Terry Collins, Former New York Mets Manager

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See additional terms at OnePeloton.com. Mayhem in Major League Baseball. That's right. It is the Zach Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. As you know by now, Carlos Correa the other day was supposed to be introduced as the newest member of the San Francisco Giants.

Then there was a hiccup in the medical reports. And the next thing you know, in the middle of the night last night, Steve Cohen swoops in and now Carlos Correa is off to Queens to join the New York Mets. And now joining us to talk about it all on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio is a former big league manager.

Of course did manage the Mets of the World Series and also did manage the Astros and Angels and that is Terry Collins. Terry, appreciate the time. How are you? Great, Zach. How are you?

I'm doing fantastic. So take me through your reaction and how you found out about this Carlos Correa news. Well, I will tell you Zach, when I heard about it today, the first thing that in my mind is I wasn't shocked. Nothing surprises me anymore. You know, anything can happen in the game and certainly with the activity of Steve Cohen and the way he's going about things, nothing shocks me.

And I think it's a great move. I actually talked to Buck today and congratulated him on the sign and said how much fun it's going to be to watch this team play. Was Buck at all surprised the way that this did go down? Because it looked like and everything that reported he was ready to have his introductory press conference with the Giants. Yeah, I think Buck was surprised by it all.

Certainly, you got to be because like everybody, we were waiting to see the press conference in San Francisco and certainly I don't have any of the details on what happened, what went down. But I know one thing, he's a great player and Steve Cohen has made it pretty public that he's going after great players and he got another good one. There's some people and I think it's people that are very jealous of Steve Cohen and wish their owner would do this. They're saying today Steve Cohen is bad for the game of baseball and Major League Baseball needs to step in and do something. What do you say to the jealous people like that? Yeah, well, too bad.

You know, hang with them. Hey look, nobody tells anybody how to spend their money no matter what they do. Steve Cohen wants to win in the worst way. He wants to bring a championship to New York and certainly being a huge Mets fan himself, he wants that championship game to be the New York Mets. I understand, hey look, not all the owners have that kind of money.

Well, you know, that's just the way the game is. For years, everybody was the envy of the Yankees when George was running the Yankees and they got every good player out there. So I think it's great for baseball. I think it's great for New York and certainly for the New York Mets. Talking to Terry Collins, that infield, Terry, it's really something with Alonzo, McNeil, Correa, and Lindor. I can't wait to see how this plays out.

Oh, I can't either. As I told Buck today, I said, you know, Buck, the one thing you did last year, you got these guys to play the game right. They hustled, they did all the things they were supposed to, they hit cutoff men, they hit relay men. And now you put great players on the field and you get them to play like that, this game is really going to be a fun team to watch. When you look at the rotation this year for the Mets, DeGrom out, Bassett out, but you insert Senga, and then also obviously Justin Verlander, how do you think about what feels like the Mets swapped out those two guys and brought in two new pitchers? Well, certainly, you know, obviously with Justin, you know, coming off the Tommy John the way he is, you know, I think he's probably got a lot more left in his arm.

And Max, Max is Max. I mean, the competitiveness of Max Scherzer takes over. His stuff's good.

I mean, it probably wasn't what it used to be four or five years ago, but it's still very, very good. But his competitiveness makes it even better. And then you add, you know, you put those guys, Senga, you know, I spent two years in Japan, I know all about Japanese pitching, and if he's as good as everybody says, then he'll adjust fast to the United States. I think Cookie Carrasco continues to get better after his injuries, and it got some depth with McGill and, you know, David Peterson, and I'm looking forward to seeing Cantana because you know what, when you've got a competitive staff, which the Mets have, they, you know, they bleed off.

They feed off each other. The competition with, hey, look, you pitch good? Well, I'm going to pitch good tomorrow night.

