Yankees hire ex-Mets manager Luis Rojas as third base coach
Mets manager Luis Rojas looks on before a game against the Marlins at Citi Field on Sept. 30. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Luis Rojas didn’t have to go far for his next job.
The former Mets manager was hired as the Yankees’ third base coach on Monday. The club announced the hiring in a news release and will take the unusual step of introducing Rojas to the media in a Zoom news conference along with manager Aaron Boone on Tuesday.
Rojas, 40, was not retained as Mets manager after the 2021 season. He went 103-119 in his two seasons.
Rojas was hired before spring training in 2020 by then-general manager Brodie Van Wagenen after the Mets parted ways with Carlos Beltran following the revelations about Beltran’s role in the 2017 Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
Rojas presided over the difficult COVID-shortened 60-game 2020 season and the full 2021 campaign. Team president Sandy Alderson decided not to pick up Rojas’ 2022 contract option after the Mets went 77-85 and failed to make the playoffs in Steve Cohen’s first year as owner.
At the time, the Mets said they had offered Rojas another job in the organization. He also interviewed for the managerial opening with the San Diego Padres that went to Bob Melvin.
Rojas spent 16 years with the Mets in total, including stints as a minor-league manager and coach and the major league club’s quality control coach in 2019.
Rojas replaces Phil Nevin, who was let go as part of a coaching staff shakeup after the Yankees’ loss to the Red Sox in the AL wild-card game.
One of Nevin’s last acts was to send Aaron Judge home on Giancarlo Stanton's drive off the Green Monster with one out in the sixth inning and the Yankees trailing 3-1 in the wild-card game. Judge was thrown out and the Yankees went on to a season-ending 6-2 loss.
The Yankees still have openings for a hitting coach, assistant hitting coach and first base coach.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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