Mets round out Mendoza's '26 coaching staff with internal promotions

NEW YORK -- The Mets finalized manager Carlos Mendoza’s 2026 coaching staff on Wednesday, adding several internal promotions to a string of outside hires.

Among those bumped up from the Minor Leagues include new assistant pitching coach Dan McKinney, first-base and outfield coach Gilbert Gomez and catching coach J.P. Arencibia. The Mets also promoted Rafael Fernandez, who was on the 2025 staff as a coaching assistant, to the title of assistant hitting coach. Those four join Jeff Albert, whom the Mets previously promoted from the Minors to be their Major League director of hitting.

In addition to that group, the Mets formally announced the external hires of pitching coach Justin Willard, hitting coach Troy Snitker, bench coach Kai Correa and third-base coach Tim Leiper. The team also revealed that bullpen coach José Rosado and quality assurance coach Danny Barnes will return.

The full staff is as follows:

Pitching coach: Justin Willard
Assistant pitching coach: Dan McKinney
Bullpen coach: José Rosado
Director, Major League hitting: Jeff Albert
Hitting coach: Troy Snitker
Assistant hitting coach: Rafael Fernandez
Bench coach: Kai Correa
First-base and outfield coach: Gilbert Gomez
Third-base and infield coach: Tim Leiper
Catching coach: J.P. Arencibia
Quality assurance coach: Danny Barnes

All together, the hires bring a mix of outside experience and organizational familiarity to Mendoza’s dugout. It is a young staff, with the majority of coaches in their 30s.

Two of them -- McKinney, 31, and Gomez, 33 -- have already been in the organization for years. The former spent last season as Double-A Binghamton’s pitching coach, where he helped oversee the rise of prospects Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong. The latter was the manager at High-A Brooklyn, where he overlapped with Carson Benge. In New York, Gomez will double as the Mets’ outfield instructor.

Arencibia, 39, has spent the past three years as bench coach and assistant hitting coach at Triple-A Syracuse, while also serving as a part-time coaching replacement on the Major League staff. This past season, Mets officials credited him with helping turn around Francisco Alvarez’s season.

Other coaches already familiar with the team’s internal workings are Fernandez, who has worked his way up from a batting practice thrower to a trusted voice for some of the team’s biggest stars; Rosado, who was given permission to speak with other teams this offseason but opted to remain with the Mets; and Barnes, who has served in various largely administrative roles since 2022.

As for the external hires, Willard, 35, replaces Jeremy Hefner, who had been the Mets’ pitching coach since 2020. Boston’s former director of pitching, Willard has spent much of his career working in the pitching development space.

Albert, 44, spent three seasons as the Mets’ director of hitting development, after serving as the Cardinals’ hitting coach for four years. He will now head up the Mets’ hitting program, with Snitker working beneath him. Snitker, 36, is the son of former Braves manager Brian Snitker. From 2019-25, he served as Houston’s hitting coach, winning a World Series with the Astros in 2022.

Correa, 36, first appeared on a Major League coaching staff as a 31-year-old under Gabe Kapler in San Francisco in 2020. Three years later, he briefly served as interim manager after the Giants parted ways with Kapler. The Hawaii native never played professionally, but he boasts a decade and a half of coaching experience in the professional and collegiate ranks. He is quite different from the Mets’ last bench coach, John Gibbons, who was a longtime professional player and multi-time Major League manager.

Leiper, 59, is the elder statesman of the staff. He spent the past two seasons as San Diego’s third-base coach and has also served on Toronto’s big league staff. In New York, he will be the team’s infield instructor as well as its third-base coach.

Among those gone from last year’s staff are Hefner, Gibbons, hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes and first-base coach Antoan Richardson.