The New York Mets got themselves a new manager after the Carlos Beltran fiasco: Luis Rojas, who has been with the organization for well over a decade, will take the reigns and try to make the playoffs with a talented roster. That’s if there is a season to play, of course, given that MLB and the union are still negotiating important details.
Rojas has quite the fanbase around the Mets organization. A former manager of the franchise, Terry Collins, is the latest to show his respect for the newly-appointed skipper.
Rojas is what you would call a baseball lifer, as SNY puts it. He grew up in a baseball field, his brother and father were players/managers, and he went up through the minor league ladder to find this opportunity with the New York Mets.
Collins thinks that Rojas not only has the necessary knowledge of the game to be a successful on-field leader, but also, he believes Rojas is calm and has the needed serenity to take the best decision when the time is due.
“It means a lot because you are looking down the road at guys that are going to be called up, [Rojas] is going to know those guys, he is going to know their personalities,” Collins told Mike Puma of the New York Post. “But the other thing it does, when you bring a player in and he doesn’t know you very well, because he hasn’t been around you, a veteran guy, they are going to ask the young guys, ‘Tell me about this manager.’ They are going to draw their own conclusions, but you have people in there who say, ‘Hey, look, he is good to play for.'”
From one Mets manager to another
Collins knows what he is talking about, as he was the Mets’ manager for seven years, including in 2015, when they made a run into the World Series. He even got to see Rojas from up close during spring training, before action was halted.
“I think he’s got very good knowledge of the game, but he’s calm,” Collins told The Post. “I watched him run his teams and run games in the minor leagues and he had control of his players, but he had control of himself. He just slows the game down for himself, he doesn’t make rash decisions and today’s game in the minor leagues is tough, because your lineups are dictated today, but his players all liked him and they all played hard for him.
“I saw him take guys out of games when they didn’t hustle and they didn’t make a big deal about it. I think his demeanor will be good for the guys in New York because he’s got basically a little bit of a veteran club and the one thing those veteran guys don’t want, they don’t want somebody who is so intense and so in on every move. You have got to let those guys play a little bit and I think Louie is a good example of that.”