The Mets are overhauling much of their Major League coaching staff underneath manager Carlos Mendoza, giving the skipper a mostly clean slate to work with for his third season. Most of the coaches were holdovers from the previous regime, with some of them joining the Mets even before Steve Cohen took over as majority owner.
Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez and third base/infield coach Mike Sarbaugh were all relieved of their duties on Friday, the club announced. Bench coach John Gibbons resigned, and the team formally announced the retirement of catching coordinator Glenn Sherlock, which was reported earlier this week.
The Mets will retain outfield and baserunning coach Antoan Richardson, strategy coach Danny Barnes and hitting assistant Rafael Fernandez. Bullpen coach Jose Rosado and assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel were given permission to speak with other teams, pending the hiring of a new pitching coach.
Hefner, Chavez, Sherlock, Jeremy Barnes and Danny Barnes were all brought in well before Mendoza was hired to replace Buck Showalter in November 2023, while Gibbons, Sarbaugh and Richardson were brought in prior to his first season.
Richardson received high praise from nearly every hitter on the roster for his ability to improve their baserunning. Juan Soto stole a career-high 38 bases under his tutelage, raving about the former Yankees speedster’s preparation and ability to read pitchers, catchers and infielders. Keeping a coach around that Soto is a fan of is a smart move.
The decision to replace Hefner is somewhat surprising given how much of a rising star he’s been considered over the last few years. A former right-hander who spent five years in the Mets’ system and two in the big leagues, Hefner was hired by the Mets in 2019 after spending a season as the Minnesota Twins assistant pitching coach. Instantly, the accolades came.
Jacob deGrom won his second straight Cy Young Award in Hefner’s first season. Edwin Diaz returned to his All-Star ways in 2022. In 2023, Kodai Senga was a finalist for the NL Rookie of the Year Award.
Hefner was lauded for his ability to help transform undervalued veterans, seeing success in 2023 and 2024 with starters Sean Manaea and Luis Severino, and relievers like Brooks Raley, Reed Garrett and Dedniel Nuñez. Even this past season, Griffin Canning had a 3.77 ERA at the time of his Achilles injury in late June.
At one point, the Mets were even considering promoting Hefner to a general manager role — the role that has been vacant since Billy Eppler’s sudden resignation in 2023. It seemed as though Hefner was untouchable, but underneath all of the accolades, there were cracks in the foundation.
The Mets have been among the league leaders in walks in each of the past three seasons, though their walks-per-nine innings rate has gone down year over year. Still, in 2024 the bullpen walked more than 4.00 per nine innings, and this season, only the Los Angeles Dodgers’ starters walked hitters at a higher rate than the Mets. Clearly, a team can succeed with a high walk rate if the Dodgers are doing it, and the Mets have also been among the league leaders in strikeouts.
But Manaea, Senga and David Peterson all regressed this season. Tylor Megill never blossomed into the frontline starter the Mets had hoped. Even when the Mets had first-ballot Hall of Famers Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer on the same roster, the two didn’t look like the same pitchers in a Mets uniform, though much of that could be attributed to age.
The hitting coaches came under fire this season for the Mets’ inconsistencies at the plate, with Chavez especially facing heavy backlash by the fans. The former third baseman was doxxed by fans and received regular threats on social media. He often fought back, something fans took offense to.
Players felt their treatment was unfair, with several pointing out that the hitting coaches have an extremely difficult job, the details of which aren’t well known or understood by the fans criticizing them. But the unfortunate reality of coaching high-level sports in the social media era means legions of vocal critics.
Sarbaugh was an infield coach for Cleveland when shortstop Francisco Lindor was coming up through the system. The Mets may not have handled the situation with their young infielders well this season, but for better or worse, some of that comes back to coaching. Third baseman Mark Vientos regressed on both sides of the ball and first baseman Pete Alonso had the worst defensive season of his career with -8 OAA.
When the Mets brought all of these coaches back after 2024, it was to create some stability in an organization that has never been characterized as such. Now, Mendoza has to provide a stabilizing presence. It’s only fair that the Mets give him a chance to bring in some of his own coaches, but the other side of that is that he’ll go down with ship if those coaches don’t help the Mets succeed.
