PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — This was early last week and Buck Showalter had called Chris Bassitt into his office to discuss the recently-acquired right-hander’s first start for the Mets scheduled for Thursday night against the Marlins at Clover Park. You’ve heard the expression about the savviest managers managing two innings ahead. On this day Showalter was managing four days ahead.
“Looking forward to your first start,” he said to Bassitt, “but I don’t know if you’re aware of this but the forecast for Thursday is for rain, especially at night.”
Bassitt nodded.
“So I was wondering what you might want to do?” Showalter continued. “We could gamble and just stick to the plan of pitching against the Marlins that night, but I’d sure hate to lose those three innings and then you’d be behind the other guys.”
Bassitt studied the manager’s face before exclaiming: “I know what this is all about! You’re telling me you want me to pitch in the damn minor league game aren’t you!”
They both laughed.
In re-telling the story, Showalter said: “All these players want is for you to be honest with them and not have their routines interrupted. We could have waited until Thursday to make the decision but I didn’t want to take any chances and I wanted Chris to have plenty of advance notice on my thinking.”
What has become most obvious to the Mets players this spring is that have probably never had a manager more detail-oriented than Showalter. During his initial interview last December for the Mets job before Sandy Alderson and his analytics team, Showalter was asked for his thoughts about “load management.” For the uninitiated, “load management” is the analytics term for resting players. Showalter was prepared for the question and he had a ready response.
“The Atlanta Braves,” he said.
After a few curious looks, it was pointed out that last year all four members of the Atlanta Braves infield, Freddie Freeman (159), Ozzie Albies (156), Dansby Swanson (160) and Austin Riley (160) played a full season of games. In Showalter’s mind, there is nothing more important for a player than posting up every day. It goes back to his time as Yankee manager in the ‘90s and Danny Tartabull, the Yankees’ highest-paid player at $5.3 million per year. Other than home runs a couple of times, the only thing Tartabull consistently led the team in during his stay as a Yankee was begging out of the lineup. To Showalter, Tartabull was the antithesis of what a ballplayer should be. So it was on one of his first days walking through the Mets clubhouse at Clover Park, Showalter noticed the inspirational signs on the wall with quotes from Mike Piazza and Tom Seaver (“You have the honor and privilege of being in position to do something amazingly special” and “If you have the chance, you must do it”) and was reminded of the similar inspirational quotes by everyone from Joe DiMaggio to Gen. Douglas MacArthur which George Steinbrenner had posted around the Yankee spring training complexes in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa.
“I remember looking at them and saying to myself: ‘Those are really nice and all that, but how are they going to make my players play better?’” Showalter said.
It hasn’t happened yet but soon the quote signs will be coming down, to be replaced by one simple, all-encompassing credo for which Showalter would like the Mets to live by: “Post up and Play Better.”
One can only imagine what Showalter was really thinking when, on the first official day of camp, center fielder Starling Marte, for whom the Mets invested $78 million this winter as one of their most important players, was reported to have sustained a dreaded oblique injury. Other than hinting Marte’s recovery wouldn’t be nearly as long as most oblique injuries tend to be, Showalter was also quick to assert: “It didn’t happen here.”
He is 65 years old, “respect the game” and old school to the core, and proud of it. Before the lockout was settled, Showalter was in Port St. Lucie watching the Mets minor leaguers, but not permitted to have any contact with them. He was in the grandstand watching batting practice on one of the first days when one over-enthusiastic young hitter slugged a towering home run over the fence and proceeded to embark on a bat-flipping, fist-pumping celebration. After the kid had concluded his tour of the bases and was back in the dugout, Showalter summoned one of the equipment managers over.
“Do me a favor,” he said, pointing to the kid. “Would you tell him that the manager wants to know if that was his first home run as a professional and if it was then I want to personally congratulate him?”
The message was delivered and the kid smiled sheepishly, having been officially welcomed to Showalter’s world.
“You can’t blame them,” Showalter said. “It’s not their fault. This is what they see on TV and they don’t think anything of it.”
Another time, during an intersquad game, Showalter couldn’t help notice one of the Mets’ top prospects sitting in the dugout with a green wig and large psychedelic-type sunglasses. Again, he summoned one of the equipment guys and instructed him to tell the kid: “Just so you know, when the major leaguers arrive, they’re still going to need you guys to stay around and be available to fill in in a lot of the games while they get ready. But Buck says he’s been looking all over for you and hasn’t been able to find you.” Shortly thereafter, the wig and the sunglasses were gone, presumably never to return, and the kid hit a couple of doubles in his next two at-bats.
Despite the acquisitions of Marte, Bassitt and Mark Canha, Showalter has to know he is probably another starting pitcher and a couple of lefty relievers away from being on equal footing with the defending world champion Braves in the NL East. In all likelihood, too, Steve Cohen’s money can’t remedy those needs since the free agent market, especially for pitchers, is pretty much tapped out. While Mets GM Billy Eppler continues to work the phone for potential trades, Showalter goes about the day-to-day business of changing the Mets culture. The other day, he was on the field right in the middle of a bunting (yes, we did say bunting) drill when Mets closer Edwin Diaz drilled him in the leg with an errant fastball. (“I felt bad for Edwin,” Showalter said, lifting his pant leg to show the huge purplish welt. “I’m sure it scared the heck out of him ‘coconutting’ the new manager.”
For the record, the Mets-Marlins game did not get rained out Thursday night. In the 9-2 Mets win, Showalter used nine different pitchers, none of them named Chris Bassitt, who earlier that afternoon had pitched four scoreless innings of one-hit ball in an intrasquad game. Which was the whole idea.
