The Mets' Mickey Callaway era _ two seasons marked by disappointment on the field and turnover in the front office _ is over.
The Mets fired Callaway on Thursday, four days after his second season as Mets manager ended with the team again failing to make the playoffs.
Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen flew to Florida Thursday morning to fire Callaway in person.
"While we fell short of our ultimate goals, Mickey helped us win nine more games this year than we did last year and he was a big part of our finishing 10 games over .500 this season," Van Wagenen said in a conference call with reporters. "He brought consistent work ethic, good attitude and passion every single day. And as Jeff and I shared with him this morning, we have no doubt that these characteristics will allow him to find success in his next opportunity as he draws from these experiences going forward.
Callaway, 44, finishes his Mets tenure with a 163-161 record. The Mets were a losing team for most of his time running the bench, but they went 46-26 in the second half this year to inject themselves into the National League wild-card race. They finished 86-76 and in third place in the NL East.
"I feel unfulfilled," Wilpon said of the Mets' season. "We left some games on the field that we should have won."
Van Wagenen said the Mets already have an "expansive list" of candidates to replace Callaway.
Managers typically have a longer leash than two seasons, but Callaway's circumstances changed last fall. Mets COO Jeff Wilpon let go of Sandy Alderson _ the GM who hired Callaway _ and replaced him with Van Wagenen, a prominent player agent whose clients included Jacob deGrom, Yoenis Cespedes, Robinson Cano, Todd Frazier and other Mets.
Van Wagenen stuck by Callaway throughout the team's tumultuous 2019, including in May when the Mets were swept by the last-place Marlins and Van Wagenen called a news conference to say that Callaway would remain the manager for the "foreseeable future." In July, when the Mets began the second half 10 games under .500, Van Wagenen praised Callaway and said he would "absolutely" be manager the rest of the season.
"Mickey has done a difficult job very well," Van Wagenen said on July 12. "I know he shows up to work every day with a passion to win and a desire to work and get better and so I've been very satisfied with that.
"He's managed that clubhouse. It has not been an easy year with the expectations that we had and the shortcomings of our performance. He has held that clubhouse together and I think that is one of the best characteristics that a manager can have."
The Mets fell short this year for a bunch of reasons, most notably the bullpen, whose 4.99 ERA was the second-highest of any bullpen in franchise history. Two prominent Van Wagenen additions, Edwin Diaz (5.59 ERA) and Jeurys Familia (5.70 ERA), were the primary offenders, but the Mets also haven't been able to develop any relief pitchers drafted or acquired via trade in recent years into legitimate major-league arms.
The bullpen and rotation problems were bad enough that the Mets fired pitching coach Dave Eiland and bullpen coach Chuck Hernandez in June, replacing them with a trio of coaches on an interim basis: pitching coach Phil Regan, pitching strategist Jeremy Accardo and bullpen coach Ricky Bones.
Also offering underwhelming years were Cano (.256/.307/.428), Noah Syndergaard (career-high 4.28 ERA), Jed Lowrie (0-for-7). The Mets were without centerfielder/leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo for about half of the season due to a bulging cervical disc.
All of that was not enough to outweigh terrific seasons from deGrom, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Seth Lugo, Michael Conforto, J.D. Davis, Dominic Smith and others.
And so the Mets have decided to make a change at manager.
The Mets hired Callaway, previously the pitching coach for the perennial contender Indians, in October 2017, weeks after they moved his predecessor, Terry Collins, into a special-assistant role in the front office. Callaway had never previously managed at any professional level but wowed team brass in his interview. Billed as a pitching genius and a Terry Francona mentee, Callaway was described by Alderson as "a contemporary thinker in terms of strategy" and promised to change the Mets' culture.
"We're going to care more about the players, more than anyone ever has before," Callaway said at his introductory news conference.
The 2018 Mets finished 77-85 and fourth in the NL East.
Callaway admitted last year to being consistently surprised by the size and intensity of the New York media corps _ every day in the Big Apple was like the playoffs in Cleveland, he said _ and seemed not to improve at his twice-daily meetings with reporters in his second season. Throughout his two seasons, Callaway also seemed to struggle with the in-game strategy so common in the National League.
