🔄 Joe McEwing is the perpetual Almost A Met manager

Almost A Met (Manager): Joe McEwing

Aug 15, 2025

Hello fellow Mets fans! Welcome back to today’s edition of Almost A Met. First off, a big congratulations is in order for 1B Pete Alonso, who became the Mets all-time home run leader. Congrats Polar Bear. 🐻‍❄️

Today’s newsletter is another Almost A Met (Manager) edition, where I’ll deep dive into how former Mets fan-favorite Joe McEwing “comes up in every Mets managerial search.” In fact, he called the gig his “dream job.” Scroll down below to find out more.

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The endless saga of Joe McEwing and the Mets manager position

Is there a Mets fan of a certain age that doesn’t love Joe McEwing?

During his five-year stint as a super-utility player for the Mets, “Super Joe” McEwing endeared fans with his ability to play nearly everywhere on the diamond, be a mentor for future superstar 3B David Wright, and his uncanny ability to always tee-off against one of the best pitchers in the league, SP Randy Johnson.

While McEwing left the Mets after the 2004 season, and ultimately last played in the majors during the 2006 season, there were actually several times that he almost returned to the Mets… as a manager.

Let’s take a look at how a Mets fan-favorite almost ended up leading the team.

McEwing was a hot name for managerial interviews across the MLB

McEwing transitioned from player to manager pretty quickly, and was immediately highly regarded as a baseball mind. The former Met actually interviewed for several jobs.

He managed in the minor leagues for a bit. But in 2011, he spoke with the St. Louis Cardinals about their vacant manager role before he took the job as third base coach for the Chicago White Sox under former Mets 3B Robin Ventura. He also interviewed for managerial roles with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, and Minnesota Twins during the 2014 offseason, and was speculated as a candidate for the Philadelphia Phillies job in 2017. He also interviewed for the Detroit Tigers manager job in 2017.

In 2017, he served as the Chicago White Sox bench coach, under Manager Rick Renteria and served on the major league staff for five seasons prior to that.

So clearly teams thought highly of the former player—numerous teams wanted to talk to him about being their manager.

But let’s get to the Mets specifically.

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Could Joe McEwing have been a Mets manager?

Following the 2017 season, the Terry Collins-led Mets era was coming to a close.

Collins, who was hired ahead of the 2011 season, had led the team through a brutal rebuild that ultimately culminated in back-to-back playoff appearances in 2015 and 2016, which included a World Series against the Kansas City Royals. However, the Mets crashed back down to a 70-92 record in 2017, and there was a sense that it was time to move on.

Even before the end of the 2017 season, there was speculation that McEwing could be an option to replace him. Mike Puma, of the New York Post, reported that he was a “candidate of interest” to get an interview for the position.

In fact, Bill Madden of the New York Daily News straight up endorsed McEwing for the job immediately after the season ended.

“The Mets really need a manager with a personality who will instill the basics of playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played (not that Collins didn’t) and energize the fan base,” Madden wrote. “McEwing, by example as an over-achieving player, would certainly seem to fill that bill.”

Even Bobby Valentine, the Mets former manager, sang the praises of McEwing and Ventura—both players he managed on the Mets in the past—in an interview with the New York Post.

“There’s a few hundred guys that I have managed, but these two are in a special class of people,” Valentine said, according to the Post. “I think it is a wonderful step in the right direction, when you are hiring for any position, that you have the opportunity to hire a good person. I think great people make great leaders.”

Soon enough, the Mets whittled down their managerial search to replace Collins to their Hitting Coach Kevin Long, Cleveland’s baseball team’s Pitching Coach Mickey Callaway, Seattle Mariners Third Base Coach Manny Acta, and McEwing.

A few weeks later, both Long and McEwing were out of the running.

We all know what happened next.

Callaway was hired, and then fired after just two seasons of disappointing baseball that included numerous off-the-field nonsense like getting into a confrontation with a reporter in 2019. (Not to mention the very serious allegations that came out about him after he was fired).

The Mets then replaced Callaway with a much-heralded announcement that Carlos Beltran would take over as the skipper. However, he would step down from the role before managing a single game amid the fallout from the Houston Astros cheating scandal.

The Mets replaced Beltran with Luis Rojas, who was considered an up-and-coming managerial prospect. However, he would only last two seasons as the manager before the Mets (yet again) were looking for someone new to manage the team.

Amid another Mets manager vacancy, McEwing calls it his ‘dream job’

As the Mets searched for another manager in early 2021, former Mets GM and now-SNY Analyst Jim Duquette listed McEwing as an “early candidate” for the role along with Ron Washington, Clint Hurdle, Todd Zeile, Miguel Cairo, and future-Mets manager Buck Showalter, among others.

In fact, McEwing told Puma of the New York Post that managing the Mets was his “dream job.”

Other media outlets also openly speculated about him being a candidate.

In 2021, the Mets decided to hire Buck Showalter. And (noticing a pattern here?) he lasted two seasons before being fired as David Stearns took over control of baseball operations.

Even after Showalter’s dismissal there was speculation that McEwing would be among the candidates the Mets would interview to take over. Despite some intense links between the Mets and Craig Counsell, the team ultimately hired Carlos Mendoza, who is the current skipper.

As Anthony DiComo, of MLB.com, pointed out in 2021: “One name that comes up in every Mets managerial search is Joe McEwing, now a longtime White Sox coach.”

Ain’t that the truth.

Maybe he’ll come up again in the future. But here's hoping it’s a while. I like Mendoza.

❓ Would you have made Joe McEwing manager?

Let’s get in the GM chair. Would you have hired Joe McEwing to be the Mets manager?

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

Last newsletter’s answers: 100% of Almost A Met readers said they would have traded for Randy Johnson. It was unanimous!

⚾ Mets news you need to know

Over on SNY, Anthony McCarron argues that the Mets should lock up Pete Alonso to make him a “forever Met” in the wake of his historical home run. (Anthony McCarron/SNY)
Will sauce from Frankie Peppers (of the Mets’d Up podcast fame) save the season? (@PeppersFrankie/X)
Over on the Shea Bridge Report James Schapiro writes about whether or not the “prospects are the problem” with the Mets. (James Schapiro/Substack)