The New York Yankees announced Monday that former Mets manager Luis Rojas will become their third base coach.
Rojas, 40, spent 16 years in the Mets organization, with the last two as the team’s manager. In his two years as skipper of the Mets, he had a record of 103-119, and led the team to a 77-85 record in his first full season. New York opted to not renew his contract at the completion of the 2021 season, and are still searching for its next manager. MMO’s Nate Mendelson wrote soon after Rojas’ departure from the organization about how he couldn’t overcome “organizational failure,” thus leading to the Mets’ lack of success in 2021.
Erik Boland of Newsday Sports reports that an executive, not related to the Mets or Yankees, said that Rojas “was thrown into an impossible situation (with the Mets).” Many in the industry feel he will get the chance to manage at the major league level again, and this job with the Yankees is likely a stepping stone to that.
The former Mets manager was also in the discussion to be the next manager of the Padres before joining a crosstown rival to be the newest third base coach in the Bronx.
Rojas joins a small yet impressive list of coaches to be a coach for both the Mets and Yankees, joining Yogi Berra, Willie Randolph, Frank Howard, and Kevin Long, among others. He is also the first coach to go directly from one subway stop to the other in back-to-back seasons since Kevin Long did so in 2015, when he went from Yankees hitting coach to Mets hitting coach.
