New York Mets: Mickey Callaway still on the hot seat?

With a completely new narrative for the New York Mets, is their second-year manager Mickey Callaway still on the hot seat?

On June 28th, The New York Mets continued to sink in the standings more and more each day. They just lost their 6th straight game, losing to the Braves by a score of six to two. Mets Managers Mickey Callaway in the press conference after the game said what everyone else was thinking, “It’s going to take a miracle.”

At the time, the Mets were 37-46, and nothing was clicking for them. With a season full of hope and absolutely no time to waste, they were losing grasp of the season already, especially  Callaway who was losing hold of his job with each loss.

It seemed Mickey could have been let go for the incident that did not happen too far from his “miracle” comment, where Callaway and former Mets fifth starter Jason Vargas had a run-in with Mets reporter, Tim Healy. It showed that Mickey could not keep his cool anymore over the most simple comments and could not control his players. It seemed even Mickey was getting tired of the same result every night and having to face the music in every press conference, hearing the same questions day in and day out, and a simple “See you tomorrow, Mickey” set him off. It was the icing on the cake for Callaway to cap off his nightmare season.

Well, since his comments on how it will take a miracle, the Mets are now 22-10, and everything has been clicking as of late. Their pitching staff has been objectively better since July 1st, pitching a 3.34 ERA which is the fourth-best in baseball. They now own one of the best starting five in baseball right now including newly acquired Marcus Stroman. Pitching has been clicking at the best time, having all five guys pitching quality games where they keep the Mets in the game, eating up innings, so the bullpen does not have to be in for a long time, as that’s been the most significant downside this season.

Now, what does this do for Callaway this season? Many predictions had Mickey do be the first manager canned this year, and for a while, that may have been true. This hot streak has single-handedly saved his manager career for the Mets for now. Now with a bolstered pitching staff, it seems like Callaway will have more success, but he is still not off the hook yet. Before the All-Star break, the Mets had one goal in mind: Get to .500. With one game out of the wild card, the Mets now have a new purpose after winning 13 of 14 games, and that is to make the playoffs.

The Mets certainly have a real test coming up soon with matchups against the Nationals, Braves, Phillies, and Indians coming up this month and if they can’t keep up with those playoff contenders, The Mets can still look for a new manager, but Callaway always believed in this team, and it is now paying off. That is something that must be talked about too, and it shows that the team is behind him also as they continue to push for a chance to play some postseason baseball for the first time since 2016.

The former Indians pitching coach has proved he can prevail even after hitting rock bottom, and his ability to stick with his group of guys has paid off, as they are the hottest team in baseball. Still, with a month and a half left of baseball, he has more to prove before he can be perfectly safe with his job.