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Nationals Add Gerardo Parra, Chris Johnson To Coaching Staff

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The Nationals announced their coaching staff for the 2024 season on Friday, confirming their previously reported hiring of bench coach Miguel Cairo and also revealing that former big leaguers Gerardo Parra and Chris Johnson will be on manager Davey Martinez’s staff next year. Parra, who played a key role with the Nationals in their World Series Championship 2019 season, will be the team’s first base coach. Johnson, who spent the 2023 season as an assistant hitting coach with the White Sox, will hold the same role in Washington.

Parra, 36, spent parts of a dozen seasons in the big leagues between the D-backs, Rockies, Nats, Brewers, Giants and Orioles in addition to one season with Japan’s Yomiuri Giants in 2020. He spent half the 2019 season with the Nats but played a significant role in their Cinderella run to a World Series title, operating as a key bench piece for Martinez and endearing himself both to the fanbase and in the clubhouse as a veteran leader. Parra famously co-opted “Baby Shark” as his walkup music and as a celebration/rallying cry for the Nats that year. He returned for a second stint with the Nats in ’21 before calling it quits as a player and joining the team’s front office as a special assistant.

Johnson, 39, retired as a player after the 2019 season. He spent parts of eight years in the Majors between Houston, Atlanta, Arizona, Cleveland and Miami, batting a combined .275/.313/.404 with 63 homers in just shy of 3000 plate appearances. His last contract was a minor league deal with the White Sox, who hired him as their Triple-A hitting coach prior to the 2021 season. He served in that role until joining the big league staff this past season. The Sox opted not to bring Johnson back for the 2024 campaign, with Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times writing at season’s end that the team’s hitters were “torn between multiple hitting voices” on the team’s coaching staff. Presumably, Johnson’s philosophies better align with those of Coles — the veteran hitting coach who’ll be entering his third season with the Nationals.

Returning to the Nats’ staff in 2024 will be hitting coach Darnell Coles, pitching coach Jim Hickey, catching coach Henry Blanco and bullpen coach Ricky Bones. Ricky Gutierrez, who served as the team’s run prevention coordinator in 2023, will be the club’s new third base coach.

NL East Notes: Anthopoulos, Mets, Afterman, Nationals, Bones

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Alex Anthopoulos couldn’t celebrate the Braves’ World Series triumph with the rest of the organization last night, as the president of baseball operations had to watch from home after testing positive for COVID-19 on Saturday.  The diagnosis left Anthopoulos “surprised,” as he told Scott Miller of The New York Times, but fortunately, “I’m fully vaxxed, I don’t have any symptoms, I feel great….My family is fine.”  To avoid any distractions for the team, Anthopoulos told only manager Brian Snitker and team chairman Terry McGuirk about his diagnosis.

As unusual as the situation was, Anthopoulos got to celebrate with his wife and children, adding to the special moment.  The Braves have reached the postseason in each of Anthopoulos’ four seasons at the helm of the front office, and the 44-year-old has now captured his first championship after 10 total years as a general manager (counting his six years with the Blue Jays from 2010-15).

More from the NL East….

  • Yankees assistant general manager Jean Afterman declined a request from the Mets to interview about their front office vacancy last week, SNY’s Andy Martino reports (Twitter link).  Afterman has worked with the Yankees in the AGM role since 2001, and she received an additional promotion to senior VP in 2012.
  • The Nationals officially announced their 2022 coaching staff, including three previously-reported new hires (first base coach Eric Young Jr., third base coach Gary DiSarcina, hitting coach Darnell Coles) and one more newcomer in bullpen coach Ricky Bones.  Former bullpen coach Henry Blanco is staying on the Nats’ staff in the new role of catching/strategy coach.  This is Bones’ second time working with Washington’s organization, as he previously served as a pitching coach for the Class-A advanced team back in 2005.  Bones has been the Mets’ bullpen coach from 2012-21, with a brief stint as a minor league pitching coach in 2019.

Mets To Overhaul Coaching Staff

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The Mets are planning to part ways with the majority of their coaches, SNY’s Andy Martino reports.  The club has told six members of the staff (bench coach Dave Jauss, first base coach Tony Tarasco, third base coach Gary DiSarcina, bullpen coach Ricky Bones, Major League field coordinator/catching coach Brian Schneider, and assistant pitching coach Jeremy Accardo) that they are free to look for jobs elsewhere.

Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner will also remain but perhaps not in his current position, as Hefner “and the Mets are discussing his future role.”  Hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum and assistant hitting coach Kevin Howard will be staying in the organization but will be reassigned to the minor leagues, as Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News reports that Howard will return to his former job as the director of player development.

Considering the Mets have already moved on from Luis Rojas as manager, it isn’t surprising that the club would also look for a clean slate with its coaching corps, thus giving the new manager some opportunity to hand-pick his own staff.  As Martino notes, the Mets coaches were something of “a patchwork group that represented remnants of previous regimes,” which perhaps isn’t surprising given how many managerial and front office changes the Mets have made just in the last few years.

Mets Add Hensley Meulens, Tony DeFrancesco To Coaching Staff

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The Mets officially announced their coaching staff for the upcoming season, which included a few new faces in the mix.  Hensley Meulens will be the bench coach, confirming previous reports that Meulens was the favorite for the job.  Jeremy Hefner’s role as the new pitching coach was made official after news broke of his hiring two weeks ago, while Tony DeFrancesco will join the staff as first base coach.

Meulens has spent the last two seasons as the Giants bench coach, and the previous eight years as the club’s hitting coach.  That long stint in San Francisco included a brief period working with Mets manager Carlos Beltran, who played for the Giants over the last two months of the 2011 season.  The 52-year-old Meulens has long been considered as a potential manager himself, and was seen as a potential heir apparent to Bruce Bochy, though Meulens wasn’t hired after being interviewed by the Giants this fall.  Meulens also reportedly came close to joining the Marlins’ coaching staff this offseason, though he will now work in New York for the second time in his professional career — Meulens’ first five seasons as a player were spent with the Yankees from 1989-1993.

DeFrancesco has managed the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate for the last two seasons, and also interviewed for the big league managerial job before Beltran was hired.  DeFrancesco has spent the majority of his 28 seasons as a coach and manager at the minor league level, though he also worked as the Athletics’ third base coach in 2008 and briefly served as the Astros’ interim manager in 2012.

Beyond the new hires and Jeremy Accardo’s promotion from pitching strategist to assistant pitching coach, the rest of New York’s staff will return to their roles from the 2019 season.  The returning group includes hitting coach Chili Davis, assistant hitting coach Tom Slater, third base coach Gary DiSarcina, quality control coach Luis Rojas, and bullpen coach Ricky Bones.

Mets Making Changes To Coaching Staff

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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.

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