"We just couldn't finish it off..."
Buck Showalter, who's been down this road before, has lost the confidence of the fans and possibly his players
“Our guys did a good job getting to that point, but we just couldn’t finish it off. But yeah, he was available.”
These were the words Buck Showalter used in 2016, not 2023. In 2016, Showalter was manager of the Orioles, who made it to the Wild Card game—a game that went into extra innings tied 2-2. The Orioles went on to lose 5-2, with Edwin Encarnacion hitting a three-run home run off Ubaldo Jimenez.
Jimenez had a 5.44 ERA that season. Buck Showalter opted to use him instead of Zack Britton, who was coming off a historic season in which he had a 0.54 ERA, including a 0.16 ERA from May 5 until the end of the season. That’s 57 innings, giving up one run. Britton sat in the bullpen as the Orioles lost.
Showalter said after the game, “Nobody’s been pitching better for us than Ubaldo, too.”
Jimenez had finished the season strong, to be sure, but did have a start on September 16 where he gave up four earned runs… the same total Britton gave up the entire season.
This situation and comments by Showalter are eerily similar to the ones Showalter just made on Sunday. Showalter claimed he was saving his best reliever, David Robertson, for a ninth inning that never materialized.
Robertson had thrown just 13 pitches the night before, his second appearance in 10 days. Josh Walker, a rookie reliever, started the eighth inning instead of Brooks Raley, who was unavailable after pitching two days in a row. Raley was inexplicably pitching down four runs on Friday, in another game the Mets lost.
“Robby was going to pitch the ninth inning if we got there,” Showalter said. ”What else could we do?.”
This startling lack of accountability was only amplified in the post-game presser. Rookie Brett Baty, with 64 career games to his name, accepted the blame for his costly error in the eighth.
Showalter, on the other hand, pushed back on any hint of criticism, stating he would do the same thing over again.
Reliever Adam Ottavino said he told Buck Showalter he was available to pitch despite going two-thirds of a frame on Saturday (before that was June 21 at Houston; two scoreless with three strikeouts).
Buck Showalter claimed he wasn’t. That does not sound like a manager who is on the same page as his players.
Mets fans have abandoned any trust in Showalter, as is evident in social media across the spectrum. If there were any who still had faith in the manager before last night’s game, they are nowhere to be found now.
”I don’t get it. What am I missing?”, quipped Buck when asked further about his bullpen usage.
Wins, to start. Accountability, for another. Showalter is either feigning ignorance about questions regarding his managing of this club or doesn’t get it.
It seems only a matter of time before fans get their wish for Showalter to leave the team—a team of high hopes heading into 2023, with the largest payroll in MLB history.
Fans were told that Buck had learned from his 2016 mistake, but his actions and responses display an arrogance that is startling given the Mets’ struggles. As each loss mounts, the Mets look more and more like trade deadline sellers heading toward the National League East cellar.
Things could turn around, but the team must be put in its best position to succeed for success to actually come. Whether that’s this season, next, etc
Buck Showalter simply hasn’t done as much as he should or could this season in that regard, and it’s put the Mets at a disadvantage.
Player underperformance is certainly a reason the Mets are limping into the series with Milwaukee, but Buck’s management has absolutely cost the Mets enough games this season to warrant a mid-season firing.
Whether the Mets do that is to be determined.
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