So I just think it's a really, really good-looking staff. I know you were very close and probably still are with Jacob DeGrom. He's now with the Texas Rangers on a lucrative contract. Just how did you take the DeGrom news when you found out about it? Well, I was really disappointed, very, very disappointed, you know, because I was there, Zach, one time when I was in the locker room where David and Jake were talking about, you know, spending their entire career with one team and how exciting it was going to be. David was always very, very excited about ending his career with the Mets, and Jake kind of bought in and said that would be great. So I don't know what happened. Obviously, maybe the money got big, maybe something else.

I don't even know. But, you know, I love Jake DeGrom, and I think the Mets are going to miss him. I think the fan base is going to miss him.

But you know what? You got to move on, and certainly now we're going to root for some other guys. I feel like, though, DeGrom leaving Terry did motivate Cohen to go to an extra level that even I didn't know he was capable of going to. Yeah, I mean, now he's set the bar for everybody. Hey, look, you know, there's nothing that's going to get in the way of him putting out a quality team on the field.

And you know what? And he said, hey, look, every Mets fan deserves this, and I think that's a great way to look at it, and I'm very proud of what Steve's done, and certainly, you know, the energy back in that ballpark this year is going to be just something to see. Terry Collins here with us. We know how great the NL East was a year ago, but these teams got even better.

You know, look at Philadelphia, Brigham and Trey Turner. We talked about what the Mets did. The Braves have been an unbelievable force. This is going to be one heck of a division once again, Terry.

It's going to be a very, very good division. Obviously, you know, I'll tell you, the Braves losing Swanson is going to be a big piece. He was a very, very big piece of that team, but you know, they've got that good pitching still, and they've got some very, very good offensive clean. Okun is going to have another year of, you know, coming off that injury that he had, so they're going to be directed with, but the Phillies are going to be the team I think that's going to really be the team you've got to compete against right now.

I know baseball is a business. Was it bizarre for you this year to see Syndergaard go to the Phillies and now off to the Dodgers, especially with your connection with Syndergaard and maybe some of the things you said to that umpire where Thor threw behind Utley? Yeah, you know, I love Noah. You know, I could tell you, Zach, some of the things, you know, when he was just a young man, when he first came up, he asked all the right questions.

He went about his job correctly. You know, he took the ball. There were a lot of nights after the Chase Utley incident, you know, deep in game five, he said, look, I'll do whatever you need me to do.

You need me to throw at somebody, I'll throw at them. Anyway, he had that tremendous outlook, and yeah, it was pretty tough, you know, watching he and Zach on the Phillies during the World Series, you know, I'm thinking, gosh, you know, and I did a story about what it was like that never got getting the chance to see those five young, tremendous starting pitchers on the same staff that I thought would have been really the base of the New York Mets for a long time. But, you know, the game has moved on, the game is different, and certainly now I'm excited for everybody. I hope Noah gets back to where he used to be because, you know, he had the chance to be one of the best pitchers in the game. Terry Collins, today, the Yankees named Aaron Judge their captain. They had the press conference since he resigned that contract with the Yankees. Did you ever think he was going to leave New York because there was some talk about San Francisco? No, I didn't think he was leaving the Yankees. No, I knew that when his push came to shove, the Yankees weren't going to let him go. You know, that's one of the things about free agency, you know, and I think Aaron really wanted to be a Yankee deep inside. You know, you sit there and you play every day in front of all those monuments in center field knowing that at some time you're going to have one out there.

You know, that's pretty special. When you look at Shelly Otani, he's in the final year of his contract. I'm starting to think, and I've been thinking this the last few weeks, that if the Angels don't perform well this year, they're probably going to look to trade him. I would not rule out the Mets, right, with Steve Cohen?

I would neither. I would not rule out the Mets, and I will tell you, I wouldn't rule out the New York Yankees either. I think Shelly's going to be in such demand. If you're going to get him in the trade, though, you better be prepared to give up some top-line young players, and a few of them. And I think, you know, that's what I've always said about the good teams. Hey, look, they're not afraid to trade good young players because they'll develop more.

