Coaching Staff 2026

[Centerfield]

If your last name is Albert that probably serves as a powerful incentive to stay thin so as to not give people a ready-made nickname to hang on you.

 

Or be sufficiently young enough so your peers don’t know the reference.

My brother’s name is Albert. He was never fat, but that didn’t stop ppl from calling him “fatty” growing up.

[Edgy MD]

There is some minor concern in Bravesland (grave concern among some more animated elements) that Ron Washington is presumably available for a coaching staff near you, and the Mets will get first crack at him, actively filling coaching slots while the Braves search for a skipper.

[MFS62]

I can still remember when I wanted the Mets to acquire Ron Washington as a player.

sigh.

Later

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[Gwreck]

Mets had 147 steals (5th most in MLB) and a ridiculous 89% success rate.

Obviously that’s not *all* due to Richardson but hard to say he didn’t significantly help the team be better.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, I was hoping he'd stay. I suppose he still might.

[Edgy MD]

So, are we to understand that Albert and Snitker will be co-hitting coaches?

Will one have primacy?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've somehow gotten the impression that Snitker would be the number 2 and Albert would be the number 1. But I'm not sure of that.

[Edgy MD]

It certainly makes all sorts of sense that the first-hired guy is higher up, but I was thinking that he may be getting a non-dugout director of all batsmanship-type role.

Maybe.

[MFS62]

It certainly makes all sorts of sense that the first-hired guy is higher up, but I was thinking that he may be getting a non-dugout director of all batsmanship-type role.

I think they said the first guy would be "hitting coordinator" so it sounds like the coach would be below him on the org chart.

Later

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[Edgy MD]

Justin Willard not yet announced but he looks like a solid piece of reporting. Subsequent reports indicate that he has since located the top of his head.

Relatedly, assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel has been re-signed by the Yankees almost a year to the date after the Mets signed him away from the Yankees. Druesch was famed for being "one of the best in the industry from a pitch-design and seam-orientation optimization standpoint." But when the pitch is off the plate, by design or not, that only gets you so far.

It is worth noting that Desi was not among the Mets coaches explicitly not asked back last month. The Mets were aiming to retain him but he had asked for and receive permission to seek new opportunities — or old ones in this case.

One might imagine his jumping ship occurring around the same time the Mets reportedly filled the primary pitching coach role is something less than a coincidence.

Reporting has also indicated the team set to hire Rachel Folden as the hitting coach at Double-A Binghamton. Folden this season was a hitting coach in the Cubs’ minor league system. And Internet Met Guys everywhere are bending over backwards to decry the move while insisting it is not because she is a female even though they know exactly zero facts about her besides her being a female.

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Oh this is delicious

[bmfc1]

The Mets hired their former manager’s son… but why is ATL a better job for Richardson than the Mets (unless he has a connection to Walt Weiss or ATL)?

[Edgy MD]

They probably offered him more cheddar. More cabbage. More buckaroonies.

It's a rare time in a coach's career when he finds himself in demand enough that more than one team is bidding for him or her. It is particularly rare in the life of a first base coach.

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Interesting

[The Hot Corner]

They probably offered him more cheddar. More cabbage. More buckaroonies.

It's a rare time in a coach's career when he finds himself in demand enough that more than one team is bidding for him or her. It is particularly rare in the life of a first base coach.

 

Yup. It (almost) always comes down to money.

[Edgy MD]

“I had a proposed salary with (benefits) included,” he said. “The Mets had a proposed salary with (benefits) included. We differed on the salary part of it.”

 

Sounds like we're talkin' bout more cheddar. More cabbage. More buckaroonies.

[smg58]

I thought Hefner had to go on the day of the trade deadline in 2021, when it was clear that DeGrom was not coming back. The Mets didn't need 100 mph from DeGrom, they needed 200 innings. And this year's team needed more than one of their army of starting pitchers going into camp to avoid coming completely unglued. As scary as it sounds, I'm not disagreeing with Alpodaca's suggestion that somebody will pick him up -- nerds might be crunching out a whole lot of data, but the info is still being interpreted by dumb jocks. I hope he goes to a division rival.

 

I stand by this.

[Edgy MD]

I cannot argue with that. I just suspect that the philosophy that asks a guy to go supernova for shorter outings, until he burns out and disappears for a year and half, is not necessarily an approach that can be linked to one guy.

I would certainly be jolly if that thinking left with Hefner, but as it has gained traction over time and across baseball, I am not particularly counting on it.

