After a historic collapse to close the season, the Mets are overhauling their coaching staff. Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes will not retain their positions next season, reported Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. New York is also not bringing back infield coach Mike Sarbaugh, reported Andy Martino of SNY. Martino also noted bench coach John Gibbons is leaving the team and catching instructor Glenn Sherlock is retiring.
The significant coaching shakeup comes a few days after the Mets completed an epic late-season meltdown with a loss on Sunday to the Marlins. New York peaked at 45-24 in mid-June, the best record in the league. They were slowly tracked down by Philadelphia for the NL East divisional crown, and then by Cincinnati for the final Wild Card spot. The Mets won just 10 games in September and endured a brutal eight-game losing streak. They dropped series against Washington and Miami over the final two weeks of the regular season. New York could’ve still snared a playoff spot with a win over the Marlins and a loss by the Reds on the final day of the season, but they were shut out 4-0. Cincinnati earned the final playoff bid, only to be quickly dispatched by the Dodgers in the Wild Card round.
Hefner spent the past six seasons as the Mets’ pitching coach. The team ranked 22nd, ninth, seventh, 19th, 15th, and 18th in ERA during his tenure. The two standout seasons happened to coincide with Jacob deGrom’s final two years with the team. New York nursed competent stretches out of Clay Holmes and Sean Manaea this season, though both faded down the stretch. Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill each delivered promising results before going down with injuries. Kodai Senga put together two solid months, then went down with a hamstring injury. He scuffled to a 6.18 ERA in August and was booted out of the rotation.
Hefner was drafted by the Padres in 2007. He made his MLB debut with the Mets in 2012, then tossed 130 2/3 innings with the big-league club in 2013. The right-hander last pitched in 2016 in the Cardinals’ minor league system. He was previously the Twins’ assistant pitching coach before taking the pitching coach job in Queens.
Chavez had been on New York’s coaching staff for the past four seasons. He was initially hired as the hitting coach in 2022, then moved to a bench coach role in 2023. He’d been back in a hitting coach position for the past two years. After working in a player development role with the team, Barnes became assistant hitting coach in 2022. He got the head gig in 2023 but has since worked in tandem with Chavez.
New York was tied for ninth in scoring with Seattle this past season. It was the third time in four seasons under Chavez/Barnes that the team ranked top 10 in runs. Francisco Lindor has been the driving force of the offense since coming over via trade in 2021. Pete Alonso has been a consistent power threat since breaking in with 53 home runs as a rookie in 2019. The team landed Juan Soto in free agency this past offseason, and after a slow start, the outfielder put together one of his most dominant offensive seasons to date. Soto set career highs in home runs and stolen bases in his first season with the Mets.
Chavez enjoyed a 17-year big-league career. He spent 13 seasons with the Athletics before moving on to the Yankees and Diamondbacks. He won six Gold Gloves at third base for Oakland. Barnes was drafted by the Phillies in 2009. The infielder reached Triple-A in 2012, but never appeared in the majors.
Gibbons is the most high-profile name from a coaching perspective. He spent a total of 11 seasons as manager of the Blue Jays across two different stints. Gibbons was Toronto’s skipper from 2004–2008, and then again from 2013–2018. He had served as a bench coach with the Mets for the past two seasons. Gibbons is not retiring, Martino noted. His name could pop up as a candidate for one of the many available manager jobs.
Sherlock is calling it quits after more than two decades as a major league coach. He got his first big-league job in 1992 as the catching instructor for the Yankees. He reprised that role in 1994-1995. Sherlock then went to Arizona, where he functioned in various roles from 1998-2016. He was a base coach for the Mets from 2017-2019, then joined the Pirates’ coaching staff from 2020-21. Sherlock rejoined the Mets as a bench coach in 2022. He’d been the team’s catching coach for the past three seasons.
Sarbaugh served as the Mets’ third base coach for the past two seasons. He held the same role for Cleveland from 2014-2023. Sarbaugh was credited with helping Brett Baty improve on defense, Martino mentioned. Baty had 12 errors in 112 games in his first two big-league seasons. After Sarbaugh arrived in 2024, Baty has made 10 errors in 191 games.
Lipstick on a pig. They can replace all the coaches but they can’t get rid of the bad juju in the organization.
Bad juju sounds like a drink gibby would love
The Mets apparently are retaining the 1B Coach Richardson who was successful in coaching base stealing by the Team.
Can’t make this up Hefner was a Wilpon holdover, Chavez had been the Bench Coach but was demoted back to hitting coach to assist the failed hitting coach Barnes because of the Mets inability to situationally hit with RISP. After adding Juan Soto the Mets still couldn’t hit with RISP with two hitting coaches. LOL Mets
Mets had 8/9 starters with OPS+’s>111. What’s the next guy expected to do?
Become another scapegoat when they flounder next year!!
This menu of comments featuring pig, scapegoat, and flounder doesn’t look very appealing.
Yes, panic can be a plan, too. Just not a good one.
