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
Still doesn’t solve the poor managing, roster construction, talent evaluation, scouting, and development issues in the organization though. Same Old Mets
Bob, the Mets had a legitimately bad year, why do you have to lie and misrepresent?
Why can’t your desire to troll be fulfilled by simply stating the truth?
They hit. 260 with RISP, that’s 8th in the league.
They have a top 3 farm system, maybe even top overall, they don’t have talent evaluation, scouting and development issues.
Because he’s an idiot with too much time on his hands.
MetsSchmets,
I have watched more Mets baseball & MLB than anyone.
You can cite stats but they don’t hit with RISP or have a clue about situational hitting. Lost many games because of this problem. Almost every positional player that they have produced since I can remember can’t play their position well defensively and has low fundamental IQ.
I know the difference between their recent rosters and the World Championship rosters of ’69 & ’86 and the Yankee teams with Jeter as well as all the winning teams.
I trust statistics over the senile half-remembered mush that sits between your ears.
Honestly Bob, go see a neurologist.
Welcome to analytical baseball.
So…hitting with runners in scoring position. All the best bats are 1-4 and after that it drops. The first four do t always hit and when they do the rest of the order doesn’t. Getting Soto more ABs at the top is great, but without one or two more attempts at getting folks on base before he’s up takes the lethal pressure off the pitcher – especially with his good eye at the plate. McNeil won his batting title when he was sandwiched in between good batters – pitchers were willing to throw strikes at him to get that ‘out’ opportunity between the good hitting. Perhaps that needs to be revisited, and I’m not suggesting McNeil, but anyone who may have a higher ceiling if given the opportunity. May just add to Soto’s RBI’s (did for Alonso, but he’s not a sure thing now that he’s a FA). And get another bat for the 5th spot. It has to go deeper than just 4.
#lólmets por vida!
Cohen is going into his Steinbrenner 2.0 phase of ownership (the 80s and early 90s version).
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.
Holy cow! The coaches have flown the coop!
Pig is quite tasty.
If they just had a Trout!
Bart: You always see things in people’s comments that go right over my head and then make A+ replies to those comments that equally go over my head. A+ I love it.
Thank you. I’m here to serve.
@StudWinfield Chavez ruined Alvarez, until he got sent down to Triple A and the coach there fixed him back up. Vientos and Mauricio couldn’t hit the curveballs. Not 100% Chavez’s fault but their approach all year in RBI situations was pathetic, many meaningless hits. Lindor slumped for about 2 months. They didn’t do a good job
So you’re happy with starters doing only 11% better than the league-wide average? That cherry-picked stat is a good example of simplified and short-sighted thinking.
OPS+ is a league-wide average that includes not only starters, but reserves, role players, and minor league or quad-A players who come up to replace injured players. Its very fair to expect starters to be more than just 11% better than that average. Especially when you spend $330 million on payroll. and went to the LCS the previous year.
So yeah, the next guy is expected to do better.
My happiness has nothing to do with it. My point was simply that there is less room for improvement on the 6th ranked offense (OPS) than there is the 18th ranked pitching staff (ERA). It’s always difficult to evaluate coaches since philosophies are more organizationally driven than individually. Was it Chavez’s philosophical input that was lacking or it’s implementation? I guess the next guy will find out.
I’m not sure what you would consider an acceptable OPS+ would be for a regular starter but if you put can consistently put 4 above average batters with the likes of Soto, Lindir, Alfonso and Nimmo I’d say your very likely to have a top ten or better offense.
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.
Per the link, “time for new blood in that job”
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.
Check your grammar and try it again.
Never Remember: How old are you, 12? You should outgrow hating teams by 15 or 16.
Blue Baron: Does belittling other people somehow make you feel better about your own miserable existence?
Stearns can’t fire Mendoza cause it’s a reflection on himself and he won’t fire himself either. So fire everyone else. Hefner was terrible but the biggest problem is Stearns and Mendoza so they’ll lose again next year cause those idiots are still here.
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.
@sports_fan9921 our third base coach costed us about 5-6 games this year, he was the worst thirdbase coach that I’ve ever seen. We would of made the playoffs if it wasn’t for him
*COST THE TEAM and THEY would HAVE made the playoffs…
Unless, of course, you’re a player or organization employee and haven’t told us.
When I met Keith Hernandez on a Delta flight last year, even he referred to the team as “they.”
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.
Such hate has become the hallmark of LOLChucky
Not hate so much as being a juvenile ignorant shmuck. 🤣
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
Right, the Royals and Pirates have 345M dollar payrolls.
Cleaver, did i say that? Pay attention, i said Stearns runs the team like its the Rays or Pirates….
Polarbear99: No, you said the Royals or Pirates.
Go read what i said!! You are wrong…Rays, Pirates, Royals, etc etc etc….i guess i found a couple of Stearns disciples lol
“Stearns doesnt value anything except his own bank account. You cant run the Mets like the Royals or Pirates….good luck”
“Cleaver, did i say that? Pay attention, i said Stearns runs the team like its the Rays or Pirates”
Direct quotes of your own words. What does that have to do with anyone’s opinion of Stearns? And who made you the judge of such opinions?
Calm down Rob Manfred! Its ok
I’m not Robb Manfred, Karen.
Lolololol Yankee fan
Nope. Same as you.
You should quit behaving like you know people and keep your mouth shut. That way we’ll just think you might be ignorant instead of having it confirmed every time you open it.
Who made you King of mlbtr? You felt the need to reply to me a few days late so stfu and get off your high horse!!
