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Terry Collins announced that he will step down as manager of the New York Mets. The 68-year-old baseball veteran has been the Mets skipper since 2011, after joining the organization the year before as a minor league field coordinator.
“It’s been a tremendous run. I’ve had a great time, and a wonderful experience,” Collins said on Sunday. “It’s been a blast, but it’s time.”
After seven years as our skipper, Terry Collins has managed his final game with the #Mets. pic.twitter.com/9xLvjv9G9W
— New York Mets (@Mets) October 1, 2017
Collins’ departure didn’t take anybody by surprise, as rumors of his stepping down have been prevalent since as far back as August. They only increased as the season drew to a close, with the Mets declining to comment about his future, but all signs pointing to his departure whether it was his own decision or not.
In 2015, Collins took the Mets to the World Series and faced off against the Royals. He was named the Sporting News Manager of the Year that year, but the Mets failed to win a championship, losing to Kansas City four games to one.
Since then, the Mets have been plagued by injuries and struggled to make it back to the postseason, let alone make another World Series appearance.
A report on Friday by Marc Carig at New York Newsday described the dysfunction within the organization in Collins’ final season at the helm:
People with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described organizational dysfunction, discord between the manager and his players, and a broken relationship between the manager and the front office.
Despite what the front office perceived as Collins’ constant tactical blunders and concerns about Collins’ relationships with the players, sources said efforts to seriously explore a change were thwarted by the elder Wilpon.
Collins is the second-winningest Mets manager ever with 551 wins, behind only Davey Johnson at 595 victories. He passed Bobby Valentine as the Mets manager with the most losses ever in the summer of 2016, and only padded that total in 2017. His career record with the Mets is 551-583.
The Mets ended their season with a record of 70-92, fourth in the NL East — above only the lowly 2017 Phillies in the division rankings. Philadelphia beat New York 11-0 on Sunday to close out the year.
Collins previously managed the Astros and the Angels in the ‘90s, neither of which had any postseason success with him at the helm.