6:01pm: In addition to confirming the previously reported modifications, the Mets have some further tweaks to their staff, Van Wagenen announced (via Tim Healey of Newsday, Twitter links). Gary DiSarcina will become the third base coach while Glenn Sherlock will shift across the diamond to serve as the first base coach, leaving the club in search of a bench coach as well as a hitting coach and bullpen coach.
Meanwhile, Ruben Amaro Jr. will move into a front office role advising Van Wagenen. Amaro has been in uniform since being removed from his position as the Phillies GM after the 2015 season.
12:36pm: The Mets have opted not to retain hitting coach Pat Roessler for the 2019 season, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter). The Post’s Mike Puma adds that bullpen pitching coach Ricky Bones will be reassigned elsewhere in the organization. Meanwhile, assistant hitting coach Tom Slater will not be considered for the lead hitting coach job and will remain in his current role, per Puma.
Roessler, 59 in December, spent just one year as the team’s primary hitting coach. He’d previously served as assistant hitting coach for three seasons, including two years in which the Mets set new franchise records for home runs hit (218 in 2016 and 224 in 2017). Prior to Roessler’s time with the Mets, he spent more than a decade with the Yankees as their director of player development — also at times working as their minor league hitting coordinator and field coordinator. He held similar roles with the White Sox, Expos and Astros from 1988-2004.
Bones, 49, had a 10-year career as a big league pitcher and got his start as a coach in the minor league ranks with the Expos/Nationals franchise. He’s previously worked for more than half a decade as a pitching coach in the Mets’ minor league system and has also twice served as the pitching coach for Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic (2013, 2017). He’d been serving in his role as the Mets’ bullpen coach for the past seven seasons.
It’s not yet clear what the future holds for the rest of the staff, though new general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said during his introductory press conference that Mickey Callaway would return as the Mets’ manager in 2019.
