When Carlos Beltran was engulfed in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal, the New York Mets were put in a very tough situation. Mere weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training, the Mets all of a sudden needed to hire a new manager.

Ultimately they decided to stay internal with their managerial search, promoting Luis Rojas from his role as the quality control coach to become the new manager.

Rojas, 38, has been part of the organization since 2007, when he coached the Dominican Summer League Mets. Rojas would go on to work in almost every level of the Mets farm system, managing at four different levels before joining the big league staff in 2019.

With all of his time in the organization, Rojas has developed great relationships with the players inside the clubhouse, promising a smooth transition ahead of Spring Training.

Mets players took to social media after the news of Rojas’ promotion, showing that he was the favorite in the locker room all along.

Marcus Stroman was not the only starting pitcher who responded fondly to the news.

Noah Syndergaard told Mike Puma of the New York Post, “He has a winning pedigree, leading teams to the playoffs when he was in the minor leagues, leads by example and he’s jacked. He gets after it in the weight room.”

Dominic Smith and Pete Alonso seemed to be thrilled with the news as well, with the first basemen sharing an exchange of emojis to announce their excitement of the news.

https://twitter.com/Pete_Alonso20/status/1220059132763484160

Alonso later elaborated on his approval of Rojas, taking to social media again, “Loved having Luis in ‘17 and ‘18 as my AA manager! It’s awesome playing under him and having him on staff last year as well!!! Super pumped to have him as the Jeffe. Also he throws some damn good bp #LFGM”

Smith and Alonso are just a few of players currently on the active roster that have played for Rojas in the past. Luis Guillorme leads all current Mets with 251 games played under Rojas. Jeff McNeil, Amed Rosario, Brandon Nimmo, Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo, Michael Conforto and Tomas Nido round out the list of Mets who have been managed by Rojas in the past.

When Metsmerized’s own Michael Mayer asked Nido about the Rojas hire, the catcher said, “He’s like family to me, it’s going to be a lot of fun playing for him again. His knowledge and how he handles his players is on another level. Surprised it took this long. But everyone will love him.”

It is clear that Rojas is well-respected throughout the entire Mets organization, almost to the point where you wonder why he was not hired to be the manager in the first place.

Now after years of paying his dues, Rojas will get his chance to be the man in charge and led the Mets as their manager for the 2020 season.