NEW YORK — As Buck Showalter readies himself for all things Mets, he does so with the luxury of having a pretty good roster already in place.
That has not always been the case for the salty old veteran, whose first seasons with the Yankees, Diamondbacks, Rangers and Orioles were hardly smooth sailing. However, unlike these expectation-laden Mets, none of those teams were necessarily built for immediate success. The Yankees were stuck in mediocrity, the Diamondbacks were literally brand new, and the Orioles were undoubtedly a reclamation project. While the Rangers team that Showalter took over had the best player in the world, the urgency to bring home wins wasn’t in the same vicinity as it is for the 2022 Mets, a team built to win right now.
Here’s how each of those first tries went for Showalter at his old stomping grounds.
