Mets Announce 2024 Coaching Staff for Brooklyn (A)

The following press release was issued yesterday by the press office of the Binghamton Rumble Ponies:

Brooklyn Cyclones Announce 2024 Coaching Staff

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – February 2, 2024 – In conjunction with the New York Mets, the Brooklyn Cyclones announced their 2024 coaching staff on Tuesday. Gilbert Gómez, who most recently won the 2024 Dominican Winter League championship as manager of Los Tigres del Licey, will be the 15th manager in franchise history when the season opens on Friday, April 5th.

The 2024 season will mark Gómez’s seventh in the Mets organization after serving as skipper of the Single-A St. Lucie Mets last summer. The resident of Santo Domingo, D.R. was originally an outfielder in the Mets’ minor league system between 2009 and 2015, reaching as high as Double-A Binghamton. Gómez has also served as the hitting and third base coach for the 2022 bronze-medal winning Dominican Republic national team in the Tokyo Olympics. The 31-year-old comes from a big baseball family. His brother, Dariel, played in the Mets’ farm system in 2023, his brother, José, is a professional scout for the Tampa Bay Rays and general manager of LIDOM’s Leones del Escogido, and his brother, Hector, is one of the top sports journalists in the Dominican Republic.

Joining Gómez on the bench will be returning bench coach John Vaughn in addition to Dan McKinney (pitching coach), Eduardo Núñez (hitting coach), and Regan Saulnier (development coach).

Vaughn enters his fourth season with the Mets’ organization and his second-straight on Coney Island. Last year, the 36-year-old helped guide Brooklyn to a 66-65 record, including a 38-28 mark in the second half. Vaughn spent the 2021 and 2022 campaigns at Double-A Binghamton as a Player Development Associate and Minor League Analytics Associate, respectively. He graduated from Anna Maria College in 2010, where he was the two-time captain of the baseball team. With his playing career behind him, Vaughn was the home clubhouse manager for the New Britain Rock Cats from 2010 to 2013 and later served in a Baseball Data & Video Operations role with St. John’s University’s baseball team while working towards his master’s degree in Sports Management from 2019 to 2020.

McKinney joins Brooklyn as pitching coach for his second season in the New York Mets’ farm system. The 29-year-old spent his first year in the organization as the pitching coach with Single-A St. Lucie. Previously, McKinney served as pitching coach at Southeast Missouri State University in 2022, helping lead the team to an Ohio Valley Conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. The Bowling Green, Ohio, native has also made stops at Oakland University, Akron University, and Kirkwood Community College after attending the University of Michigan on a baseball scholarship.

 

Núñez, in his fifth year in the organization, will serve as hitting coach for the Cyclones after spending the 2023 campaign in the same role with Single-A St. Lucie. Núñez has also spent time as the hitting coach for the Florida Complex League (2022) and Dominican Summer League Mets2 (2021) after joining the system as a video intern in 2020. The 38-year-old served as video coordinator and an analytics assistant for Team Puerto Rico during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. During the winter, Núñez serves as third base and infield coach for the Gigantes de Carolina in the Puerto Rican Winter League. The Puerto Rico native spent four years in the minor leagues with the Montreal, Washington, and Kansas City organizations after being selected in the 18th round of the 2003 MLB Draft by the Expos.

Saulnier enters her second year in the Mets’ farm system and her first on Coney Island. The Union, S.C. resident spent last season in the same role with Single-A St. Lucie. Saulnier started her professional baseball career as a minor league video and technology intern with the Minnesota Twins (2019-20) and Cincinnati Reds (2021) before serving as a game planning strategist for the Los Angeles Angels in 2022. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2019 with a degree in Sport and Entertainment Management. Regan will be the first female to serve as a full-time coach with the Cyclones in the history of the franchise.   

Rounding out the Cyclones’ staff will be head trainer Joe Parrillo, baseball analytics associate Max Blane, player development associate Chloe Walker, athletic training associate Skylar Nicholson, and strength coach Drew Skrocki, who enters his third season on Coney Island.