The New York Mets have found their new manager. The Mets are finalizing a deal with Luis Rojas to be their new manager. Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said that the deal with Rojas is a multi-year deal.
BREAKING: The Mets are finalizing a multi-year deal to make Luis Rojas their next manager.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) January 22, 2020
Rojas replaces Carlos Beltran who had been the Mets manager. Beltran parted ways with the Mets last week after he was named as a key part of the Houston Astros 2017 sign-stealing scandal. Rojas had been a favorite to land the Mets manager job before Beltran got it in November. He was one of three finalists for the job after Beltran parted ways with the team, along with Hensley Meulens and Tony DeFrancesco, according to Andy Martino of SNY.
Sources: Mets managerial search is now down to Rojas, Meulens and DeFranceso. Suppose there’s always chance of a late entrant but I don’t see it. They see benefits of going internal.
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) January 22, 2020
“He has literally trained his whole life to be a manager,” Van Wagenen said on Wednesday. “He comes from a legacy family… He is respected by the players. He is trusted by the players. And he’s someone that we have great confidence in, [with] his ability to lead our team now.”
Van Wagenen added, “He’s someone that the organization knew extremely well, and he’s someone that the players knew extremely well. When it came to this unfortunate circumstance, we didn’t want to change the values that we outlined for ourselves in the initial process. We wanted to continue the momentum that we have with the work that’s been done in preparation for Spring Training, and we felt like Luis was in a position to be a leader of that group.”
Rojas has been with the Mets for 13 years. In December of 2018, he was named the team’s quality control coach. He has also been a coach and a manager in the Mets minor league system and been a manager in the Dominican Winter League. He will be the second-youngest manager in MLB behind Rocco Baldelli of the Minnesota Twins. The Mets don’t expect any coaching changes except for hiring a new quality control coach, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
First baseman Pete Alonso and pitcher Marcus Stroman approved Rojas being the new manager on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Pete_Alonso20/status/1220062128071237639?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1220062128071237639&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.espn.com%2Fmlb%2Fstory%2F_%2Fid%2F28538338%2Fmets-close-naming-luis-rojas-new-manager-gm-brodie-van-wagenen-says
LUIS ROJAS! Love love love it. Loved being around him on the bench last year. Always teaching and full of knowledge. Super laid back and brings nothing but great vibes each and every day. Beyond even keel. Excited even more for the year! @Mets
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) January 22, 2020
Rojas is a good choice as manager for the Mets because he has been with the organization for soo long and is respected by the players. However, the Mets need to win and have a winning season and make the playoffs. We’ll see if Rojas can get that done.
