The NY Mets coaching hire we should be excited about most

The New York Mets roster was overhauled this offseason and so was the coaching staff. Other than Carlos Mendoza, it’s a virtually new coaching staff from 2025. What kind of expectations should we have for them?

It’s never easy to know who’ll be a good coach and who won’t be. Kai Correa was brought in to help improve the defense, hired to become the bench coach for the Mets. Troy Snitker and Jeff Albert will take their experience with the Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals to the field as the newest pair of Mets hitting coaches we’ll scold whenever the team is shutout. There’s also Justin Willard who becomes the new prized possession as the pitching coach. Is he the guru we’re told he is?

Those are all nice hires. The one we should be most excited about, however, is Dan McKinney. The team’s assistant pitching coach has worked his way up through the minor leagues and is coming off of another brilliant year in Double-A.

Dan McKinney is the Mets coaching hire that should get you most excited

McKinney has had a lot of success and worked as close as anyone with the young Mets pitching prodigies. He rose through the ranks alongside Jonah Tong, only getting left behind late last season when Tong made his way to Triple-A. No matter. McKinney got to linger in Double-A for the full season where the Mets had an impressive pitching staff of players raising their own expectations.

Seven starters made 10+ starts and the highest ERA was 3.69. All of them struck out more than a batter per inning. None reached 4 walks per 9. That’s a consistent range with a whole lot of arms.

The Binghamton Rumble Ponies got productive years from relievers, too. Ryan Lambert and Douglas Orellana had sub-2.00 ERA seasons. Strikeouts were the big thing throughout the team. Only two pitchers who appeared in 10 or more games failed to fan a batter per inning.

We should give credit to the Mets’ system and the players themselves, but let’s not overlook McKinney’s impact. He was there at the start of the season alongside Nolan McLean who went from a fine prospect to the ace in the major leagues.

McKinney had been making progress through the Mets system on a yearly basis, jumping over Triple-A this year to reach the big leagues as an assistant. We won’t know his full impact and it’ll be Willard who gets the bulk of credit or blame because he is the main voice. McKinney’s existing relationships with many of the young pitchers shouldn’t be overlooked.