Posted on September 27, 2017, by Bryan Zarpentine
Image via cbssports.com
Perhaps more than any other manager, there’s been a great deal of speculation and uncertainty surrounding the future of New York Mets manager Terry Collins. There has been speculation that the Mets would push Collins toward retirement and find a new manager in 2018. However, Collins said Tuesday that he has no intention of retiring and would like to remain with the team next season.
“I never said anything that I was going to retire,” said Collins. “I always wanted to work until I was 70. … I can put something to rest: I’m not going to go home and go fishing. Whatever anybody thinks about if I’m going to be here or not, I can’t answer that. But I’m going to be doing something.”
Of course, once the season is over on Sunday, Collins will be out of contract. He guided the Mets to the World Series in 2015 as a lame-duck manager and then signed a two-year deal to stay in New York. That contract is now about to expire, putting his future with the Mets into question.
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“I will tell you I hope it continues, but it’s been a lot of fun,” Collins said. “I’m kind of sometimes baffled of how it’s got to this point. Everybody’s asking me, ‘Do you go back and think about two years ago?’ I don’t, but obviously nobody else has either. We’ve done pretty good here.”
After making back-to-back trips to the postseason, the Mets have fallen on hard times this season, already losing 90 games. With the amount of injuries the team has endured, Collins can hardly be blamed for the poor season. Nevertheless, there is growing speculation that the Mets would prefer to move on from Collins after the season. However, Mets GM Sandy Alderson recently stated that no decision has been made about the club’s manager.
“We will talk about that at the end of the season,” Alderson said of Collins’ future. “I can’t really say that there’s clarity. And if there were clarity, I couldn’t really discuss it at this point.”
Collins says that his preference would be to stay with the Mets. He’s managed the Mets since 2011 and helped them endure a long rebuilding process until they finally emerged as National League champions in 2015. In that sense, it’d be a shame to see Collins pushed out after one bad season, especially with the team’s window to pursue a championship still open. But even if he’s not managing the Mets, Collins has no intention of leaving the game permanently.
“I’m going to be somewhere. If after we have discussions, if it feels I shouldn’t be here [with the Mets], then I won’t be,” Collins said. “We’ve created something here that’s pretty good. That’s my take. I haven’t talked to anybody about it so we’ll go from there. … I’m a baseball guy. I’m not embarrassed about going to the minor leagues. … I’m not embarrassed about doing anything that I think can help a team win and get better. … I will be in baseball somewhere.”
On the surface, it looks like the Mets will move on from Collins next season. Such a move would be understandable but unfair. However, it’s good to know that a baseball lifer like Collins has no intention of leaving the game, even if he’s not invited to stay with the Mets.