What the new Mets manager must do for 2020

The Mets finished 3 games back from Brewers for the Wild Card spot. The Nationals (a wild card team) subsequently won the World Series. It could have been the Mets that made a Wild Card spot and won the World Series, but they were entirely mismanaged by Mickey Callaway. The Mets had and do have the talent to win.

Here are the things the Mets need to do to win next year.

1. The manager cannot allow his personal relationships with players to impact his decisions. Obviously, Mickey Callaway had a close personal relationship with Jason Vargas (based on the altercation with a reporter). Vargas should have been relegated to a mop up role in the bullpen or traded after his 2018 production. Instead he had a starting job in the rotation. That spot should have been given t Seth Lugo based on his 2018 production.

Calloway did the same with Todd Frazier. He played Frazier when J.D. Davis was far more productive.

2. Part of the above relates to Robinson Cano who Calloway had batting cleanup most of the year. It was done out of respect for his status as a future Hall of Famer. To understand how bad a decision this was, Ahmed Rosario had better stats that Cano and Calloway had Rosario hitting in the eighth spot.

3. Barring trade for a pure leadoff hitter, Rosario needs to be the leadoff batter. Batting him eighth was a mistake. Rosario, does not walk a lot, he swings the bat. As a result, hitting eighth, he does not get good pitches to hit. Putting him leadoff, pitchers will have to pitch to him, and he will get pitches to hit. Calloway was hurting this player, who should be an all-star.

4. Seth Lugo needs to be a starter! It is simple math. Do you want a pitcher with an ERA under 3.00 pitching 80 innings or 200 innings? It would give the Mets 4 quality starters.

5. JD Davis needs to be the starting 3rd baseman. He plays first base, so he handle ground balls, he also has a good arm. Allow him to concentrate on the position. He has the potential to be an MVP type player.

6. Calloway was constantly moving players o[ and down in the lineup. The next manager needs to come up with a consistent line up. Players like routine. You can't have Pete Alonso second in the lineup one day and fourth the next. Calloway had Jeff McNeil hitting everywhere from seventh to leadoff to second….

7. Calloway also rejected pitchers requesting a specific catcher. You want players to communicate with you. Communication should be embraced. If a quarterback tells the coach that he has a certain connection with a certain wide receiver (they play well together), it should be used to your advantage. The Mets best pitcher and Cy Young Award winner told Calloway that he prefers a certain catcher and it did not matter. Certain pitchers do better with certain catchers. As a manager, you do not care? Calloway should have been fired right then! Four at bats from a catcher does not offset a pitcher's comfort with specific catcher.

There is more, but I think that is enough. If the above were done, the Mets would have made up the 3 games to catch the Brewers and made the post season.

Note to Brodie Van Wagenen, stop trading future stares. You trade players that are good that probably will not be starters. It was a mistake to trade Jared Kelenic and Simon Woods Richardson. Some players that should not be traded are: Francisco Alvarez, Ronnie Mauricio, Andres Gimenez, Matthew Allan, David Peterson, Mark Vientos, Josh Wolf and Brett Baty, I am not quite sold on Baty, he will either be a star or a bust.

I like Van Wagenen aggressiveness, but it must smart aggressiveness. The trade for Cano should never have happened. The Mets did not need Cano, they needed relief help. The Mets could have let Vargas go and by not trading for Cano, could have signed free agents Craig Kimbrell and Zach Britton (the money would have been about the same) and the Mets would have kept Jared Kelenic.