With entire coaching staff returning, Mets finally have the stability needed for long-term success

PORT ST. LUCIE — Brandon Nimmo can probably count all of the hitting coaches he’s had since getting called up to the big leagues in 2016, but he’d need two hands to do it. He’d have to start on his toes if you count the time Pete Alonso made up a fictional coach, “Donnie Stevenson,” and he’s had nearly as many managers.

Throughout its history, the Mets have always been a carousel for coaches, managers and executives. There were poor decisions (hiring Mickey Callaway as manager), impulsive decisions (firing hitting coach Chili Davis a month into the 2021 season) and bold decisions (hiring Carlos Beltran) when it came to personnel, but the turnover remained constant, even after Steve Cohen took over ownership from the Wilpon family.

“It was really difficult,” Nimmo told the Daily News. “It puts the coaches in a tough position, and it also puts the players in a tough spot because you build this trust with that coach. When they see things and they come and approach you about it, you either trust them or you don’t about about what they’re seeing.”

Now, chaos no longer reigns in Queens. There is a foundational of trust that exists ahead of the 2025 season.

Coming off a season in which the Mets came within two games of reaching the World Series, the club returned its entire major league coaching staff, making only one addition by bringing in assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel, an already-familiar presence having worked with manager Carlos Mendoza in the Bronx.

Above Mendoza is president of baseball operations David Stearns, also back for his second year with the team he grew up rooting for. With Stearns and Mendoza, the Mets might be the most stable they’ve been in a decade.

“With the run that we made last year and then kind of keeping mostly everybody in place, it just allows for that,” Nimmo said. “Everybody knows exactly what these guys are capable of. With the ups and downs that we went through last year, and still being able to accomplish something great, I think it allows for this more even-keel approach to this season.”

In his first season at the helm, Mendoza showed that he was ready for the promotion. The 45-year-old Venezuelan is young enough that he can interact with his clubhouse as if he’s a player himself, but professional enough that the line between subordinate and superior doesn’t get blurred.

Mendoza had a tough act to follow with the way the Mets’ clubhouse loved and embraced his predecessor Buck Showalter. After starting the 2024 season 0-5, tensions could have risen. The Mets were 12 games under .500 in May, but Mendoza guided the team out of the basement and into the playoffs. For his efforts, he finished third in NL Manager of the Year voting.

“We don’t have a panic mode where it’s like, ‘OK, these are all new people, so we don’t even know if this really works,'” Nimmo said.

The Mets know their systems and processes work, and they trust the staff as much as Mendoza trusts them.

After the success he had with Luis Severino and Sean Manaea last year, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner has become known as a guy who can “fix” middling pitchers. A former Mets pitcher himself, Hefner’s data-driven approach and his ability to communicate how the data will help each individual pitcher makes him effective.

“He’s himself. He’s real and honest and he just lets you be yourself,” Manaea said. “As a coach, he’s not enforcing that we’ve got to things like this is, or that there is only one correct way. You can bounce ideas off of him, he’s open.”

Pitchers aren’t afraid to bring ideas to Hefner, and when he brings ideas to them, he’s able to convey the reasoning and what they’re trying to accomplish.

“I feel like it helps a lot as as a player,” said right-hander Paul Blackburn. “It’s like, ‘Hey, you do this really well, but we think you can do it better. Here are a couple suggestions, if it works great, feel comfortable; if not, there are other ways we can get to that point.'”

Hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez have been around in some capacity since 2022. The two are very different, but the Mets benefit from their differences.

Chavez played 17 seasons in the big leagues, while the highest level of professional baseball for Barnes was two games in Triple-A with the Phillies organization. The former Notre Dame infielder played and worked in the Australian Baseball League before starting his coaching career stateside with the Astros.

Barnes understands the biometrics behind swings, analyzing the force behind them and the plane of the bat going through the strike zone. He writes code, allowing him to work closely with the analysts.

“If he’s not getting the information that he likes, then he can sometimes kind of write up and help our analytics guys, or at least kind of steer them in the direction that he’d like to go on information that he’d like to see,” Nimmo said.

Chavez is gregarious, positive and encouraging. He’s been through it all and seen it all, which makes him a go-to for players during tense moments in games. As one of the faces of the “Moneyball” A’s, the former third baseman understands what it’s like to be part of a build-up, and he understands what it’s like to play in New York, having spent two years with the Yankees.

From game-planning to hitting specific pitches to managing in-game emotions, Chavez brings a wealth of knowledge with the demeanor of a caring big brother.

“You have a guy that played in the big leagues for such a long time, had success for such a long time, and he was in all the situations that we’ve been in, and he knows the emotions that we’re feeling,” Nimmo said. “He knows what it feels like to struggle, he knows what it feels like to succeed, and he knows what it’s like to be on the big stage and how to get things done on the big stage.”

Their goal as coaches is to help hitters maximize their potential by using their natural swings. Each hitter has a different aptitude for the information given, and they want them to be comfortable with the process.

“They really make it easy for me, because they told me they’ll go my way,” Soto said. “They’ll go with whatever I want. So if I want data, they have data. If I want to go more on feeling, they have guys that can go [with] feel. If they want to talk about anything else, they have all the searches.”

Catching coordinator Glenn Sherlock was brought on to mentor former Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud back in 2017, and returned to Queens in 2022. Now, he’s tasked with mentoring Francisco Alvarez, one of the most dynamic young players in the game.

Infield coach Mike Sarbaugh has known Francisco Lindor since his rookie season in Cleveland. Bullpen coach Jose Rosado was a two-time All-Star left-hander with the Kansas City Royals and has coached with Mendoza since 2011.

Bench coach John Gibbons is a baseball lifer. A Mets farmhand in the 1980s and a beloved manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, Gibbons may not always care for some of baseball’s new ways, but he still cares deeply about the game. He’s a valuable source for Mendoza in the dugout.

Then there’s outfield coach Antoan Richardson. A Bahamian who was cut from his high school softball team before earning a scholarship to play high school baseball in Florida and college ball at Vanderbilt, it’s not lost on the Mets how hard he had to work to get to the big leagues. The work hasn’t stopped.

Richardson is highly regarded for his baserunning acumen, with Lindor lauding the way he prepares and the way he prepares players on the basepaths.

“He’s been fantastic,” Lindor said. “He’s always one step ahead. And this is not just a spring training thing. Is a whole year type of thing, so even doing playoffs last year, I felt like we didn’t skip a beat because we’ve been doing the same thing since spring training.”

“He’s made me a better base runner,” Nimmo said. “He’s not afraid to challenge you and try to make you better, so that we can be better for the team.”

This year, Richardson is tasked with turning Soto into an above-average defender in the outfield. When the club signed Soto to a record, 15-year, $765 million contract in December, they were honest with him about their plans to turn him into a better defender.

“We understand that we’re going to go through some tough times, and we’re going to go through some really good times,” Nimmo said. “We have to try and remember that it’s a long season.”

If they continue to trust and believe in one another, the stability will remain and success will follow.

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