No, the title does not mean Mickey Callaway suffered an injury like the one that has sidelined Jeff McNeil, instead it means the other dictionary definition, “severely restricted efficiency and effectiveness.” Specifically has Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen been pulling too many strings behind the scenes concerning day to day actions on the field?
Traditionally, through most of MLB history, there has been a demarcation of duties between a teams’ GM and its manager. The GM was in charge of the roster, salary negotiations, trades, etc. The manager handled on field operations like the lineup, the pitching rotation, as well as the myriad tactical decisions that must be made each game. A fairly recent trend though is for the GM to encroach on the prerogatives of his manager.
One indication of this with the Mets occurred at the end of ST this year. It was announced that the Mets had already decided their daily lineups for the first weeks of the season. This was unorthodox and seemingly limited the flexibility Callaway might have had. It smacks big time of a GM micromanaging these lineups in advance, with some input from the manager.
Then there were the curious practices of Van Wagenen traveling to many away games, and hanging around the clubhouse. This could have been a way for the GM to be hands-on with daily on-field operations.
Callaway has been criticized for many of the lineup decisions this year, including having Robinson Cano play nearly every day (pre-injury), and bat third to boot, despite having poor production compounded by a very casual, to be charitable, style of play. Keeping Cano anchored in the third spot in the batting order has the fingerprints of Van Wagenen all over it, considering he was Cano’s agent for so many years.
A similar situation cropped up at third base, where Todd Frazier has become a post-injury fixture at third base despite a batting average that is pretty anemic. Oh, Frazier also happens to be an ex-client of the GM as well. In addition J. D. Davis has been smacking the ball this year, and he was playing lots of third while Frazier recuperated.
Then we have some sudden shifts in strategy. Callaway announces that closer Edwin Diaz will be a one inning pitcher, at least until a September pennant race if the Mets were to be in that. Then a sudden about-face with Diaz now to be deployed for four outs or more on occasion. Could there have been memos from the front office dictating this abrupt change?
Similarly there was a proclamation that there would not be a personal catcher for individual pitchers, yet we find backup Tomas Nido mostly catching Jacob deGrom. This particular move has been for the better with deGrom looking more like the deGrom of last year when he’s hurling to Nido.
Few managers of the past, and quite a few still active today, would not tolerate much interference from the front office into the managers’ role. Can you imagine the results if a first year GM tried to tell a manager, say Earl Weaver, what his batting order should be? Most likely it would result in lots of profanity and maybe some punches directed toward that mythical GM.
John, Callaway doesn’t have the pedigree yet to be able to stand up for himself. It’s this thinking that makes Girardi a bit unrealistic for these hands-on people to hire. They will look for the next hot name, as they talk up Pedro Lopez. The Mets aren’t about winning, they’re about bullshitting the fans.
I agree, Gus, a guy like Girardi would not to work in a short leash situation
The analytic Department, the medical Department, The Scouting Department and the coaches should report to the manager and the manager should take those reports and decide what is lineup and pitching should be. He should be responsible for his decisions.
The GM is responsible for the roster makeup and should get input from the manager. The GM should critique the manager decisions regularly and make suggestions to him. Ultimately though the manager should get the final say because it is his job on the line. The GM has the responsibility of hiring the analytical Department , Medical Department , scouting Department and hiring the manager and his coaches . The GM is responsible to fire the manager if he’s not producing. The ownership should fire the GM if he isn’t producing. (unfortunately for Mets fans you can’t fire the ownership)
Isn’t this Business 101? If you deviate from this model then you are likely to fail.
Um, you mean how it used to be done and other teams do too?
The ignoramus owners meddle , telling the GM what to do,
The rookie GM with zero front office experience and even less dugout experience tells the manager what to do.
No wonder this team is such a mess.
You’re kidding yourself if you think Callaway himself makes good decisions. He’s been 10x times worse than Collins because even after a year, he has 0 understanding how to play the NL game.
Few modern day managers hold any power, but Callaway has clearly been neutered. I wonder if it’s his choice or the front office’s to play Gómez over Lagares?
Good article.
its difficult to know w certainty, but BVW ego and Mickey’s almost refusal to use the pronoun “I”, suggest John may be correct in his assessment.
Note that when Mickey does use “I” rather than “we”, his psychological presence is increased and the importance of the context elevated.
BVW seems the perfect “Wilponian” choice for the owners.
PS: the selfie video of BVW’s reaction to DeGrom’s reception of the Cy Young award (rather than the award’s recipient) is even better than BVW videos of him batting.
Thanks Peter,
It does seem like BVW’s ego is oversized. A good GM needs to be confident, but not over confident.
I wrote a similar piece at the beginning of the Alderson-Collins tenure and suggested that Alderson go back to being the GM since he was a pretty crappy manager.
Funny and insightful I think you are spot on in this. Reminds me of Art Howe in Moneyball. While he was probably overly vilainized, Billy Beane stepping in on his duties surely paved the way for the current relationships