Mets GM: Terry Collins doesn't need to worry about his job

New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson was blunt Friday when asked if manager Terry Collins ought to be concerned about his job after watching his team stumble to a 12-17 record over the last five weeks.

"No," Alderson told MLB.com's Anthony DiComo.

Despite sitting atop the National League East as recently as June 15, the Mets have dropped 10 of their last 14 games, managing a league-worst .218 batting average and .627 OPS over the last two weeks. Heading into Friday's series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Mets sit 3.5 games back of the division-leadi Washington Nationals.

"We're a .500 team," Alderson said. "We haven't been moving in the right direction - I understand that. We've had a lot of people hurt for a long period of time. We've got some young guys in particular that are not hitting. We've got some older players that have tried to carry the load. I think to put all of this on Terry would be grossly unfair."

Collins' job status, meanwhile, became a contentious topic after the Mets opted not to exercise his 2016 option before the season began. Since taking over as manager in 2010, the 66-year-old has compiled a 344-384 record without once qualifying for the postseason.

"I don't speculate what's going to happen necessarily two, three, four weeks from here," Alderson said. "This is not a Terry Collins watch. I think it's very unfair to put a lot of how we've been playing the last few weeks on Terry."