7:47PM: Either Claiborne or Druschel will be the Yankees’ new bullpen coach, SNY’s Andy Martino reports.
6:53PM: Desi Druschel is returning to the Yankees as an assistant to pitching coach Matt Blake, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. He worked in that same capacity during the 2022-24 seasons, and is now back in the Bronx after a one-year sojourn across town as an assistant pitching coach with the Mets. Druschel wasn’t fired by the Mets, but Passan writes that the team gave him permission to speak with other teams about jobs.
The Mets’ coaching staff has already undergone quite an overhaul in the month since the team’s disappointing season came to an end. Druschel joins bench coach John Gibbons, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes, infield coach Mike Sarbaugh, and retiring catching instructor Glenn Sherlock as members of the 2025 staff who won’t be returning in 2026. Two vacancies have already been filled, as the Amazins hired Kai Correa as Carlos Mendoza’s new bench coach, and Jeff Albert is the team’s new director of Major League hitting (with a more traditional hitting coach still to be hired).
Hefner’s departure was the first sign of an overhaul to the pitching department, so it isn’t a shock that Druschel is also on the way out. The Mets’ rotation and bullpen were the primary reasons for the team’s second-half fade, as between injuries and ineffectiveness, the Amazins had trouble finding enough arms to just cover innings down the stretch, let alone effectively post results. Forty-six different players took the mound for the 2025 Mets for a team that finished 18th in baseball with a 4.04 team ERA — after the All-Star break, the Mets’ 4.74 team ERA was the sixth-worst in baseball.
It is unfair to lay the blame entirely on the coaching staff, of course, and obviously the Mets’ pitching struggles didn’t prevent Druschel from quickly landing a job back with his old club. The 50-year-old Druschel had a long collegiate coaching career, including stints as the Iowa baseball program’s director of operations and pitching coach before was hired by the Yankees in 2019 as their minor league manager of pitching development.
Preston Claiborne was hired as Druschel’s replacement in the assistant pitching coach role last winter. It isn’t known if the Yankees will keep both men as Blake’s assistants, or if Claiborne could potentially be on his way out. In other Yankees coaching news, first base/infield coach Travis Chapman, bullpen coach Mike Harkey, and assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler are on the way out (though Roessler may return in another job), and former hitting coordinator Jake Hirst will join Druschel as new members of Aaron Boone’s staff.
