Collins' job is safe, Alderson says

LOS ANGELES -- Despite the Mets' disappointing play in recent weeks, dropping from 10 games over .500 in late April to exactly .500 at the start of play Friday, team leaders have given "absolutely no consideration" to making a managerial change, general manager Sandy Alderson said.

When asked directly if Terry Collins should be concerned, Alderson said flatly: "No."

"We're a .500 team," the GM continued. "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, 66, has posted a 344-384 record in five seasons with the Mets. He is under contract through this year with a team option for 2016, which the club chose not to exercise prior to the season -- something they did previously for Collins earlier in his tenure. That made him apparently vulnerable heading into the season, but the Mets' fast start quieted most managerial talk, until now.

"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."