Thank You Terry

For a guy who was considered to be a transitional manager, I'd say he did a pretty good job running this baseball team. Think back for a second here. It was fall of 2010, the Mets were looking for a new manager, as Jerry Manuel had just be let go as manager and the Mets finished 79-83. They were stuck with stuff like the Jason Bay contract and had little hope of adding reinforcements due to its financial dire straits. Now they had three guys who they were looking at to manage the team. Wally Backman and Chip Hale were two of the three choices. But they decided to go with Terry Collins, a guy who hadn’t managed in 12 years and had never been to the postseason as a skipper. The decision left a few scratching their head, but here we sit, seven years later, and I think he left a pretty good impact on this Mets organization.

Terry has spent seven seasons running the Mets team as manager, the only 3rd guy, along with Bobby Valentine and Davey Johnson, as the only ones to manage the team for that long. As a matter of fact, those three guys are the only three to have won 500 or more games as Mets manager. Valentine won 536 games, Collins 551 games and Johnson is the all time leader at 595. Looking at the numbers, in Mets history, Collins is the only manager in the top five for the team to have a winning percentage under .500. Terry finished his run with a 551-583 record leading the Blue and Orange.His first four years on the job were a little underwhelming, with the Mets winning 77, 74, 74 and 79 wins. The 79 win season saw the Mets climb all the way to 2nd place in the division.

He started showing signs of being the right man for the job in 2012, when he had plenty of talent and the Mets got off to a hot start before fading at the end of the season. He proved that with some actual talent, he just might be the right man to steer the ship. Pieces started coming into place in 2014 when the young arms were there. 2015 is when it really all came together for Terry. Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Yoenis Cespedes finally arrived, and the Mets got hot and took off at the right time. But wait, he wasn't done there. 2016 was really Terry's best work at running this baseball team.

Just look at some of what this team has had to deal with the last two years. Last season, it was Matt Harvey, David Wright, Cespedes, Lucas Duda, Steven Matz, Zack Wheeler, deGrom, Neil Walker, and Juan Lagares. This year it was Harvey, Wright, Cespedes, Matz and Wheeler again, but also Syndergaard, Michael Conforto, Jeurys Familia, Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo, Wilmer Flores, Brandon Nimmo and T.J. Rivera. But what Terry managed to do with this Mets team in 2016, was nothing short of amazing. He some how managed to keep the team within striking distance all year. Then when Cespedes back into the lineup, the Mets managed to won 27 of their final 40 games to earn the top wild-card spot in the National League.

Sure there were times during his run as Mets skipper where I was left scratching my head with some of the decisions he made managing the team. But hey what fans don't react that way with some of their teams right. He had a rough go of it his first few years with the club, followed by two outstanding season managing the team, which included a division title and World Series visit. This year, injuries were just too much for the club to overcome. Still with all that being said, I'd say it was a pretty solid run here in New York.

So thanks Terry for all you did as skipper for this team. Best of luck in the future!