MLB Roundup 1/23: Mets hire Luis Rojas

Mets hire Luis Rojas as manager

For the second time this offseason, the Mets have hired a new manager. Obviously, their first hire was Carlos Beltrán, who was caught up in the Astros sign-stealing scandal and subsequently let go. (Or, technically, he mutually parted ways.) The Mets were the last team among them, the Astros and the Red Sox to move on from their manager, but they were the first to hire their replacement. They stayed in the organization, hiring Luis Rojas. He had been a manager in their minor-league system for years — often getting high marks from his peers — before getting the bump up to the major-league staff last year. The Mets choosing to move quickly here is interesting, though it does make sense that they stay internally and quickly since their organization wasn’t involved in the sign-stealing scandal like the Astros and Red Sox. They just had the misfortune of hiring a guy who was involved.

Sox Spin: This is actually pretty big news with respect to the Red Sox’ managerial search, as they had previously shown interest in Hensley Meulens, who is currently the bench coach for the Mets. The biggest hurdle for the Red Sox would have been the Mets being interested in him as their manager as well, but that is obviously not happening now. After passing him up here, it’d be a rough look to prevent him from interviewing with the Red Sox. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Red Sox had not reached out to the Mets for permission to interview Meulens.