Buck Showalter and Bob Melvin face off in Mets-Padres series – Reuters

Showalter said he knew it was going to work with Eppler because he’s a follower of Michael and a “type of guy who picks up the phone on the first ring.”

“We share the same passion,” Showalter said.

Part of that passion led Showalter to make a phone call one evening this spring as he was driving home from the Mets resort in Florida. In the parking lot outside a Subway sandwich shop, he said he sat in his car in the dark for about an hour, using the jet lag to catch up with Melvin, who was in Arizona. Three Mets players — Canha, pitcher Chris Bassitt and outfielder Starling Marte — had played for Melvin in Oakland, and Showalter had questions.

“The timing was perfect, because I was going to call him and ask him about Manny too,” Melvin, 60, said of slugger Manny Machado, who played for Showalter in Baltimore. “It was a long conversation. And I think we’ve probably spoken a few more times this spring as well.

Information is key to building relationships. And with spring training shortened in the event of a lockdown, Showalter and Melvin were looking to get information as quickly and from as many different sources as possible.

“Mark Canha is a left-to-left hippie,” Showalter said. “Chris Bassitt is right. Not the right of the right, but the right. Yet they are best friends. That’s a beautiful story. Bob said they were sitting on the plane and talking about politics and stuff. I told Bob that I would like this to be the way our country would go – you think this, I think that, let’s talk about it, civilly. He paints a picture. You try to get ahead of the guys.