There’s a lot of important baseball to be played in the next 6 weeks as we sort out the AL and NL playoff picture. Unfortunately, the Mets won’t be involved in any of that but that doesn’t mean their games are unimportant. Just the opposite actually, as the next 6 weeks will likely decide the fate of manager Terry Collins.

Some reports have surfaced that the Mets have made a tentative internal decision about his future and it is “widely expected” that Collins will be given a new deal after this season. Nothing is official yet and these next 6 weeks will certainly decide who will be the team’s manager next season.

I want Terry to be the manager of the Mets in 2014 and I think he has earned that position.  He has the team playing some pretty good baseball right now, especially considering its superstar third baseman David Wright is on the DL. The Mets are 31-26 in their last 57 games and they lead the Twins 4-0 right now in the 5th inning. Furthermore, the franchise has some promising young talent and expects to be a winning team as early as next year.

Those players seem to respond to Terry and that is vital in putting together a winning team. I think the front office is leaning towards retaining him but to guarantee himself the chance, he needs to continue to push the team to play good baseball the rest of the way. The games may not be important in the standings but they are vitally important for the future of the franchise and Terry Collins.

Having said all of that, Terry Collins has a 207-239 (.464)  record since taking over as the Mets manager in 2011. The Mets have not made the playoffs since 2006 and they’ve struggled in the 2nd half of seasons. (31-40 after All-Star Break in 2011, 28-48 in 2012 and 15-16 this season). Not to mention the collapses of ’07 and ’08 which of course have nothing to do with Terry Collins but they do illustrate a team trend that needs to be addressed.

That kind of track record doesn’t usually have me vigorously backing my team’s manager but for some reason I believe in Terry. The Mets were faced with financial problems that hindered them from putting together a viable major league roster and Terry did the best with what he was given. Now the pieces are falling into place and the Mets should be contenders with a true ace in Matt Harvey, a superstar in David Wright and some talented, young role players. Terry’s the man to put all of those pieces together and get this team back to the playoffs.

You can feel the tide changing in New York. The Mets are on the verge of being good again while the Yankees continue to get older on the field and cheaper in the front office. Queens is trending upwards while Bronx is more concerned with PEDs and getting out of a contract that exceeds the GDP of some small countries. There are still some holes to plug up but when the Mets take the field in 2014, Terry Collins should be writing the lineup card. Either way, he knows that the way to ensure that is to having a winning record in the final 6 weeks of this season.