[MFS62]

I cannot argue with that. I just suspect that the philosophy that asks a guy to go supernova for shorter outings, until he burns out and disappears for a year and half, is not necessarily an approach that can be linked to one guy.

 

You're right. As I may have posted before, in Jim Brosnan's book, "The Long season". the pitching coach told him, "Throw as hard as you can for as long as you can". He added "Just thinking about that makes my arm tired".

And that was written in the late 1950s,

Later

[MFS62]

Leapin' for Leiper - the new 3B coach: From https://www.amazinavenue.com/

Tim Leiper will be their third base coach, replacing Mike Sarbaugh.

Leiper'smost recent coaching job came as the San Diego Padres’ third base coach last season.

The California native’s baseball career began as a longtime minor leaguer, playing in 1,166 games across 12 seasons (including two stints with the Mets), from 1985-1996.

He only played six games for the (then) Binghamton Mets in 1996, but transitioned into a coaching role that season, beginning his post-playing career. He coached in various roles in the minor leagues until 2000, where he became a minor league manager in the Montreal Expos organization.

Later

[Edgy MD]

It looks like the Mets have the final additions to the coaching staff. The new first-base and outfield coach will be Gilbert Gomez. Gillie is still crazy young — he will turn 34 during spring training. He is mostly a Mets lifer, having played for the team from 2009-2015, peaking in AA. He had a brief indy ball phase in 2017 before returning to the organization on the instruction side. He spent the last two years managing The Brooklyn Cyclones, leading them to a 72–59 / .550 finish in 2025, and piloting them to the South Atlantic League championship.

[FIMG=450]https://lasverdades.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GilbertGomezCampeonCyclones.jpg[/FIMG]

The new assistant pitching coach will be Dan McKinney. Dan, only somewhat older than Gillie, continues the organization's waxing trend of bringing in instructors and development personnel from increasingly obscure backgrounds, his highest level as a performer being 86 innings at Division II Southeast Oklahoma State. He also did some catching while suiting up for the Savage Storm. It is his fourth season in the organization, having spent the last two as pitching coach for Binghamton, where he developed a rapport working with some of the Mets' highest-profile prospects, including Jonah Tong, Nolan McLean, and Brandon Sproat.

Bingo, lest it go un-noted, also won a championship. Mets Roster Central has not been able to find any information confirming or disproving any relationship to former Mets outfielder Billy McSkinny, or former softball star/current Mississippi State pitching coach Taryne Mowatt-McKinney, but there may be something there.

Dan appears to be rather camera shy, but see here a great shot of him arriving late to practice.

[Benjamin Grimm]

That "Tigres del Licey 1907" logo caught my eye, so I looked it up. The below is from Wikipedia. I don't know, however, why the logo is included on that Gilbert Gomez Graphic:

 

Tigres del Licey (English: Licey Tigers) is a professional baseball team in the Dominican Professional Baseball League (LIDOM). The team was founded in 1907 and is based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Tigres is the oldest team in LIDOM and has won 24 LIDOM titles and 11 Caribbean Series titles, the most out of any team.

It is one of two LIDOM franchises based in the nation's capital, the other being Leones del Escogido; the two teams share Estadio Quisqueya as their home ballpark. Some of the team's best players[according to whom?] have included Alonzo Perry, Pedro González, Manuel Mota, Guayubín Olivo, César Gerónimo, and Elvio Jiménez. Many of the best Dominican players and Major League Baseball players have taken part in the long history of the Tigres, including Tommy Lasorda, a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee who took the team to the 1973 Caribbean Series title. Licey is nicknamed "El Glorioso" (the Glorious One), and has a passionate fan base.

[Edgy MD]

I believe that image was released on social media by Los Tigres. Gilbert has both played for and managed the team.

[Edgy MD]

Oh, ****. J.P. Arrencibia has also been promoted from Syracuse bench coach to take over as the Mets catching coach. A reward for any defensive improvements that they credit him to adding to Álvarez' game, one may guess.

Recent announcements have not designated anybody as taking over Antoan Richardson's portforlio as baserunning coach. It may be assumed that assignment falls to Gomez along with the first base and outfield coaching duties he inherits from Richardson, or maybe that gig goes to new bench coach Kai Correa, or possibly quality assurance coach Danny Barnes.

Arrencbia brings the Mets one step deeper into the Caucus of the Disgusting, being married to gross Fox commentator Tomi Lahren.