Heyman: Signs Pointing Against Collins Returning To Mets
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- No one in the Mets organization is saying Terry Collins won't be back next year, but he isn't exactly receiving a vote of confidence, either.
Jon Heyman of WFAN and FanRag Sports reported Thursday that people around the team all expect someone else to be managing the Mets in 2018.
"The signs are not good," Heyman told WFAN's Jody McDonald and Brandon Tierney on Friday. "It's not a good sign that they haven't talked to him apparently, from what we're told, and I know they're not talking to the media."
Heyman said he tried to contact all of Collins' bosses last week to discuss the manager's future.
"I either didn't get a return call, I got a 'no comment,' or in one case, somebody called me up and thought I was asking about (pitcher Steven) Matz ... and then I said: 'No, you misread the text. I wanted to ask you about Terry.' He said: 'Oh. No comment,'" Heyman said. "So it doesn't sound good. It doesn't look good."
Collins is in the final year of the two-year contract he signed in November 2015.
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There's also a chance Collins, who at 68 is the oldest manager in the majors, could retire after the season. He hinted in October that this season could be his last, saying the physical demands of the job were wearing on him.
But Collins said Thursday he doesn't know what the future holds for him and won't worry about it until after the season is over.
"I got enough things going on a daily basis," he said, according to Newsday. "At the end of the year, things will take care of themselves. So whether they want me back, whether I feel I should come back, you worry about it at that time."
After entering the season with World Series aspirations, the Mets are just 55-71 — 21½ games behind the Nationals in the NL East and 13½ games back of the Rockies for the league's second wild-card spot.
Collins, however, has dodged taking much of the blame for the team's failures because of the large number of injuries that have hit the Mets. Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, Yoenis Cespedes, Neil Walker and David Wright are among the key players who have spent significant time on the disabled list.
Collins is 536-562 in his seven seasons with the Mets, whom he led to the World Series in 2015. He is tied with Bobby Valentine for the second-most winningest manager in franchise history and needs 59 wins to catch Davey Johnson for the club record.
Heyman mentioned two possible candidates to replace Collins if he and the Mets indeed part ways: Mets bench coach Dickie Scott and Dodgers bench coach Bob Geren. Both have ties to general manager Sandy Alderson from his days with the Oakland A's.