Buck Showalter thinks the mission involved the short-season Aberdeen IronBirds. He sent former Orioles star and coach Brady Anderson on a stealthy operation to see teenager Manny Machado do a few laps with the under-the-radar farm club.
The talent was obvious. The experience? The mental makeup? Those tricky and hard to define intangibles?
"I remember Brady Anderson going over there and sitting on him for a few days to see if he thought he was ready to come up and help us at third base," said Showalter, whose Mets will face Machado and the Padres in a NL wild-card opener Friday at Citi Field. "We were kind of covertly working him out at third base at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
"I think he probably figured out what we were doing."
Showalter is the connective tissue to two of the most crucial people in the dugout of the Padres, who sit on the cusp of their first 162-game playoff appearance in 16 years. He was the man tasked with molding wet and fascinating clay with Machado, who was so gifted that he became an All-Star and Gold Glove winner in his first full season. The 66-year-old also managed Bob Melvin, now his Padres counterpart.
All those games and years later, the three find themselves locked up in the postseason. The crisscrossing roads impacted each and uniquely informed and tested thinking.
"I also played against him in Double-A," reminded Melvin, 60. "So we're not that far off in age. He was a young manager when I played for him, and I was probably an older player at that point in time. But it does come full circle, played against each other, he managed me. A lot of what I do now was influenced by him even though he was a younger manager at the time. I've watched him very closely over the years, we've maintained a relationship.
"So, it's pretty cool to be in this situation."
There's familiarity as the teams prepare for a no-margin-for-error, best-of-three matchup. There's also dusty distance in a game that suddenly carries those connected on a daily basis to other locales, scattered like seeds dispersed in a stiff wind.
Machado last played for Showalter in 2018, before being traded to the Dodgers to finish off that season.
"Me and Buck go a long way, so I kind of know his tactics a little bit," Machado said. "I know how he kind of likes to go about things. But ultimately, he's a great manager. There was no doubt when he signed (with the Mets), what he was going to do with that ballclub."
Not all relationships begin with rainbows, puppy dogs and smiles for miles. Sometimes they collide like tectonic plates, allowing majestic mountains to rise and take soaring shape.
In the best situations, each makes the other better.
"As a young superstar, Buck brought him along the right way," said Ryan Flaherty, the Padres quality control coach who played with Machado under Showalter in Baltimore. "Manny wasn't always the easiest young player. In Buck fashion, he didn't want to admit a 21-year-old was our best player. Manny would hit two homers and Buck would draw our attention to a relay throw (former Orioles shortstop) J.J. Hardy made in the seventh inning.
"He was letting Manny know he hadn't arrived yet, in some ways. It was a lot of that. At the time, Manny probably hated it. But he probably respects it more, now that he's 30. I think the person he is at 30 compared to who he was at 21, it's a direct correlation to having Buck as a manager."
Though it's unclear what all of it felt like then, the respect is clear now.
"I'm so proud of him, the (person) he's turned into in a lot of ways," Showalter said. "He's a good one."
Showalter doubles down on Melvin.
"He's an outstanding manager," he said.
That launched Showalter into a story. When he managed the Yankees as a relative newcomer in 1994 under withering owner George Steinbrenner, he needed a right-handed bat.
Armed with a mix of information and hunch, he called on lightly used backup catcher Melvin.
"One of the right-handed hitters, I think it was (Jim) Leyritz, wasn't going to be able to play that day," Showalter recalled. "… Bob got to DH and I got a lot of communication to me that that wasn't a really good idea from people other than the media."
Melvin belted a three-run homer off Baltimore's Arthur Rhodes.
"Bob saved my job," Showalter said. "… As it left the park, if I could have done some dance in the runway (to the clubhouse), which I think I did."
Twenty-eight years later, Showalter has gone on to manage the Diamondbacks, Rangers, Orioles and Mets.
"I got to keep my job for another day, so thanks Bob," he said.
Asked on Thursday whether he realized Showalter also managed Melvin as a player, Machado uncorked a wide smile.
"I saw that this morning," he said.
He didn't know that?
"I did not," Machado said. "That's crazy. Now they're both managing in a crucial wild-card (series). They've been doing it for a long time against each other. … We've got two of the best managers going head-to-head over the weekend. It's going to be fun."
And familiar, in so many ways.
