The Mets are nearing a deal to add Joey Cora to Buck Showalter’s staff as third base coach, and it seems the rest of the coaches will be in place soon. Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News reports that the Mets are likely to finalize their entire staff by this weekend. Only pitching coach Jeremy Hefner remains from last year’s group, leaving first base coach, hitting coach, bullpen coach, bench coach and assistant hitting/pitching coaches to be determined.
Interestingly, Thosar hears that the mystery bench coach is likely to be a “headline-grabbing hire.” While that person’s identity remains unclear, Thosar writes that nine-time All-Star outfielder Carlos Beltrán is not under consideration. Beltrán served as Mets manager for around two months over the 2019-20 offseason, but he and the club mutually parted ways before he ever coached a game after his role in the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal was made public. He hasn’t landed a position with an MLB team since then, and he apparently won’t be Showalter’s right-hand man in Queens. Yesterday, Mike Puma of The New York Post suggested former Orioles bench coach John Russell and Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough could be possibilities for the role.
The latest on some other coaching/front office situations around the league:
- Jamey Carroll is departing the Pirates organization, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). He’d spent the past seven seasons in Pittsburgh, originally joining the Bucs’ front office in January 2015. Most recently, the 47-year-old was serving as a special assistant in baseball operations and as the club’s defensive coordinator, per Mackey. Carroll is best known for his twelve-year big league playing career. Between 2002-13, the Indiana native suited up with the Expos/Nationals, Rockies, Indians, Dodgers, Twins and Royals.
- The Orioles became the latest in a handful of teams around the league to hire co-hitting coaches in November. Baltimore added Matt Borgschulte and Ryan Fuller to the big league staff, the first MLB opportunity for both. It’s an odd time for incoming coaches to get acclimated to a new club, as staff members are prohibited from interacting with players on the 40-man roster during the ongoing lockout. Jon Meoli catches up with Fuller and Borgschulte to discuss their new positions, with the staff members telling Meoli they talk with one another daily to build out individualized plans to implement with each hitter once the work stoppage ends. Fuller, who was promoted from within the O’s farm system, is familiar with some of the players on the big league roster. Borgschulte was brought over from the Twins organization and doesn’t have the same kind of personal connection to much of the roster, but Fuller speaks with Meoli about how his colleague’s background in pitch recognition training adds a relatively new element to the team’s development processes.
Two hitting coaches sounds like a bad bad idea. How many teams are actually doing this besides the hopeless O’s?
Dodgers
It’s not uncommon. I think it’s smart. One hitting philosophy doesn’t fit all players. A huge powerful guy who hits a ton of home runs shouldn’t use the same philosophy as a small guy with really good contact and speed who could never hit it out of the park. Some guys need to get on base as much as possible. Some guys need to drive in as many base runners as possible. Imagine Nick Madrigal trying to hit like Joey Gallo (if they had the same hitting coach). Bad idea.
Imagine some hitting coach trying to tell Nick Madrigal to hit like Joey Gallo. I think youre putting too much weight into what hitting coaches actually do. They basically just tweak what the player is already doing or find mechanical things/bad habits when hitters go into slumps. I havent seen any team where all the players try to do the exact same thing at the plate.
When Hawk was GM of the White Sox, even tho he had a hitting coach already, he hired Willie Horton to coach the power hitters on the team. That was 35 40 years ago. Who doesn’t like Willie Horton? Two time Golden Gloves Champion and that light tower that Reggie hit in an all star game in Detroit, Horton hit that tower when he was in high school.
The majority of major league teams have a hitting coach and assistant coach and an organizational hitting coach
Meanwhile, hitting in the MLB has never been worse. Strikeouts rates are ridiculous. .300 hitters are becoming more rare. Good thing all these hitting coaches and assistant coaches with ZERO experience are telling the players what to do.
It’s because everyone is trying to hit only home runs. Makes for great breezes on those hot, sunny days, though.
Launch angle era
Giants
David Cone will be the bench coach for the Mets
They may need him in the rotation
The O’s hires sound potentially very good. They’re both brought in less to work with different hitters than to handle different aspects of the job.
Chili Davis is still out there, an excellent hitting coach in the right culture.
Mets hire trump as bench coach. He will help the catchers to stop the steal. Or something useless.
Only if Chewbacca-man is the third base coach.
Trump is a bench coach yeah right what happened Charles Manson turned it down
No. He died in 2017.
Nah, the hat would mess up his hair.
David Wright as bench coach? That would be a “headline grabber.” Or maybe Mike Piazza – hasn’t he been coaching over in Italy?
Wright’s said repeatedly that he’s not interested in coaching while his kids are little. Maybe in a few years.
JJ Hardy would be a great coach.
As I mentioned in another post, Buck worships J.J., and always pointed out how much he understood the game; pretty high praise from a guy like Buck, who has his faults but there might not be anyone who understands the intricacies of baseball better.
But I think J.J. is enjoying his post playing days too much. Mid-Westerner maybe?(dealing from memory here). Wants time with the kids, etc.?
Nick Markakis is my pick for this mystery bench coach hire. He has ties to Showalter in Baltimore, and I’ve always thought he’d be a great coach someday.
If Buck wants to make a “headline grabbing” hire, he should look into Mickey Callaway.
Yes he’s certainly done his share of grabbing
Wally Backman…now that would grab headlines!!
I don’t think so New York City is now allowing alcohol to go so that will eliminate Wally Backman as bench coach
NAP-O-LI!!! NAP-O-LI!!!!
HoJo?
The O’s are doing the right thing in promoting coaches from the minors.
Most of the players on the MLB roster will not be there in the next few years as the team becomes competitive. Coaches that had relationships with the players that will ultimately bring them to contention can come up together.
Except that one of their hitting coaches actually was hired away from college ball. So.
They interviewed Mike Napoli.
My guess for surprise Mets Bench Coach is either Adam Jones or Nick Markakis.
Lenny Dykstra and Gregg Jefferies as co-bench coaches.
Dykstra on Jefferies in 2016:
It didn’t take the players long to figure out Gregg Jefferies was a losing player, not to mention a whiny little b*tch. He would spend hours rubbing his bats with some special concoction and specifically requested that they be stored separately from the rest of the team’s bats so they didn’t chip.
Maybe the Orioles should look into hiring co- gems. Maybe speed this rebuild along a little quicker.
Edgardo Alfonzo for Mets bench coach.