Mets To Promote Pat Roessler To Hitting Coach, Hire Dave Eiland As Pitching Coach

6:38pm: New York will name Dave Eiland as its next pitching coach, according to Carig (Twitter link). Eiland had held the same position with the Royals since the start of the 2012 season, but Kansas City decided not to retain him into the future. The ten-year MLB veteran also previously served as the Yankees’ pitching coach.

3:31pm: The Mets are expected to promote Roessler to become the team’s hitting coach, Puma of reports on Twitter. Ricky Bones will remain as the bullpen coach, he adds.

9:55am: Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News reports that there will be some continuity on the coaching staff, as assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler is finishing up a two-year deal to return to the Mets. Roessler’s responsibilities with the team “will expand,” per Ackert, though it’s not clear if he’ll simply step into the hitting coach vacancy created by Long’s departure. Ackert does note that Roessler turned down an opportunity within the division to be a big league hitting coach last winter.

9:33am: Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets that first base coach Tom Goodwin is unlikely to return to the team as well. Like Carig, he’s also heard that Long isn’t likely to return. Puma notes in another tweet that the Mets could bring Tim Teufel back as an infield coach and possibly as a replacement for Goodwin.

7:31am: After being passed over for the Mets’ managerial vacancy, hitting coach Kevin Long is now unlikely to return to the team in 2017, reports Newsday’s Marc Carig. The organization had reportedly promised a 2018 job to Long even in the event that he was not named the successor to Terry Collins, but Long’s contract expired at the end of October and he’s yet to sign a new one.

Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post presented one alternative opportunity for Long yesterday, reporting that he’s in the running to become the division-rival Nationals’ new hitting coach. Long also interviewed for the managerial vacancy in D.C., though he came up short to another well-respected coach who is getting his first managerial opportunity: longtime Cubs/Rays bench coach Dave Martinez. George A. King III of the New York Post reported over the weekend that Long could also return to the Yankees, for whom he served as the hitting coach from 2007-14. King suggested that Long could potentially be a managerial candidate there, but could also return to his old post as the hitting coach in the Bronx as well.

The Mets, of course, figured to have a new-look coaching staff under first-time manager Mickey Callaway even in the event that Long had been retained. As Carig notes, the only coach that is under contract beyond the 2018 season is third base coach Glenn Sherlock, so Long’s reported departure could put the Mets on the lookout for a number of replacements at key coaching positions, including pitching coach, bench coach, bullpen coach and first base coach.