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.
1992 Yankees
Showalter’s first team bumbled their way to a 76-86 record, but that wasn’t Showalter’s fault. The team’s fourth place finish in the AL East (20 games behind the eventual championship-winning Blue Jays) was a product of the franchise being stuck in a holding pattern, not anything to do with managerial tactics.
Three years before Showalter helped pilot the Yankees out of prolonged frustration and into the 1995 playoffs — and four years before they’d win a title under Joe Torre — the first-time manager had to make do with Melido Perez, Danny Tartabull and Andy Stankiewicz.
A 23-year-old Bernie Williams appeared in 62 games, making him the only core member of the approaching dynasty to factor into Showalter’s first season. Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada were all cutting their teeth in the minor leagues. David Cone was still a Met, and would get traded to Toronto during the season. Paul O’Neill was playing his final year in Cincinnati, young Tino Martinez had just inherited regular playing time in Seattle, and Scott Brosius was toiling in obscurity for the Athletics.
With such a huge talent gap between them, the Yankees had no chance of competing with the mighty Blue Jays. Showalter’s pitchers particularly struggled, as the team’s collective 4.21 ERA ranked 12th out of 14 American League teams. If not for the career year from Perez that truly came out of nowhere, things would have been much uglier on the mound. Tartabull, Don Mattingly, Mel Hall, Matt Nokes and others did their part in the batter’s box (the offense ranked second in the AL in homers and third in slugging percentage) but the incredibly top-heavy roster was doomed from the start.
Showalter won’t have the same problem in his first year with the Mets. He takes over a team bursting with promise, and while Atlanta will roll into their first series at Citi Field with some new jewelry, they aren’t nearly the juggernaut that the Blue Jays of the early ‘90s were.
1998 Diamondbacks
This team was awful, winning just 65 games.
Again, it wasn’t Showalter’s fault. This was a first-year expansion team without anything resembling a star player. Devon White, the lone All-Star, enjoyed a modest season, but at 35 years old he did not have the same pep in his step.
One year later, the Diamondbacks added Randy Johnson, Luis Gonzalez, Steve Finley and Tony Womack, and Showalter managed them to 100 wins. In 1998, though, the most memorable moments were the first game in Diamondbacks history (a 9-2 loss) and the time Showalter intentionally walked Barry Bonds with the bases loaded (which did lead to a rare Arizona win).
These fangless snakes lost their first five games, were 7-20 entering the month of May and at one point found themselves 37.5 games back of first place. Thanks to the post-fire sale Florida Marlins, who were on the exact opposite trajectory of the D-Backs, Showalter and his boys did not finish with the worst record in the National League. The Diamondbacks would soon join the Marlins as ‘90s expansion teams to win a World Series, besting the Yankees in the epic 2001 showdown just a year after Showalter was fired.
Those 2001 championship Diamondbacks were a far cry from Showalter’s first team in the desert, just like the 1996 Yankees were a completely different unit than the 1992 squad. Both share the distinction of bringing home the hardware as soon as Showalter left town.
2003 Rangers
With the Yankees, Showalter had emerging greatness in the minor leagues. With the Diamondbacks, his front office went out and acquired greatness right after his first year.
With the Rangers, Showalter already had a generational talent in tow, but he wasn’t nearly enough on his own.
In 2003, Alex Rodriguez had one of the best seasons ever by a shortstop. He slashed .298/.396/.600 and mashed 47 homers on the way to his first MVP. To this day, Rodriguez and Ernie Banks are the only shortstops to ever hit 45 home runs in a season with a slugging percentage of .600 or better. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough of A-Rod’s secret sauce to go around, perhaps both literally and figuratively.
Rodriguez admitted to taking banned substances during his time with Texas, which included the 2003 season when he reportedly tested positive for anabolic steroids before the league had any sort of penalty in place. While the rest of Texas’ infield — which was rounded out by Mark Teixeira, Hank Blalock and Michael Young and supplemented by Rafael Palmeiro at DH — all posted a wRC+ of 100 or better, the pitching was an unmitigated disaster.
Colby Lewis, who threw the second-most innings on the team, did so with a 7.20 ERA. Five other pitchers (Jay Powell, Rosman Garcia, Ryan Drese, Chan Ho Park and Victor Santos) logged at least 25 innings of work and posted ERA’s above 6.00.
This was Showalter’s only overlap with Rodriguez, and ironically, was also his worst year record-wise (71-91) in Texas. Luckily in his first go-round with the Mets, Showalter will not only have a wonder boy at shortstop again, he’ll also have two of the best pitchers of the last 10 years.
2011 Orioles
2010 was technically Showalter’s first year with the O’s, but he took over midseason. When given a fresh slate at the start of 2011, the Orioles rewarded him with a 69-93 snoozer.
An interesting thing about Showalter’s managerial career is that all of his teams made a sizable leap in his second full year. Each of Showalter’s teams won at least 88 games in his second season. Baltimore shook off the stench of the 2011 campaign to win the wild-card game and take the Yankees to five games in the 2012 ALDS, losing the clincher when CC Sabathia threw a complete game four-hitter.
About that 2011 team, though. Among the 14 AL teams, the Orioles’ pitchers were 12th or worse in strikeouts, ERA, hits allowed, home runs allowed and Wins Above Replacement, placing dead last in each of the final four categories.
If things go that poorly for the Mets this season, somebody needs to launch an investigation.
