Buck Showalter has come full circle in many ways — and it was emphasized in the moments before he took the Mets managing job.
Mets general manager Billy Eppler asked Showalter to come for one final face-to-face Saturday to ask him a few more questions. They were perfunctory. Eppler already knew he was going to ask Showalter to succeed Luis Rojas. But the questions allowed him to set up a final one:
“How would you like to work with a protégé of both the first person to ever hire you as a manager and Brian Cashman?”
Gene Michael was the Yankees general manager after the 1991 season when he picked Showalter, then 35, to be the Yankees manager. Michael also elevated one of his lieutenants, Cashman, to be an assistant general manager that year.
The Mets are introducing Buck Showalter as their new manager Tuesday afternoon. APEppler came to the Yankees as a scout in 2004 and eventually graduated to become one of Cashman’s assistant general managers. He considers both Michael and Cashman as among his most important mentors in the game. Showalter has long spoken with affection and admiration of working for Michael and his ability to impart both wisdom and protection.
Billy Eppler had one final question for Buck Showalter before offering him the Mets’ manager job. Mets via APThose ties to two important figures in the past of both Showalter and Eppler prove historic ties between the two as they begin a process together of trying to transform the Mets into what Michael, Cashman and Showalter helped create with the Yankees — a consistent winner.
Showalter, 30 years after his first major league managerial hire, comes in now as the proven veteran. With his press conference Tuesday to officially name him to the position, Showalter enters having managed the fourth-most games among active managers, trailing just Tony La Russa, Dusty Baker and Terry Francona.
