The Dodgers announced this week that at the end of the season, Joe Torre will be stepping down as manager and Don Mattingly will take over. Torre obviously has a connection to New York, both as a player and manager. With Jerry Manuel basically accepting his fate as a lame duck manager at this point of the season, a lot of people are questioning if he's going to end up managing Mets or not next season. Despite the fact that there are a lot of managerial openings this offseason, it appears that the only team Torre will manage is the Mets.

This is a pretty terrible development. A couple of months ago, I jokingly included Torre in a list of potential managerial candidates for the Mets last season, back when information was coming out that there would be a "stunning" managerial change this offseason. For the average fan, I suppose that yes, Torre would be stunning. To those who know better, though, Torre would be a huge mistake.

The difference between a good manager and a bad manager is that they don't get in the way. What I'm saying is the reason why managers like Jerry Manuel are awful is because they play guys like Luis Hernandez on a consistent basis instead of Justin Turner. They give guys like Elmer Dessens chances in high leverage situations. You know a bad manager because they influence the play on the field poorly. The effects of a horrible manager can be mitigated by a great team, which is exactly what Torre had with the Yankees from 1996 until he left after the 2008 season.

Torre is not a good manager. He distrusts younger players and gives too much playing time to terrible veterans. He's severely hampered the development of Matt Kemp and has continued to misuse prospects just about forever. He makes bizarre lineup decisions, like benching Orlando Hudson for Ronnie Belliard or giving way too much playing time to Juan Pierre.

Torre also abuses his pitchers. He relies too much on non-existent matchups and puts too much of an emphasis on individual relievers. If you want to see the perfect example of this, look at poor old Scott Proctor. Proctor was not a bad reliever but Torre used him so much it bordered on absurd. Imagine a Torre run Mets team next season and him putting in Bobby Parnell every single game. It's a joke.

With Santana out until at least 2012, the Mets do not need a manager like Joe Torre in there. I don't even think Mets fans will even really embrace him anyway. It would be his second round managing the Mets and he was a disaster the first time and probably will be a disaster again. If the Mets are going to do something drastic with their managers, go after someone that's actually good. Don't go after Torre.