Mets hire Buck Showalter as manager, per Steve Cohen’s tweet

The Mets have hired three-time AL Manager of the Year Buck Showalter as their new manager, according to a Saturday afternoon tweet from Mets owner Steve Cohen. While the team has not made a formal announcement, the official Mets Twitter account did retweet Cohen’s tweet.

Showalter has a three-year deal with the Mets, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. In a league where managers are trending much younger these days, that’s seemingly a bold deal to give a manager who will turn 66 next May, though 77-year-old Tony La Russa and 72-year-old Dusty Baker proved in 2021 that age is just a number as they led their clubs to division titles.

Showalter, who has a 1,551-1,517 career record, encountered some tough luck early in his managerial career and led his clubs to the playoffs just twice in his first 11 seasons, which spanned three jobs with the Yankees, Diamondbacks, and Rangers. But he took over the Orioles midway through the 2010 season and played a crucial role in turning around a franchise that had been woeful for many years. He led the Orioles to their only five winning seasons and only three playoff appearances of the 21st century over nine years in their dugout.

He’ll now take over a Mets team that looks ready to win now following the offseason additions of Max Scherzer, Eduardo Escobar, Mark Canha, and Starling Marte. He’ll be New York’s third manager in five seasons and will hope to fare better than Luis Rojas, who was fired after posting a 103-119 record over two seasons.