However, despite never having a captain on clubs he has managed, Collins believes there is an upside to having a captain and would entail informing Alderson and Jeff Wilpon of his recommendation.

In regards to D.J. Carrasco, Collins spoke with the reliever about last night’s beanball incident and was told it wasn’t on purpose, which Collins believes. He is trying to get Carrasco more innings and couldn’t speculate on future because Carrasco has never had a certain role.

Is uncertain which role Jenrry Mejia will have on the ballclub in the future, but it’s possible he could land in the bullpen.

Johan Santana is the “guy he heard about” and has listened to several people tell him wait until you see him compete.

Regarding tonight’s lineup, he is trying to get some of the bench players like, Justin Turner and Mike Baxter some playing time while keeping others fresh.

Has no update on Josh Thole, as doctors are still reviewing his medical situation.

Yesterday, Adam Rubin of ESPN New York said Young is expected to join Buffalo’s rotation “with an eye toward a major league promotion about June 1.”

He’s pitching and recovering well, which, as was the case with Johan Santana, is the most important takeaway from these starts. Of course, whether or not Young can continue to recover from these starts remains to be seen.

Mike Leake (0-5, 7.11 ERA) will start for the Reds. Leake is off to an awful start to his season, leading the league with five losses and allowing 52 baserunners in only 31 2/3 innings pitched. In two career starts against the Mets, Leake is 0-1 with a 2.19 ERA over 12 1/3 innings.

On Monday, a source told Adam Rubin of ESPN New York the team will consider Mejia in a relief role, including his ability to start back-to-back days.

Mejia underwent Tommy John Surgery last May.

1) The rest of the bullpen has mostly been pitching well in their current roles.

2) and Frank Francisco has a history of success (as well as having pitched well at points this season) as a closer.

And so, he didn’t want to go to a bullpen-by-committee and start changing everyone’s roles, because, if they fail, he could have a total mess on his hands.

In other words, instead of asking everyone in the bullpen to change their routine and roles, he’d prefer to keep what’s working and instead ask just Francisco to make changes and see what he can do.

However, also I realize the game is what it is and these guys have it in their heads (thanks to the MLBPA’s handy work over the last 20 years) that closers matter and on-field roles are vitally important, probably because its help give everyone a dollar value. But, that wasn’t always the case. And, it seems the only way to get bullpens back to a more efficient and consistent place is to start changing them in the minors… which will probably never happen as well. Ugh.

To read more about why ‘Saves are stupid,” take time to read this outstanding post from Ted Berg at his blog, TedQuarters.