Major League Baseball

Aging Collins not sweating future as Mets boast arms to compete

Published Feb. 24, 2015 11:40 p.m. ET

Ken Rosenthal

A friend of Terry Collins’ recently suggested to me that Collins would retire as Mets manager at the end of the season, even if the team had been successful.

Another friend found the theory plausible, considering that Collins turns 66 on May 27 and that general manager Sandy Alderson essentially picked the team’s coaching staff.

Well, the theory didn’t make much sense to me — Collins remains a ball of energy, and the Mets finally are poised for a breakthrough. And on Tuesday, Collins told me that it doesn’t make much sense to him, either.

He got fired by the Astros, resigned from the Angels. He has never led a team to the postseason, averaged only 76 wins in four seasons with the Mets. Why would he stop now?

If anything, the more likely outcome is that Collins will lose his job; he is entering the last year of his contract and might not survive a poor start. But Collins isn’t thinking like that; no one with the Mets is.

He concedes that managing is difficult. He acknowledges that he is at an age when he must go year to year. Yet, when I told him of his friends’ sentiments, he said, “I don’t know why they would say that.”

“I’ve really enjoyed it here, had a great time,” he continued. “I get up in the morning, and you better be ready for a challenge every day in New York City. It seems like there’s a fire you’ve got to put out, some place. You get ready for the day. You get ready to compete.

“I will wear whatever we’re facing, what I’m facing. I’m not afraid of that. I thought Dusty (Baker) said it best a couple of years ago. I think his quote was, ‘I’m not afraid of the unknown.’ We’re all susceptible. But we’ve worked hard here. We think we’ve created a tremendous atmosphere here. Players like it here.”

And now, the players are good enough to make the Mets interesting — or, at least the pitchers are good enough. Standing in Collins’ office on Tuesday, I glanced at the board listing the team’s starting pitchers in alphabetical order.

The first nine names were stunning:

Now, Bartolo Colon, Dillon Gee and Jon Niese are hardly aces, but they’re competent major-league pitchers. Jacob DeGrom is the reigning National League Rookie of the Year, Matt Harvey the Dark Knight coming off Tommy John surgery. Steve Matz, a left-hander, might be an even better prospect than righty Noah Syndergaard or righty Rafael Montero.

I’m not sure the Mets can hit, even though third baseman David Wright is again healthy. I don’t love Wilmer Flores at shortstop, though the team insists that it could not find a quality upgrade. And I’m not confident that a perennially thrifty ownership will swing a big deadline trade for someone like Troy Tulowitzki.

Still, that pitching ...

“I’m in awe watching some of those young kids out there,” Collins said. “In the past, if somebody went down, it was like you were always juggling: ‘We’ll bring this guy in, give him a shot.’ I’ll tell you one thing: You call down right now if someone gets hurt, and I don’t care who you’re sending (up). I’ve seen ‘em. Their stuff is plus.”

The bullpen, too, should be quite good, even with closer Bobby Parnell recovering from Tommy John surgery and possibly out until May. Collins already has declared that the Mets “absolutely” are a playoff team, and many of his players have chimed in with similar confidence.

Translation: The heat is on.

The NL East includes a super-power (the Nationals), a potential threat (the Marlins) and two rebuilding clubs (the Braves and Phillies). The Mets should at least compete. They had better compete, or the Mets will retire Collins, rather than the other way around.

Then again, to best understand the improbability of Collins walking away, consider a story he told Tuesday about a lecture he once received from his father, Loren “Bud” Collins, who passed away last week at 95.

“You’ve had a ball in your hands since you could walk,” Bud told Terry. “If it’s no fun, get out.”

The year was 1979. Collins was a struggling minor-league infielder. He left the game, entered the real world. A year later, he came back, and the following year he began his managerial career in A-ball with the Dodgers.

From quitter to lifer.

“When you get to be my age, at the end of every year, you’ve got to take a look at the big picture and where you are,” Collins said. “How’s your health? A lot of things are contingent on that, for sure.

“I’m fine. I’ve been great. At the end of every year, it’s like anything else. It’s hard. It’s a hard job. So, you’ve got to take a little time to recharge the batteries. That’s why this winter has been a little bit tough, because of my dad’s stuff. But when you come into spring training and you see the faces of those kids in that clubhouse, it gets you going again.”

On the other hand, Collins is close with Jim Leyland, so he knows how quickly it can turn. Leyland left the Rockies after the 1999 season, suffering from burnout. He retired from the Tigers after the 2013 season at age 68, in a similar state.

“I called him,” Collins said. “We had just played them the month before in New York. I said, ‘What happened?’ And he said, ‘One night, I just said that I can’t do this anymore.’ He put his whole heart into it, and I do the same thing. At the end of the year, I’ve got to see if I’m OK.”

And if he is? If his team succeeds? If his bosses offer him a new contract?

“I’m not going to do this until I’m 75, I can tell you that,” Collins said. “But if we have a good year, I would love the opportunity to come back and do it again.”