3 old school managers Yankees fans shouldn’t be begging for (and 1 they should be)

No Thanks: Buck Showalter

Do you, uh, still want Buck Showalter after the descent you watched in Flushing, Queens this season? Done. Cut. Print it. End of section.

It's obvious Showalter the Human deserved a better fate than having to tearfully announce his own firing without warning to the media at a postseason press roundup. The Mets haven't made meaningful strides in the PR department under Steve Cohen, and left a great baseball man out to dry one final time before he was able to rid himself of the uniform.

We harbor great sympathy for Showalter, who was a Yankees bridesmaid as the dynasty was revving its engines, but found himself dismissed after the team's 1995 playoff collapse, replaced by Joe Torre when the young Yanks required a tactical change in direction. Experimenting with Showalter in the Bronx would've felt interesting directly after his Orioles tenure, and plenty of caffeine-fueled overnight WFAN callers berated the Yankees for passing on the veteran -- fresh off a stint on the YES Network -- in the 2021-22 offseason.

Unfortunately, his Mets tenure will be remembered as an expensive failure, and one where he somehow overstayed his welcome after Year 1. His bullpen doctrine was rigid, similar to the one that got his Orioles felled in the 2016 Wild Card Zack Britton disaster. His clubhouse maybe gelled, maybe didn't, but regardless, it inspired Tommy Pham (one of Showalter's favorites) to admonish the offense when he left. The rookies never improved; neither the kids nor the old man came out on top here.

It would've provided plenty of joy if a nearly finished Showalter had been able to caretake a Yankees title in, say, 2018 or 2019, but it would be tough to justify the hire after watching New York's crosstown rivals recede under his stewardship.