Reese Kaplan -- What Grade Do We Give Mets Coaching Personnel?

What do you all think of the coaching crew hired to help the Mets ballplayers succeed to their fullest potential?

There are new faces like manager Carlos Mendoza who has served as an emergency replacement manager due to suspensions or single game ejections while a part of the Yankee organization.  He has had experience leading minor league teams in this regard but like any rookie the unknowns far outweigh the lack of a major league managerial history which could indicate what the man in question does well and does not do so well.

We've all lived through the rookie managerial selections like Mickey Callaway, Luis Rojas and others.  One of them had some off-the-field issues which rendered him not quite as effective as he could have been or one simply didn't have the preparatory time to get a true assessment of how to run the team given an eleventh hour emergency hiring when the preferred rookie manager was kicked aside before ever taking charge for a single game.  

On the flip side, we've also seen the good and the bad of veteran managers like recently terminated Buck Showalter and way too long employed Terry Collins.  Showalter is likely Cooperstown bound when his career ends though he was at the helm for the giant collapse of 2023 due mostly to injuries and insufficient depth.  

Terry Collins' destination will more likely be the talk show circuit because just as many years passed without any major league teams showing interest in hiring the volatile and player-averse manager prior to the Mets grabbing him from within their own ranks, he's once again not on anyone's hiring list of candidates.  In Showalter's case he did an awful lot of things well, but didn't see eye-to-eye with suspended GM Billy Eppler.  

Collins actually got worse before the Mets made the second choice trade to bring in Yoenis Cespedes after the near dispatching of Wilmer Flores to Milwaukee.  As stated many times in the past he owns the embarrassing record of being the losingest manager in club history. 

So given the ups and downs of rookies and seasoned professionals, the answer would seem to be either approach can work well or fail miserably.  No one really knows what to make of Mendoza until at least the Spring Training games begin later this week.  We will see how he handles pitching changes, defensive shifts, roster tryouts and in-game stress.  

Along with the ex-Yankee bench coach you also have the return of Jeremy Hefner who has lasted longer than Mets managers and the 2023 out-of-prime-coaching Eric Chavez back into the same role that worked spectacularly in 2022 when the club was indeed playing for October baseball.  

There are plusses and minuses with both of these gentlemen as well, but the positives seem to far outweigh the negatives.  No one was pitching fits nor downing copious amounts of alcohol hearing the roles assigned to these familiar faces.

Instead of focusing simply on the folks who will call Citifield home, the Mets have also revamped the minor league managerial and coaching ranks as well.  In addition, they have invested heavily in a Pitching Lab which hopefully will help get hurlers on the right course in terms of conditioning, velocity, location and movement of pitches.  

Hopefully much time will also be spent on how to keep baserunners from getting early jumps on stolen base attempts as this problem has been present for quite some time.  

It would seem that the next major transition for the minor league structure is a similar Hitting Lab to help young ballplayers adjust to pitch location, making contact, not necessarily swinging for the fences on every pitch and knowing when it makes sense to avoid offering up at balls thrown outside the strike zone.  

Strikeout levels by hitters have been a problem for some time now and it's frustrating to see players offer up weakly at balls they should have let go by without swinging.