Terry Collins Days with Mets Numbered?

Is it just me or does anyone else think Terry Collins’s days as the manager of the Mets are numbered? And unlike other times when people speculated on his firing, this time it might be deserved.

The general consensus is that no manager could win with the motley crew with which Sandy Alderson has saddled Collins. That remains true, and while the players carrying the burden of this current six-game losing streak, Collins and his questionable decision-making have to shoulder some of the responsibility.

Collins was never a great in-game strategist, so while he never really helped the team, he never hurt it either. That has not been the case lately. From his strict adherence to lefty-righty matchups which sees him using several relievers to get out of a single inning, leaving the bullpen short late in the game, to lineup choices that leave the best players on the bench (Wilmer Flores, the Juan Lagares nonsense a few weeks ago), Collins is now hurting the team.

And what about all of the baserunning blunders? While ultimately those are the players’ fault, it is also a failure of coaching. Why was Matt den Dekker trying to steal third with one out in the first inning Sunday? He was already in scoring position and it ended up costing the Mets a run. Is Collins teaching these players fundamentals? And knowing it was a rookie on base, why was he not specifically given a red light, ordered not to steal? This all falls on the manager.

A move could also be imminent simply because Sandy Alderson might be trying to save his job. It would not be the first time an embattled general manager tried to pass the blame along to his manager. And if Alderson is not embattled, then there is a serious problem with Mets ownership (which of course there is!).

Terry Collins seems like a good man and certainly deserved to manage a better team. The losing over the past few years has not been his fault. But he has not helped himself or the team lately, so maybe it is time for him to go. Hopefully it would be the beginning of a major shakeup that would see Sandy Alderson joining Collins on the bread line in the not-too-distant future.