🙋 Kevin Long was considered a 'front-runner' to be a Mets manager

Hello fellow Mets fans! Welcome to this week’s edition of Almost A Met.

With talk about the Mets next manager in full swing, I thought it was a good time to do another Almost A Met (Manager) newsletter. Today we’re looking at the team’s former Hitting Coach Kevin Long, who many believed was a shoe-in to lead the team after Terry Collins stepped down.

As we all know, that never happened — and when it didn’t, he left the team.

Let’s get into it all.

Andrew

Terry Collins has become a fixture of Mets history by the time he decided to step down as manager at the end of the 2017 season. He managed the most games in the franchise’s history, and had led them on a magical run to the 2015 World Series. And of course, we can’t forget his exceptional viral moment arguing with umpires.

For a good portion of Collins’ career with the Mets, he had Kevin Long as his hitting coach. He’d been long respected for being a good coach, but specifically got credit for helping Mets 2B Daniel Murphy discover his power stroke during the 2015 playoffs.

So, when Collins decided to step aside after the 2017 season, it made some sense that someone with a long track record with the team could succeed him. His contract was also set to expire, an important note that we’ll get to more later in the newsletter. In fact, he was considered an “early favorite” to land the gig.

Long was among a laundry list of names who interviewed with the team. According to the New York Post, names “in the mix” to interview with GM Sandy Alderson included Long, Alex Cora, Brad Ausmus, Robin Ventura, Joe McEwing, Sandy Alomar Jr., Chip Hale, Bob Geren and Mickey Callaway.

While Long didn’t have any major league managerial experience, he did so at the minor league level.

As early as mid-October 2017 he was getting some buzz. Former Met OF Curtis Granderson told the Post that he believed Long would “be up for the challenge.” He added that his former hitting coach was “energetic” and communicated well, which was “the biggest thing a manager needs to have.”

Besides getting a vote of confidence from Granderson, Long also had “supporters in the organization who believe he is capable of holding a team together,” the New York Post reported at the time.

In fact, the Bergen Record (my former employer) at the time called Long an “early favorite” and “top choice” to get the gig.

As October moved along, Alderson continued to interview candidates. Reports suggested at the time that then Mariners third base coach Manny Acta “lit up the room” during his interview.

Despite all that, Long was still thought to be the “front-runner,” sources told the New York Daily News, and intrigued Alderson and the front office as “out-side-the box hire.” In fact, Long went into the interview with binders full of ideas he had picked up during his career as a hitting coach.

In particular, the Mets seemed to like how Long could take analytics and translate it well for players during his time as the team’s hitting coach.

“No matter how much data you have, it does not mean anything if it cannot be explained to the players in a way that they can understand and use,” a Mets front office source told the Daily News. “Being able to take what we give them and make changes that results to improvement on the field, that’s a skill that we need a lot more of.”

The Mets were hoping to make a decision during the 2017 postseason, and as the Mets were “near the goal line” for a decision to replace Collins, Long was still “viewed as the favorite.” The other possibilities were Acta, McEwing, and Callaway.

Despite all indications to the contrary, the Mets decided to go in a different direction.

Marc Carig, then at Newsday, reported on Oct. 22 that the Mets began reaching out to the remaining candidates. Both Long and McEwing were told they were “out of the running” to be the next manager.

With his contract expiring as the Mets hitting coach, Long decided to move on after not landing the role. On November 1st, MLB.com reported that he wouldn’t return for the 2018 season.

He talked about his decision in Mike Puma’s (very good book) If These Walls Could Talk: Stories From The New York Mets Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box.

“I was either going to get the job or I was going to move on. At that point I felt like I could really help and be a solution there and if I wasn’t going to be given the reigns, I didn’t want to watch somebody else do it,” Long said. “When I went for my interview I was prepared, I was ready, and I did a heck of a job in there, but it wasn’t obviously good enough.”

We all know the Mets instead chose Callaway to lead the team. His tenure with the Amazin’s was a disaster full of off-the-field miscues and bad on-the-field play and gaffes. It turned out they should have done some more background work on him. Bad dude.

Long, on the other hand, would become the hitting coach for the Washington Nationals, a team which he’d also interviewed for their managerial position.

“I got two runner-ups, which doesn’t do me a whole hell of a lot of good,” Long told Puma in his book. “But I am grateful for the experience, and at that point I was real gung ho on managing and once I didn’t get it, I kind of backed off. I really like my job as a hitting coach and really like what I do.”

He’d once again team up with Murphy, who signed with the team a few years earlier. He’d eventually become the hitting coach for the Philadelphia Phillies, where he still is currently.

It’s tough to say exactly how Long would have done as the Mets manager — the teams from 2018 - 2020 were pretty dismal — but if it came down to the choice between two first-time managers between him and Callaway, I’d make a bet that Long would have been a better choice.

Would have signed him to lead the Mets instead of Mickey Callaway?

Next newsletter we’ll share the results of the poll! So stay tuned.

Last newsletter’s answers: 63% of Almost A Met readers would have traded for Arenado ahead of the 2021 season, while 38% said they wouldn’t have.

🔵 Here’s why the Mets should extend (not trade) Clay Holmes, who wants to stay (Will Sammon and Tim Britton / The Athletic)

🟠 Why Mets’ 2026 season seems more like an isolated nightmare than start of downturn (Danny Abriano / SNY)

🔵 Mets rookie of the year candidates? (Linda Surovich / Just Mets)

🟠 Building toward something (The Shea Hello Newsletter)

🔵 10 juicy trade deadline predictions (Brett Windisch / The Skippers View)