Recap: Jerry Manuel on WFAN
Jerry Manuel talked with Mike Francesa on WFAN yesterday, which you can listen to by clicking here.
Manuel told Francesa he believes no team could have sustained the level of injuries the Mets had to deal with, and be successful, especially when losing 
back-up players to back-up players.
Manuel said, even if Jose Reyes has surgery, from what he’s been told, Reyes will be ready for spring training next season.
Manuel labeled Jeff Francoeur and Angel Pagan as ‘positives,’ from the players who were called upon to fill in this season.
He says David Wright will begin to hit more home runs once he starts to pull the ball again, which is something Wright will be working on with Howard Johnson during the off season.
Manuel said he has some ‘good pitchers on the team,’ ‘spot-starter types,’ but they are not starting pitchers who a Championship-caliber team could ‘go with over the course of a full season.’
The best thing the Mets could do to help their starting rotation, Manuel said, is to ‘play better defense.’
Lastly, Francesa asked Manuel if he feels the team will have a different look next season, to which he said:
“I think (my core group) will probably not recognize a lot of the players when they go back to spring training. I think there will be a lot of different complimentary players coming in, then the players we have. The guys we’ve had have had a good shot, they’ve had an opportunity, but, for the most part, they haven’t taken advantage of it… We, as a staff, feel we’ve put ourselves in the position to win, but we just didn’t have the people to put us over the top… For the most part, it will look different from a complimentary aspect… The one thing we feel we cannot fault is the effort… It was just a matter of not being able to get it done.”
To listen to Manuel’s entire interview, go to WFAN.com.