Dunno who you were chatting with, but this Mets fan was surprised at how well the SPs performed at the beginning of the season because I thought they were mediocre.
Nwwh, And how did those starters pan out?? Bingo
Your boy @PiazzaParty was the most vocal., but there were others. Not surprised, he hasn’t shown up to tell me that I am wrong still. There is no shame in being beaten by the best. The Cincinnati Reds are a worthy advisory!
No one was saying that. The rotation was thin, the Montas signing was horrendous and the Holmes signing was an experiment at best and not one I had much expectation for.
The Mets Haven’t Done Enough With Their Rotation
2025/02/the-mets-havent-done-enough-with-their-rotation.html
Read the comments. It feels soooo good to be right!
Lark, sad but true!! They were relying on a lot of ifs in the rotation
Simply suggesting that it might be the case was blasphemy!!
Yup
There was one Mets fan here arguing strongly that Manaea was as good as Fried at a fraction of the cost. He’s been quiet lately.
One random crayon eater who hopefully will stay quiet then. Most of us weren’t comfortable with how this rotation was built. He caught lightning in a bottle last year but you can’t bank on that year after year. Stearns might have let the praise get to him. Now, going into next year with a full year of McLean, Sproat, and Tong will hopefully look better but let’s be honest there’s no deGrom at the front so it’s still up in the air. Letting Wheeler walk was such a huge mistake
Sfes, well said!
It was pretty heavily reported at the time that Wheeler had absolutely no interest in returning to the Mets. Something about his girlfriend wanting to live in South Jersey or something like that.
I liked the suggestion I read that they should trade Sproat and other prospects to Houston for Hunter Brown.
That was something I was thinking of in past years, now he’s a legit front of the rotation guy with plenty of control, I doubt they’d move him
The Astros are facing a rebuilding phase and have a weak farm system, so we never know.
I’m not sure you can project a full year of Sproat and Tong. One pitched well in half his appearances, and badly half. The other pitched well 40% of the time and badly 60%. They’re young. They have a learning curve, and they have minor league options remaining.
Agreed
Yeah, I agree. That’s why I said hopefully, and also indicated that the rotation is not complete enough to walk into a new season. I didn’t like their offseason work this past year on the rotation. I wouldn’t want to bet on multiple bounce back candidates year after year
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.
The lie people have been told that Stearns is some brilliant GM is a joke. He’s the worst of the lot. He missed on every signing and had great opportunities that he passed on. He is completely incompetent.
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
@believe – He was just calling an audible…
It was “Get everyone!”
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.
@ desert
“but again we are talking about the Met front office”
Yes, because the Mets are the only team EVER!! to fire coaches when something went wrong. Geese! LOL
Maybe they should replace Stearns? He did a lousy job
You’d be an awful owner
Yes correct
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.
Hopefully the Mets don’t get Munson’d out there in the middle of nowhere.
Wait, are you suggesting the Mets fired coaches because they’re broke after signing Soto?
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.
Other than doing it piecemeal, what was the alternative for the rotation?
@Jimmy
Bingo!!! The obvious eludes some.
Who’s Charlie Wright?
The author of the article.
I don’t agree with cutting Hefner. I think the Mets will regret that choice.
Hefner should’ve been fired halfway through the season. He’s been atrocious for years.
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.
Shake it up says the Cars.
What a mess—this team’s in tatters
I’m on board with every firing. Hefner I would of been more inclined to keep. Mendoza should have been gone. I’m hoping Girardi or David Ross can take on that bench coach role. We need a plan B for Mendoza’s eventual mid season firing
For the first time ever, I actually agree with you
The Mets used 43 pitchers and had 11 pitchers make at least 4 starts. They had 4 solid offensive players and the only bat acquired at the trade deadline effectively torpedoed his own free agency. This team needs a lot of work and Stearns definitely has his work cut out for him
Think Scarabough ends back with Tito and history repeats itself, John Gibbons should take over in Atlanta like Bobby Cox
It is truly gratifying to see that a guy that gets banned again and again on message boards is just fine with the coaching changes made at the major league level.
Should be dumping Mendoza.
They should focus on pitching rather than hitters and coaches..
Who said they won’t? Its only October 3. There aren’t any moves they can make with pitching until after the World Series. How about watching the entire process before correcting them.
They literally just fired the pitching coach, how is that not focusing on pitching?
Who wrote this? You mention Baty and errors in the same breath as the 3rd base coach. A 3rd base coach has nothing to do with a 3rd baseman playing defense. He has to do with the base running relaying signs and reading the other pitcher on the mound. There is no connection. Please learn the game.
This third base coach has everything to do with this 3rd baseman playing defense. He was also the infield coach.
A 3rd base coach has no input on where infielders play?
Amazing how they give you a nice run one year then spend the next 5 making sure you go to work with a bag over your head so the Yankees fans can’t see you
That may be a bit of a misguided view of both Yankees and Mets fan bases. I grew up in NYC and have Mets fans friends and have gone to many games at the old Shea and at Citifield. There is a mutual respect and it isn’t the rivalry you think it is or want it to be.
I also grew up there, went to games at Shea, citi, and both Yankee Stadiums. Mets fan for over 40 years. I’m not implying that we all hate eachother. I’m echoing frustration. Trust me, I’m familiar with everything NY baseball.
My family goes back to NY Giants/Brooklyn Dodger fans in my grandparents.
I wonder if you bring in Ron Washington or Dave Martinez as bench coach
#LOLMetsForever
Are Mets still paying Bonillia ?
Just rereading this. Manea had a decent stretch this season? Did I miss it? Definitely he was good the second half of last season.