Usually we link to articles over in The Garden but this one is just explosive and needs to be seen by everyone. Marc Carig is about as connected as you can get. Not only is he a beat reporter but he’s a regular in the radio booth, which would appear to be signed off on by someone in the organization. Regardless, there are a ton of things that deserve discussion but let’s just highlight a few.

People with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described organizational dysfunction, discord between Collins and his players, and a broken relationship between the manager and the front office.

At least two myths busted right here. The narrative has always been how much Collins had the clubhouse under control. And the speculation was that Collins merely carried water for Sandy Alderson. So much for those thoughts.

Despite what the front office perceived as Collins’ constant tactical blunders and concerns about his relationships with the players, sources said efforts to explore a change seriously were thwarted by the elder Wilpon.

We regularly hear about the meddling of Jeff Wilpon but it seems like his dad was the one who kept Collins around. Hey, Fred Wilpon owns the team and he’s entitled to have final say in such matters. But he can’t continue to claim he doesn’t interfere if this is truly the case.

Adding to the frustration, team insiders said, was that Collins created an image through the media as a strong communicator who backs up his players. Players and officials saw that portrayal as inaccurate.

“He has always been difficult to communicate with,” one Met said. “It would be a surprise if he said ‘hey’ to you when you passed each other in the hallway if your name wasn’t [Matt] Harvey or [Yoenis] Cespedes. It’s always been those couple things along with some of the in-game decisions he makes.”

One of my pet peeves is that the media picks and chooses who gets proclaimed as good guys and the fans swallow it hook, line and sinker. We’ve heard overwhelming praise from the media about Collins throughout his tenure. We’ve heard constantly about what a great clubhouse the Mets have, compared to Collins’ previous managerial stops in Houston and Anaheim. Taking Carig’s reporting here at face value, it’s hard to see this as anything but a big fat lie.

Team officials said the Mets would prefer a manager more receptive to analytics with a sense for using the modern bullpen. It’s a skill that will be even more important next season, when an eight-man bullpen could be the norm.

Man, let’s hope that first sentence is true. Let’s hope the second sentence isn’t.

Anyway, read the article in its entirety.

Source: Marc Carig, Newsday

19 comments on “Marc Carig’s blistering article on Terry Collins

  • Pete

    Depressing. How can you bring back Collins when he consistently despises to play his young players? How will Rosario and Smith respond when TC benches them for an over the hill vet the team will sign in the off season as “insurance”? How blind is TC when he continually brings in a pen guy just because the situation in his mind calls for it? I hope they sign TC for two more years! The Wilpons deserve this karma. It’s just too bad we as fans have to suffer in the meantime.

  • TexasGusCC

    Hat tip Chris!

    I’m completely pissed off about Fred Wilpon meddling to keep that a-hole around because while I suspected it and many times I wrote it, I figured that was back in the early part of his tenure. Wilpon proves repeatedly that he isn’t a competitor, but rather he’s a clown. He elbowed his way into Mets ownership to show-off for his high profile buddies. MLB needs to get rid of this loser.

    The rest is more upsetting, disappointing, and shocking. I can’t understand why Alderson wants to stay here. He doesn’t need this crap and would expect all this to have come from Alderson. Now, I respect Alderson and understand why he kept appearing hand-tied, he was.

  • Sinhalo27

    Been saying it for years… Collins was crap in Houston and had a clubhouse revolt in Anaheim. Always was crap. Always will be crap. We saw it on the field now we know it in the clubhouse from the players themselves. Good riddance.

  • fletcher rabbit

    it smells like theres a lot of folk setting up their CYA defenses!

    • Jimmy P

      Agreed.

  • Eraff

    Nobody ever leaves the Mets without a Public Trashing. The definition of “Controlling the Clubhouse” is that you don’t hear stuff like this….and you haven’t, Until Now!!!!…?????

    After many years there are several Bitches about Collins…that’s reality. The fact that They are now made public is a Not a result of Terry’s Short comings—it’s another Wilpon CYA Shitbombing of a guy when he’s walking out the door.

    There is no News here…other than to let you know that The Wilpons are The Wilpons…and that Marc Carrig is a Cowardly Lap dog for them. A real “Inside Report” would have come before now…Before He Was Told to Write This Story.

    • Brian Joura

      I agree that the timing of this is fishy. Sure would have been nice if this came out before he got his first contract extension. Collins’ first deal was for two years. He was what the team needed the first year of the deal and since he had two years, there was no harm letting him finish that out. But he should have been gone after that.

      My opinion is that most of the media likes TC because he made their job easier. He got a free pass from the tabloids and the team’s announcers for nearly seven years, which is an impressive feat.

      It will be interesting to know if Carig wanted to write this story earlier but was under orders not to from whoever was his “handler” in the organization. Pure speculation here but maybe that’s why he got the radio gig – for his willingness to refrain from running this particular story. I don’t listen to the radio broadcasts much so I have no idea when he started to appear.

      One thing that we should all do from now on is to stop referring to the Wilpons as one entity. Because it sure seems like there was a big split between Fred and Jeff on the TC issue.

    • Name

      I don’t think it’s just the Mets where you hear negative things when someone departs. Pretty much in any org in any sport (and even not in sports), dirty laundry is going to be aired when someone leaves/ or is fired. No one likes to disrupt the status quo unless it is already disrupted.

