What all fans can agree about on the finalized NY Mets coaching staff

The New York Mets finalized their coaching staff on Wednesday, making the hire of pitching coach Justin Willard official while also promoting from within for the rest of the spots. Dan McKinney jumps from Double-A to an assistant pitching coach role. J.P. Arencibia becomes the new catching coach. Gilbert Gomez goes from coaching the Brooklyn Cyclones to a championship to first base for the big league Mets.

There were no former beloved Mets added to the staff. No well-regarded name from another organization was brought in either other than Willard who was already a known target. The Mets went young, affordable, and a little inexperienced at the big league level with many of their choices.

But hey, that’s not a problem. All fans should be in agreement about something else.

It’s easy to justify every newly hired Mets coach and that’s a good thing

Without even doing extensive research, we can see why many of these gentlemen received promotions. Let’s start with McKinney.

The Binghamton Rumble Ponies pitching coach this past year, he already has a tight familiarity with many of the young Mets pitchers. He coached Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong in 2025. In 2024, his Cyclones team set a franchise record with 14 shutouts. He knows the system in part because he developed in it himself.

Arencibia brings a different level of experience. A first-round pick in 2007 who spent parts of 6 seasons in the majors, he has something on his resume many of the Mets coaches don’t. It was a missing element for many of the other coaches. Having worked alongside the young Mets hitters in Syracuse for the past few seasons, his connection to Francisco Alvarez will be one of the more important ones. While in Triple-A, he was a bench coach and assistant hitting coach. Now thrust into a catching coach role, his focus goes squarely on getting the most out of a star we’re waiting to bud.

Finally, there’s Gomez. Going from Single-A to the majors is significant. Replacing Antoan Richardson comes with a big pair of cleats. As Mike Mayer of Metsmerized Online noted, Brooklyn was second in their league with 257 stolen bases. This doesn’t directly translate into him doing for players like Juan Soto what Richardson did. What it does is justify the hire.

No one is ever too sure what to expect from new coaches. And in the end, it’s up to the players to execute.

The Mets didn’t go overboard with the hiring cycle. There wasn’t a legendary coach brought in or a borderline Hall of Fame player added to the coaching staff. All of us had to do a little Googling to get to know who each of these games are, what they’ve done, and what they bring to the table. It’s a new age way of hiring a coaching staff. And because none of us know where our Magic 8 Balls are, we can take solace in understanding why they went with each of the choices they made.