guy that would come in to absorb some bad years, then make way for whoever emerges to take the team to the promised land

His first few years in office, the Mets weren’t really expected to be good, so expectations were incredibly low. Sandy Alderson and company were undergoing a massive organizational rebuild, and everyone was prepared to sit back and wait.

Two things stood out in those first 3+ years of Collins managing the Mets. The first, we saw Terry’s human side, and we saw how the players seemingly responded to it.

Think back to how emotional Terry Collins became during and immediately after Johan Santana’s no-hitter. He realized how important that game was to Santana, despite recently coming back from serious shoulder surgery. We saw that struggle on his face. He couldn’t hide it, and that made us love him.

Players loved playing for Terry Collins. And that created a very long leash for Terry in my mind. If the players respected him and wanted to play hard for him, who am I to say he isn’t the right guy for the job?

When the Mets started playing with expectations in 2014, the tide began to shift. In-game managing decisions Terry made in years the Mets were feeling themselves out became exacerbated when the outcome truly mattered. His over-reliance on certain relievers, his use of bench players, his desire to find opportunities for Eric Campbell, all these things became issues.

I’ve said this on the podcast multiple times before, and it’s the most accurate way to describe Terry Collins’s tenure as Mets manager:

I want to love the guy, I really do. But he’s such an idiot sometimes.

Terry Collins may have given more shits about the Mets than any manager since Gil Hodges. He truly, deeply cared about this team and he wanted every player to be as successful as possible. But he was miserable at times at actually managing a game. Weighing those two extremes made rooting for Terry Collins a Tour de Force.

That’s the Terry Collins Era, the manager who coached the most Mets games in team history. And what a time it was.

So, who’s next? Who should be next?

To me, Joe McEwing is the dream. He was a utility grinder fans fell in love with when he was a player, and every evaluation of his coaching acumen has been positive as he’s moved up the latter. I’m also partial to bringing in a completely new voice to the team, hiring someone that may not have been a manager previously and giving him the keys to see if he can do something special.

Alex Cora would be my second choice if Super Joe isn’t going to be in the conversation. Cora has been spoken of highly as a prime coaching candidate, even when he was still playing. The same can be said for Sandy Alomar Jr. In some order, those are my top three options.

If the Mets are going to go the route of a coach with previous managing experience, Robin Ventura has a clear edge in my mind. His role on two of the most successful Mets teams in club history (1999-2000) can’t be understated. Ron Gardenhire has Mets ties, but a part of me feels like the game has passed him by at this point. Bob Geren and Chip Hale really don’t do anything for me as managers, but they both have strong connections to Sandy Alderson, which can’t be ignored.

A time will come to write a proper Ode to Terry Collins. The relationship between Terry and Mets fans is…complicated. A part of me will miss him. A part of me is happy he’s gone.

We’re on to 2018.