      It’s human nature…

  • Mike

    Isn’t this what the Mets do when they want to cut ties with someone? Remember Turner’s exit, when suddenly he was painted as not a team player? I’m not a huge fan of Collins, but I don’t believe this 180 is true.

  • Metsense

    The article verified many of the comments from the readers of Mets360 that were posted over the years regarding Collins managing ability. Bullpen management, poor in game strategy, and not trusting deserving young players with responsibility were just a few complaints that were voiced here. The article gave exclusive ownership to Collins and his staff.
    It also put responsibility squarely on Fred Wilpon for allowing Collins to blatantly buck the front office with immunity. Earlier this week, Collins stated he was not going to retire which triggered the concern of the front office.The article was planted by front office personnel so that Collins would not get a similar reprieve this year.

  • MattyMets

    Reading this late last night made me want to puke. I reread it this morning and almost puked again. Alderson was supposedly brought in for his leadership, to create a new culture of winning and professionalism. But with meddling owners and a lack of communication and transparency, how is that possible? Is Alderson complicit in all this? I’d have to assume he is or why would he want to come back? It’s not like he wouldn’t have other opportunities.

    It’s really tacky the way this organization always has to trash people on the way out. Love him or hate him, Collins was the team manager for seven seasons. Comparing it to the corporate world, unless the guy stole from the company or was bolting for a competitor, an executive with that kind of tenure and visibility would never be treated that way.

    • Brian Joura

      Without actually doing the research, I’d say that the number of times that clubs have hired a guy to be GM two months shy of his 70th birthday can be counted on one hand. With fingers left over.

  • Jimmy P

    Alderson is totally complicit.

    First off, the sources for this article come from “the front office,” his people.

    No one has ever gotten the straight number for how much Sandy earns, but I estimate at around $5 million a year, based on a variety of bits and pieces of info.

    If he can’t hire and fire his own manager — who supposedly disobeys his directives — then what kind of GM is he? How weak and compromised?

    A guy near retirement who likes cashing checks and, deep down, just really doesn’t care all that much. He wasn’t brought here to win anyway.

    If only Selig kicked out the Wilpons after Madoff — like he did in LA, which led to a revival of the franchise — but Bud and Fred were tight. So he sent in Sandy to plug the leaks and keep the ship afloat.

    Sandy is making a lot of money. His primary job is to maintain the con and, sure, on the side, see if he can win with what he’s got.

  • Jimmy P

    The question is:

    Did Marc Carig allow himself to be used by Jeff Wilpon and Sandy Alderson to write a hatchet job on Terry Collins?

    • TexasGusCC

      Yes he did. But, it was a great scoop and every scribe would jump at it. The magic question should be, is it accurate? I don’t think you put this much out there, sign your name to it, and not make sure it’s accurate.

      BTW, how did you “figure out” Alderson made $5MM? LOL!

      • Jimmy P

        It was a wild guess based on a report I read — but can’t easily find right now — that Ricciardi made more than $1 million as a special assistant. I believe dePodesta earned similar money. Yet Sandy had the much, much bigger job.

        I honestly have no idea. They keep that info tucked away.

        But, yes, I really should have kept it at “well paid” and left well enough alone.

        Theo Epstein reportedly initially signed for a 5-year deal in 2011 @ $18.5 million. In 2016, he extended another 5 years, Today’s Knuckleball reported the new figure at just below $50 million, with incentives.

  • Mike Koehler

    I think analytics and sabermetrics get too much play these days. Sure, deciphering numbers and trends is great, but there’s something to be said for understanding the game and its players as a human.

    None of this is commentary on Collins.

  • Mets6986

    However anyone feels about the job that Collins and Alderson did let’s not look past the fact that they really had to rebuild the team. At least some of the team’s framework and young players are to the credit of prior GM Omar Minaya who has certainly been giving credit on this blog. I also don’t buy that you need a manager steeped in analytics and believe you can get that data elsewhere to apply in game situations.
    It has always been Collins in game decisions that drove me crazy. Players with speed, however few there were, were held back from running. They chose the homerun over the manufactured runs and never found the balance to get some of each. He can’t be blamed for starting pitching going down but his overuse of specific relievers made them ineffective. So Alderson needs his share of the blame for not getting various parts to make the Mets stronger. Collins played the game he was dealt. It is Alderson who should be the first to go followed by the training staff who might not be able to effectively deal with a hangnail.
    I’ll always root for the Mets and can’t wait for a fresh start next year. Here’s hoping for a strong off season of wheeling and dealing.

  • Pete

    But Collins’ preference has always been to play veterans over rookies. I am paraphrasing what he has said to reporters. If Fred brings back TC nothing is going to change with his in game decisions. His matching up philosophy for the bullpen has been a total disaster. The results speak for themselves. If the team simply went with the best relievers for each opportunity maybe things would improve. But trying to give his LOOGY to face one batter (and consistently fail!) over burdens the bullpen and will continue to do so next year under Collins. Finally since TC doesn’t like playing rookies how does one expect him to use Nimmo, Rosario, Smith and any other rookies who may be looking to make the 2018 Mets? I will always root for the Mets. It’s just that sometimes ownership makes life miserable for their fan base.

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