Mickey Callaway was selected by the New York Mets to be their manager six years ago. He was sacked by the Mets after two seasons with a 163–161 overall record, which allowed them to sign Luis Rojas, Buck Showalter, and now Carlos Mendoza.
Had a former player been up to the task, however, events might have transpired quite differently.
Prior to the 2018 season, Mark DeRosa had an interview with Sandy Alderson, the former general manager, for the role. In what was to be his very first interview for the position of manager, Alderson sensed that DeRosa’s heart was not in it. DeRosa asked Alderson at the time because he didn’t understand how the Mets decided to sign Callaway.
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“After a long conversation, I felt like he said something really meaningful to me,” DeRosa remembered on WFAN, a live broadcast at MLB Network. “At no time during this four and a half to five hours of questioning did you express a desire to manage the Mets?’ he asked. It’s the reason you came to this planet. I don’t want my skipper to arrive like that. I’m looking for a man who, after one night, can’t stop wanting to run the Mets.”
