It’s still very early – the Mets have played six percent of their schedule so far.
But to this point, Terry Collins is unquestionably different in 2015. He is confident in his club, he has expectations for his club, and he has expectations for himself in ensuring his club succeeds.
That has been evident ever since Collins started touting the 2015 Mets at the GM and Winter Meetings late last year.
The change in his attitude was evident yet again last night. When was asked how it felt to have sole possession even if it’s early in the season, he responded, “October 1 it will mean a hell of a lot.”
That doesn’t sound like a guy who is remotely satisfied with the good start his club has had so far.
No longer does Collins use words such as ‘compete’ and, ‘hope’ to describe his teams chances. No longer is Terry Collins evaluating his players to see where they might fit on the roster, and managing as though regular season games are meaningless, spring auditions, as has been the case much of the time down the stretch during his tenure with the Mets.
His roster is matured, more complete than it has ever been, and he’s managing to not only win but to exceed expectations for his club, to the point he feels Thursday’s win might’ve been a loss in prior years.
“I would say a year ago, we don’t win this game,” Collins told reporters after Thursday’s come-from-behind win.
“We have expectations this year, so now some of the little things, they have to be addressed a little bit harder,’’ Collins said after the game on Thursday. “There is a sense they can win. You see a lot of guys on the bench talking baseball and pulling for each other.”
It’s early, but so far Collins is managing with more aggressiveness, playing the match-ups better and trying to give every advantage he can to his team, especially late in games. He’s clearly managing with a purpose and a goal, which doesn’t include successful or failed auditions anymore.
It was evident when he played Ruben Tejada at shortstop on Wednesday to try and put the best possible defense on the field behind Jon Niese (even though Tejada committed a costly error), and groundball pitcher.
It’s also been evident in his usage of the bullpen. Granted, eight relievers in the bullpen gives Collins a ton of flexibility, but he’s done a good job managing it and using his chips at the right moments while not overexposing any one pitcher’s weakness. The bullpen has responded as such and performed really well for the most part.
The stakes are higher, for him in particular, and while he is far from perfect, this version of Collins is as refreshing as ever.
Just Mets 