Or having a sense of urgency to have more time to find their replacements. The new hires can quickly begin working with their players in the offseason.
I have a feeling you know that this isn’t my point.
How can John Gibbons step down, when according to the linked bio, he died in 2008?
lol
Gibbons is the former Toronto skipper who won the AL East with the Blue Jays in 2015.
Easy way, blame the coaches or manager. While the gm brings these players in. Or does not get the players who can help. Perfect example Montas, who does know he’s done?
Keep the crappy manager and in over his head GM. Great idea for those of us who hates the Mets.
Oh good. I knew that was the reason they failed again.
I thought that was the coaches running the bases and hitting and pitching the last month of the season. No wonder the Mets lost.
So many Mets fans were telling me (and Steve Adams) how wrong we were about the starting rotation before the season. It was suggested that maybe they didn’t do enough there and were told that we were stupid and that and that David Stearns was a genius and Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas were going to tie for the Cy Young award. Your pitching wasn’t good enough and lots of people thought that was the case in April.
Such faith has become the hallmark of LOLmets.
Lol, Stearns has a few disciples that believes he is a genius. I never liked his philosophy from day 1 about not valuing relievers and not giving out long term contracts to starting pitchers! Monetary risk will always be part of any sport! Just for comparison, which 350 million dollar payroll team would you pick, Dodgers or Mets? Very similar payroll but worlds different in talent….sad but true
Yeah, his most astute attribute though is not valuing 1B only players that want to be overpaid.
Stearns doesnt value anything except his own bank account. You cant run the Mets like the Royals or Pirates….good luck
This solves little since Mendoza got a free pass to manage poorly again in 2026. He should’ve also been on the chopping block. Stearns’ image as a master team builder has been exposed as a fraud and a lie.
Agreed Mendoza needs to be fired but give David some time at least.
I think if you’re going to get ride of everybody.
You get rid of EVERYONE ! (Gary Oldman)
Mendoza shouldn’t get a pass.
Unless they are letting him bring in his own guys, then it’s just hitting the pause button on his inevitable firing. With so many HC openings this offseason , there’s a significant likelihood that a coach they like gets a job somewhere else.
Makes me view Mendoza as a company man, doing what he’s told and pinning the blame on his underlings. Classic signs of a mediocre man, trying to save face, when in over his head.
Lost all respect. You gotta go down with the ship , Capitan !
HC is in the nfl.
You know what I meant.
I realized after I posted.
I was thinking along terms of building a team of coaches , so he’s still the head of the snake
Should have sent Mr. and Mrs. Met to the glue factory too.
Lets see it is cheaper to fire the coaches, then to fire the manager, GM, and a 40 man roster. Because we all know it is the coaches that are on the field making the errors, hitting in the clutch, throwing the balls instead of strikes and making poor choices on the bases, throwing to the wrong base in the outfield. Talk about making your coaching staff the scapegoats, makes Mendoza look bad because he chose these coaches. Who is the one that made the decisions to sign some of these players, was not Mendoza or his coaches, I believe it went farther up the food chain, like maybe the GM and or owner but yet lets blame the coaches, that is so weak but again we are talking about the Met front office, GM not taking the hit just passing the buck and blaming the coaches for a lost season.
Maybe they should replace Stearns? He did a lousy job
The Mets have a good team. But they spent a ton of money on mid rotation or back end arms last year. Giving Manaea 3 years 75 million was dumb then and looks even dumber now. Montas got a lot of money hoping he would bounce back when he didnt. They need a top of the rotation arm or 2 but they gotta ship guys out to make room for them. And I think they are afraid of trading their young guys because they might become that but thats the life of a win now team with a huge payroll.
Signing Soto fallout predictably cost lots of ancillary employees their gigs.
It wasn’t Eric Chavez’ fault for 3 years but now it is. He should have spread the greatness around much more. Maybe now they hire Eric Munson.
Was surprised only at Hefner being axed. The offense was pretty great year round, just very streaky at times.
That being said, something was definitely up with the pitching as well the management of the relievers. Megill, Garrett, Danny Young and Montas (who was damaged goods to begin with) all are getting TJ, not to mention Christian Scott and Dedniel Nunez who are recovering from TJ and Max Kranick from a flexor sprain.
It’s pretty clear these guys are either being overused or they’re all injury prone, but something needs to change. I don’t blame Mendoza, who had to figure out 4-5 innings from the bullpen day in and out, so obviously he overused some arms, but what are you supposed to do when your starters can’t go 5. This might be on Stearns more than anyone else, but I mean, look at his rotation in 2024 which was fantastic down the stretch on a budget. I think perhaps he tried to find lightning in a bottle twice and it didn’t work out this time.
Who’s Charlie Wright?
I don’t agree with cutting Hefner. I think the Mets will regret that choice.
This news tells me that Uncle Steve is making baseball decisions based on what fans demand on Mets message boards. Mets fans making organizational decisions. Now there’s a scary thought.