Reese Kaplan -- Mets Coaching Purge Necessary and Long Overdue

During the 2025 season I heard regularly from fellow Mets fans that I was overly negative in constantly getting frustrated by the lack of changes being made until it was too late (and then when they didn’t work out as expected).  From years in business I am aware of monitoring when things go off the rails and planning corrective actions to take to move forward instead of sideways or backwards.  What was especially aggravating about the Mets was the stubbornness to stick to what was obviously not working for way too long and the results bear out that this approach was wholly incorrect.

So with 2025 in hindsight late changes are being made.  Virtually the entire coaching class save for first base baserunning specialist Antoan Richardson are looking for new employers or finally moving into retirement.  While some might have been a bit alarmed that veterans like Jeremy Hefner and Eric Chavez were a part of the purge, but if you look backwards you realize that there were times when holding a lead or catching up to a deficit simply were not in the cards.  As a result it seemed as if anything beyond a grand slam was simply another loss for the books as base to base skills were non existent and the starting pitching was on freefall until the arrival of Nolan McLean and occasionally the other two rookies.  Injuries happen and no one is blaming the coaches for them, but not motivating competence is wholly unacceptable.

Some are already pontificating that the Mets need to fill their many vacancies with names from the past who have mostly good Mets history.  Some have gone as far as saying they need a coaching staff that reads like a baseball All Star team with names including David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Ron Darling and others from back in the championship days being given new roles in uniforms.  More than once I’ve heard that Manny Ramirez is another person advocated based upon his hitting heritage, Dominican connection to Juan Soto and New York home base.  Hmmn...

It seems to me that often the best managers and coaches in baseball history were not superstars as performers but instead were skilled at development and motivation.  Yes, Yogi Berra had a long managerial and coaching career but so too did Earl Weaver, Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Sparky Anderson.  None of these folks were perennial All Stars as players but they possessed the skills needed to win in the roles for which they were employed.

Now think back to the Mets situation with returning manager Carlos Mendoza.  How exactly would he handle being the in charge of people who were bigger stars than he ever was?  It certainly seems like an ill fitting approach designed more of the optics of getting people revved up after being beaten and bloodied by the season that just ended than it does in honestly wanting to see the team improve. 

Instead, the club should be looking long and hard at the metrics of which individuals who have had extensive experience as coaches fundamentally improved the teams that employed them.  I’d sooner take a half dozen no-name coaches with rock solid track records than guys whose baseball cards shine brighter than their post-playing accomplishments.  What they need to find are more Antoan Richardson improve-the-team types than they do folks who will generate big one-time press conferences for familiarity of past accomplishments as ballplayers.