Billy Eppler walked into the Citi Field press conference room Sunday afternoon midway through Buck Showalter’s standard pregame media briefing and took a seat in the back row.
There was nothing standard about that.
Neither was Showalter soon after announcing his own firing. He did not use that word “firing,” nor did the Mets in their press release. But this was an axing and it was orchestrated not by Eppler, though he gave a nod to Showalter that it was fine to go ahead and make the announcement. It was not even the act of the first person quoted in the press release, Steve Cohen.
This was a hit job in the classic way — ordered from someone who was not present at its execution. This was the first act of the David Stearns administration, issuing a key decision before he officially is announced as Mets president of baseball operations on Monday.
Of course, Cohen — the ultimate Mets authority — has the final say. But just as “of course” is that Stearns was not coming (not even for Cohen’s largesse) without authority over the major league team, which includes the identity of the manager. And I have yet to talk to anyone in the last few weeks who knows Stearns who believed he would retain Showalter, who has a year left on his contract.
Mainly because if you asked who is the 180-degree opposite of Stearns, Showalter would be a logical response. Stearns is a New Yorker. Tight-lipped. And not a fan of the baseball power flowing from anywhere but the person in his chair. Showalter — even with Yankees and Mets stints — remains folksy and chatty and a manager who will challenge the new orthodoxy and use his own networks to gather information.
The major league manager more than anyone else is the spokesperson for the organization, and Stearns clearly thought it was vital to have someone he trusts to stay on his message. And he was willing to add a managerial search to an already overflowing to-do list that includes what to do with Pete Alonso, determining whether the Mets should be big players for Shohei Ohtani in free agency and/or Juan Soto in trade, and trying to determine if he has a third baseman and how much starting pitching needs to be obtained for 2024.
Perhaps, this is just about waiting out the end of the Brewers’ season and having Stearns’ longtime Milwaukee skipper, Craig Counsell, run out his contract and sign a new one in New York. But that is potentially a dangerous game. The Brewers are in the playoffs and if the World Series goes the distance, Game 7 is Nov. 4. If there is no wink-wink rule-breaking behind-the-scenes understanding between Stearns and Counsell, then what happens if Milwaukee has an extended playoff run and then Counsell goes back to the Brewers, gets a job elsewhere or decides not to manage in 2024?
If not Counsell, does Stearns try for someone with no managerial experience for this tough job or inquire instead on Bob Melvin (he is expected to be fired by San Diego), or coaches like Don Mattingly, Ron Washington and Walt Weiss?
Clearly, though — as perilous and arduous as a managerial search might be — Stearns decided he could not stick with Showalter, who at 67 might have run out of chances to end the distinction of having the second-most games ever managed (3,393) without ever winning a pennant (Gene Mauch had 3,942). His last best chance came with the 101-win 2022 Mets. This year’s club was supposed to build on that with Cohen authorizing a record payroll that swelled toward $500 million with the luxury-tax penalties included.
Instead, these Mets were a disappointing fourth-place outfit. The players did not hold Showalter responsible — the veterans, in particular, liked playing for him. But after Saturday’s game, Cohen and Eppler let Showalter know he would not be back and asked how he wanted to handle it. Showalter decided he wanted to manage out the season and announce before the game this decision without taking questions until after the finale.
Since Cohen did not intend to speak publicly until Monday’s press conference, Stearns was not officially in the job and this was not ultimately Eppler’s decision, the Mets were left in the awkward, Wilpon-ian position of having a manager announce his own dismissal and having no team official explain the removal of one of the most decorated managers in history (four Manager of the Year awards and the 19th most wins ever).
Showalter had been positively talking up what the Mets have coming from their farm system and the overall near future — sounding very much like a guy who couldn’t wait to be part of it — before getting Eppler’s nod and choking up as among other items, he said, “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.”
But Showalter was fighting for words and calm not because of Steve or Billy. But because of David, whose first major act running Mets baseball operations was to take down a managing Goliath.
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