A New York Mets insider gave a major update on manager Buck Showalter’s future this week as the team heads into what could be a difficult offseason.
Buck Showalter’s first season in Flushing seemed magical at times. The team that lost 85 games the year before had become one of the juggernauts of the league in 2022 under his watch. They could slug with the best of them, had a top-shelf pitching staff, and the best closer in the game. Yet, despite a poor finish to the season and a quick ouster from the playoffs — a common occurrence during the manager’s career — alarm bells were never set off when it came to his future with the organization.
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However, that has very much changed in 2023 with the team being one of the biggest disappointments this year. They head into the final games of the season more than 10 games under .500 and after being active at the trade deadline to sell off some of their aging and expensive pieces, the Mets’ outlook in 2024 isn’t too good.
The organization has a lot of debt on the books for next season after trading aces Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, a reported preference to not be big spenders this winter, and a new team president set to start next month in David Stearns. It very much feels like this is the early stages of a new shift in direction for Steve Cohen’s franchise.
Buck Showalter has less than a 50 percent chance of being New York Mets manager in 2024
That is why there have been rumblings for weeks that the 67-year-old manager may no longer fit into the team’s future with a new top executive leading the organization. On Monday, SNY MLB insider Andy Martino gave an update on the Showalter situation during an appearance on “Mets Off Day Live” and it looks like his job security isn’t very strong heading into the offseason.
“That one has been tough to read,” Martino said. “The best I can probably tell you is not that helpful, [but] is that I’m hearing it’s probably like 50/50 at best for Showalter to come back, which is kind of a hedge. I think it also tells you that it’s different from [General Manager Billy] Eppler, obviously. I was able to report, as were others, immediately at the time of the Stearns news that Eppler would be the GM. And we haven’t been able to report that about Showalter.”
Much of the New York Mets’ failings in 2023 had little to do with Showalter as Edwin Diaz’s season-ending injury during the World Baseball Classic was a massive blow to their roster, and Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, and Starling Marte having down years, after All-Star appearances in 2022, was not his fault.
Nevertheless, there were quite a few questionable decisions he made during the season that have not helped his case in the eyes of some Mets fans.