Welcome Back Jeremy Hefner
One thing is abundantly clear – the Mets love them some Jeremy Hefner!
The Mets drafted him not once, but twice. After he didn’t sign with the team after the 2004 or 2005 draft, the Padres drafted and signed Hefner in 2007.
When he was designated for assignment by the Padres in 2011, he was claimed by the Pirates. When the Pirates did the same a month later, there was the Mets pouncing and finally getting their man.
A year later, Hefner would finally make his Mets debut. It would be quite notable as Hefner would become the first 26th man in Major League history when he entered in relief in the first game of the April 23rd doubleheader against the San Francisco Giants.
Hefner showed real promise in 2013 with a 1.80 ERA in June and a 3.33 first half ERA. Unfortunately, like Matt Harvey, his promising season ended when he succumbed to a torn UCL requiring Tommy John surgery.
Harvey would return for 2015 glory, but Hefner wouldn’t. While he rehabbed with Harvey, something went wrong, and he would need another Tommy John surgery. He’d be a warning sign for Harvey causing the team to force him to ease up on his rehab. For all we know it also caused the Mets to be smarter with Zack Wheeler, who missed two years with his own Tommy John surgery and ensuing complications.
Like Wheeler, Hefner was a Met in name only as he watched the team won a pennant. Sadly, he’d be released at the end of the year, and his comeback attempt with the Cardinals didn’t lead to another shot in the majors.
Hefner landed on his feet as a member of the Twins organization as a scout, and this past year, he was the assistant pitching coach. He’s become very well regarded in the game in very short order. Once again, the Mets pursued him.
This time, it was much easier. Following a theme with their hiring Carlos Beltran, the team brought back Jeremy Hefner. Once again, he’s home with the Mets where he belongs. Once again, the Mets finally got Hefner in a Mets uniform.
Hefner might be a decent hire, if all things were equal–but they aren’t. The Mets have incompetent ownership, an inept GM with one year in a major league front office, and a manager who speaks in nothing but cliches, has very limited front office experience, and no managerial experience.
Adding a pitching coach with very limited experience to that menagerie is ludicrous on its face.
The Mets had a chance after the 2018 season to hire a GM capable of steering the team through the difficult shoals of 2019-2021, when they had the frontline talent to contend but not the supporting cast and not a lot of money; and through 2022-2023 or 2024, when they’ll lose most of their current talent and what talent there is in the lower minors won’t be ready to contribute. Instead, they hired an abject bumbler. A clown. A dimwit in a $250 haircut who threw away 2019 and 2023.
The Mets had a chance after the 2019 season to hire a manager capable of steering the team through the difficult shoals of having paid their bumbler through the end of 2022 and the problems accruing through that git’s 2018-19 offseason, but instead they hired a cliche-spewer with zero managerial experience.
The Mets then had a chance this month to partly remedy their hiring ineptitude by choosing an experienced pitching coach, someone who had *proven* he could do the job and shown he was familiar through long experience with the vast array of worldwide talent the Mets will need to draw upon to have any sort of chance before the 2024 season, if then.
They blew it again.
I think it’s very obvious the Mets are going cheap and rolling the dice that they’re hiring the next great person instead of just getting the proven great one.
I love the Beltran and Hefner signings and don’t at all think it has anything to do with cheap.
Both are very smart baseball minds, fine human beings, well respected inside and outside the game and great communicators.
I think Beltran is the right manager at the right time, and Hefner is the right pitching coach under same circumstance. The former has major baseball pedigree, a likely Hall of Famer, and the latter is sowing a brainiac reputation on the cutting edge of pitching and pitching coach technology and data usage.
Addition, while in the minors trying to make a comeback, he earned a degree in Business Administration from Oral Roberts University.
Both moves get the Mets further along modernization while also retaining retaining old school.
I think there’s room to believe they hired good baseball people while also believing they weren’t willing to get the proven guy.
Metsdaddy, if you’re referring to Girardi, he didn’t reportedly fit what Brodie was seeking – a personal connection with the manager and close collaboration..
The Wilpons also wanted a relationship of comfort in which they can speak to the manager in relaxed way.
The relationship between the Wilpons and Beltran has actually been tested both during and after he was Mets player. both sides overcame those issues and thus the relationship is also stronger for it. As a fan, i like that that relationship was tested and both sides have gotten over the hump. This is very unique situation that no other candidate for Mets manager in 2019, could replicate.
Pairing Beltran with Muelens is very nice match. Muelens has three rings as coach and worked alongside a surefire Managerial Hall of Famer. I’m just exited by the infusion of complementary coaches, a combo of experience, smarts, old school, new school, and fresh energy to pair with Beltran. The players are excited and that really matters although Hefner will have to prove himself. His success with the Twins with rookie manager is huge and should help.
Now we need catching coach who may double as third or first base coach. Brad Ausmus comes to my mind. This brain trust together could seed a winning culture.
It wasn’t just Girardi. There were other very good managers available, and it’s not a very good reflection on Brodie if he’s summarily dismissing people without so much as speaking with them.
It’s even worse when he wants to be the person who is the smartest in the room. Real leaders look for talent and intellect and find a way to make it work. Brodie is just looking for a yes man.
With respect to Meulens, I couldn’t agree more. Love that hire.
Best you can see in the morning !