Mets manager Callaway struggling to sleep because he wants to 'right the ship'

When the New York Mets burst out of the gate to begin the season, winning 11 of their first 12 games, manager Mickey Callaway didn't have a whole lot to worry about. Now, with his team sitting fourth in its division at 29-38, Callaway hasn't had much time to rest.

"There's been sleepless nights," Callaway told Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports. "It's not that I'm worrying about myself, but when you see these guys working so hard, and when the results don't come, you can't help but think about that. You lay in bed at night and say, 'OK, what am I going to say to this guy? What am I going to say to that guy? Do you leave him alone? Do you let him work through it?'

"Those are the reasons I don't sleep is to try to right the ship, not necessarily because we lost a game."

Callaway was hired by the Mets in October after developing a reputation as one of the game's best pitching coaches during his time in Cleveland with Terry Francona and the Indians. But, in his first season handling the Mets the rookie skipper has run into some problems of his own, such as the lineup card mistake he made at the beginning of May, as well as mismanaging what was supposed to be a strong bullpen (4.54 ERA is 12th in NL).

While the 43-year-old hasn't received the kind of production he was expecting from two-time All-Star Yoenis Cespedes thanks to injuries, or from Jay Bruce, whom the Mets signed to a three-year deal in free agency, he hopes his players can learn from their mistakes, grow as a team, and turn things around during what is a long baseball season.

"Everything is hunky-dory when you're 11-1," Callaway explained. "But the down cycle is where you really start to see who people are. This is tough. I understand they didn't have the greatest go of it last year, but they didn't have a stretch like this.

"But you learn from challenges like these. Our team will get to know each other a lot sooner than we would have otherwise I don't know if that makes sense, but that's the way I feel about it."