Report: Mets owner stands with Collins amid tumultuous start to season

The New York Mets may be a circus these days, but the ringmaster doesn't look like he's going anywhere.

Sources close to the club told Marc Carig of Newsday on Friday that Mets manager Terry Collins' job is safe despite his team's prolonged slide down the standings amid a myriad of injuries and controversy, largely thanks to the fact that majority owner Fred Wilpon remains a staunch supporter of the 68-year-old skipper.

After coming into the season with expectations of challenging the Washington Nationals for supremacy in the NL East, the Mets have stubbed their toe at every turn through the first two months of 2017. A seemingly never-ending list of injuries to many of their key stars, combined with public relations nightmares (most notably surrounding Matt Harvey's team-issued suspension) have led to poor play out of the gate; the Mets now sit six games below .500 and are in third place, a full game behind rebuilding Atlanta.

Collins added to the circus Thursday when he refused to disclose information about some of the team's injuries, a move that only served to fuel the fire regarding his job status. A report from the New York Post's Mike Puma on Thursday night stoked even more flames by suggesting that general manager Sandy Alderson was not happy with several of his manager's recent in-game decisions.

But the pressure doesn't seem to be getting to Collins, who brushed off queries about his potential demise hours before his Mets snapped a 3-13 slide with an 8-1 thumping of the Pirates on Friday.

"To be honest, that's the first time someone's said that (about my job security) in three weeks," Collins said, according to Carig. "I don't really know anything about it. But yeah, it's part of the territory as you know."

Collins, who recently passed Davey Johnson to become the longest-tenured manager in Mets history, is only under contract through the end of this season.