They'll go sign good players and they'll develop good players, and that should never stand in the way of making yourself better. Yeah, I'll never forget when Otani came over to Major League Baseball, and you hear all the comparisons to Babe Ruth because of the pitching and the hitting and all that, and it almost seems like mythical because we haven't seen someone do that, obviously, in forever, never in my lifetime. You've been a baseball lifer. To see what Otani has done and how quickly he's taken the sport by storm, surviving through some of those injuries early on in his career, to now see how dominant it is, how do you kind of process it? Well, obviously, he's a tremendous talent, one-of-a-kind talent.

You know, the game's a little different over here in the United States. We've got some guys, there's some guys that I've seen, you know, UNSS put a CEP wanted to, but he could have went to the mound through 95-98, too. You know, this guy had one of the greatest times I ever saw. But, you know, Shoah A has been able to come over here and do it, and do it on both sides of the ball, and, you know, it's a special talent, and certainly, you know, I would hope the Angels do something because, you know, to get a chance to see Mike Trout and Shelly Otani on a nightly basis would be fun to do. Yeah, it's really a shame when you look at Trout's career, and we know how great he is, the fact that he's only played in one postseason and it's only been three games, that's just crazy to me. It is crazy, I mean, because there's a lot of guys who ride that star player, and, you know, and certainly, you know, Mike, he's one of those guys that goes out there, he plays a lot of games, he plays a lot of innings, and, you know, it's starting to show the wear and tear on, which you expect to, you know, as you continue to age in baseball.

But, you know, he's truly one of the great players in the game, and it's going to be fun to see what happens next year with Otani. We talk about the moves that the Mets have made, adding and bolstering to their lineup, you also then take a look at the Padres, who got Soto at the deadline, you're going to eventually get back Fernando Tatis Jr. after he serves his suspension, you sign Xander Bogart, you have Machado on that roster, you go on and on and on. As a manager, when you have so many weapons in place, how do you kind of manage the team and keep everybody happy and know how to press the right buttons? Well, you know, and again, Zach, the game's different now. You know, there's such a staff of performance guys that, you know, will tell you about, you know, guys are going to need days off. You know, a few years ago, I mean, you couldn't wrestle David right out of the lineup. Well, nowadays, you know, the schedule is going to be put down, and hey, you're going to get days off, and so what it's going to mean is, hey, look, you've got a quality guy to put in. You know, you certainly, there's guys who are versatile, put them in different spots, but the idea, the main idea is to make sure you get your star players, you know, 450 at bats.

That's going to be, that's going to be the challenge because those are the guys that are going to win and win the pennants for you. Terry Collins, always do appreciate our conversations. Thanks so much. Have a good holiday season. All right, Zach. Happy holidays, you guys.

Good to talk to you. Take care. Many of us are already planning our New Year's resolutions to work out more in 2023, but let's face it, they rarely stick. Well, Peloton's got a gift for you.

Get up to $200 off accessories like non-slip grip dumbbells, cycling shoes, heart rate monitors, and more with the purchase of a Peloton bike, Bike Plus, or Tread. Don't wait. Get this offer before it ends on December 25th. Visit onepeloton.com. All access membership separate offer ends December 25th. Cannot be combined with other offers.

See additional terms at onepeloton.com. Many of us are already planning our New Year's resolutions to work out more in 2023, but let's face it, they rarely stick. Well, Peloton's got a gift for you.

Get up to $200 off accessories like non-slip grip dumbbells, cycling shoes, heart rate monitors, and more with the purchase of a Peloton bike, Bike Plus, or Tread. Don't wait. Get this offer before it ends on December 25th. Visit onepeloton.com. All access membership separate offer ends December 25th. Cannot be combined with other offers.

See additional terms at onepeloton.com. Many of us are already planning our New Year's resolutions to work out more in 2023, but let's face it, they rarely stick. Well, Peloton's got a gift for you.

Get up to $200 off accessories like non-slip grip dumbbells, cycling shoes, heart rate monitors, and more with the purchase of a Peloton bike, Bike Plus, or Tread. Don't wait. Get this offer before it ends on December 25th. Visit onepeloton.com. All access membership separate offer ends December 25th. Cannot be combined with other offers. See additional terms at onepeloton.com.