Davey Johnson, who led the New York Mets to the 1986 World Series championship, has passed away. He was 82. The legendary manager also won two World Series titles as a player for the Baltimore Orioles. “Former Mets manager Davey Johnson has passed away. Johnson managed the Mets from 1984-1990 and was the team’s skipper for their 1986 World Series victory. He owns the highest all-time winning percentage of any Mets manager (.588),” SNY wrote. “Johnson also won two World Series as a player with the Orioles and played 13 MLB seasons with Baltimore, the Braves, Phillies and Cubs, making the All-Star team four times. Johnson went on to manage the Mets, Reds, Orioles, Dodgers, and Nationals, amassing 1,372 wins. He also served as the manager for Team USA at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2009 World Baseball Classic,” it added. Former Mets manager Davey Johnson has passed away. Johnson managed the Mets from 1984-1990 and was the team's skipper for their 1986 World Series victory. He owns the highest all-time winning percentage of any Mets manager (.588). Johnson also won two World Series as a player… pic.twitter.com/Mz5VDYEr1U — SNY (@SNYtv) September 6, 2025 ESPN has more: Johnson was a power-hitting second baseman who played 13 years in the majors, sharing in World Series titles with the Baltimore Orioles in 1966 and 1970, and hitting 43 homers for the Atlanta Braves in 1973, serving as an offensive wingman for teammate Henry Aaron. “I just lost a friend, teammate and confidant,” Hall of Famer and former Orioles ace Jim Palmer wrote in a text Saturday morning about his former teammate. But Johnson’s most significant professional mark was as a manager. Over 17 seasons as a skipper, he led five different teams — the Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals — and at each stop posted winning records. As a manager, he had 1,372 wins and 1,071 losses, for a .562 winning percentage, the sixth highest among managers with at least 1,300 wins. Former Washington general manager Mike Rizzo said of Johnson, “One of the great baseball minds of all time. A forward thinker with an old-school soul. A dear friend.” “We mourn the passing of Orioles Hall of Fame second baseman Davey Johnson, who earned three All-Star berths with the club and later managed the team to two Postseason appearances,” the Baltimore Orioles stated. We mourn the passing of Orioles Hall of Fame second baseman Davey Johnson, who earned three All-Star berths with the club and later managed the team to two Postseason appearances. pic.twitter.com/gCa25R0VtH — Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 6, 2025 MLB noted: Johnson’s greatest triumphs as a manager came with the Mets; when he took the reins in 1984, they had not won a pennant since 1973. The mustachioed, opinionated Johnson was a central figure at the helm of the swaggering, character-filled Mets teams that in many ways epitomized the late ’80s, featuring stars like Darryl Strawberry, Keith Hernandez, Dwight Gooden and Gary Carter. The Mets turned into a perennial winner under Johnson’s leadership, with Johnson becoming the first National League manager to win at least 90 games in each of his first five seasons. From 1976-97, no team won more games in a season than the ’86 Mets’ 108 victories. “I treated my players like men,” Johnson told writer Bob Klapisch for the 1993 book The Worst Team Money Can Buy. “As long as they won for me on the field, I didn’t give a flying **** what they did otherwise.” Johnson’s Mets won 100 games and another division title in 1988, though they lost in the NL Championship Series to the Dodgers. Johnson was dismissed early in the 1990 season, the result of a feud with general manager Frank Cashen. Johnson’s 595 wins with the club remain the most by a manager in Mets history. After that, Johnson made a pattern out of inheriting promising young clubs and turning them into winners. He took over the Cincinnati Reds 44 games into the 1993 season, turned them into a first-place club in strike-shortened ’94 and won the division title the following year.