Although there are three viable in-house candidates to replace Carlos Beltran as the manager of the New York Mets, it is baseball analyst Eduardo Perez who is the current favorite to land the job according to BetOnline.ag.
Although the odds are in flux, as of 3:00 PM on Friday, Perez was listed as +300 to become the Mets 22nd manager. Perez has been broadcasting on ESPN and later Sirius XM since 2014. He served as the Houston Astros bench coach under manager Bo Porter during the 2013 season. In 2014 he was named the Astros first base coach, but he resigned that position in early January 2014 to spend more time with family.
Right behind Perez is Luis Rojas who was +400 a little over an hour ago but has moved to +325 as of this writing. The Mets quality control coach interviewed for the managerial opening this off-season before returning to his present role. Rojas has been with the team in one capacity or another since 2007 and has lately garnered a lot attention as an obvious candidate. He was a finalist for the managerial job in the last go around but lost out in the end to Beltran.
Close behind the top two is Mets bench coach Hensley Meulens at +350. Meulens was not asked to interview for the position when Mickey Callaway was fired, but has a strong pedigree having been a coach under Bruce Bochy in San Francisco. Meulens was in the Bay Area for all three of the Giants’ World Championships in the 2010s. He is also been named as a possible replacement for Alex Cora and the Boston Red Sox and is currently at +600 to nab that job.
Washington Nationals first base coach Tim Bogar is next at +400. He supposedly made a strong impression on Brodie Van Wagenen in his prior interview with the Mets. It probably doesn’t hurt that he has a shiny World Series ring awaiting him when the season starts.
The third internal candidate, coming in at +700 is Tony DeFrancesco. The new Mets first base coach had been the manager of New York’s Triple-A affiliates since 2018. DeFrancesco certainly brings a strong knowledge of the Mets roster to the table which could add to his candidacy.
Others receiving some wagering interest are: Terry Collins at +700, Bruce Bochy, Buck Showalter and Dusty Baker each at +900, John Gibbons at +1000 and Kevin Long at +1200.
