Mets Manager Candidate: Joe Espada

Current Position: Houston Astros Bench Coach

Age: 46

Managerial Experience: None.

Hailing from San Jose, Puerto Rico, Joe Espada was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the second round of the 1996 Major League Baseball Draft. A Rule 5 draft pick by the Twins, Espada played minor league baseball for the Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays organizations until finally calling it a career in 2005, never making it to the majors.

After retirement, Espada became a coach for the Florida Marlins organization where he was the hitting coach for the Greensboro Grasshoppers of the Class A South Atlantic League in 2006. He would also serve in that same role for the Jupiter Hammerheads of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League in 2007. Espada would then serve two years as the Marlins’ minor league infield coordinator.

2010 saw the Marlins name Espada as their third base coach, beginning his major league coaching experience. He would serve in that capacity until 2014, where he began his work as a special assistant to New York Yankees general manager, Brian Cashman. Prior to that, Espada coached with the Puerto Rican national baseball team during the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

On January 11th, 2015, the Yankees made Espada their third base and infield coach. He would also coach again for the Puerto Rican national baseball team during the 2017 World Baseball Classic, as well as manage the Gigantes de Carolina of the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente, which is Puerto Rico’s main professional baseball league.

The Houston Astros hired Espada to be the team’s new bench coach for the 2018 season, replacing Alex Cora, who left to manage the Boston Red Sox. Espada has interviewed for the Texas Rangers managerial vacancy after the 2018 season and the Chicago Cubs managerial vacancy after the 2019 season.

Espada is currently seen as a candidate for the current Mets managerial opening and there are many things that help him stand out as a legitimate contender for the position. Working with two analytically heavy organizations, the Astros and Yankees, Espada takes this analytical background along with his past baseball and coaching experiences and molds them together. Joe Lemire of the New York Times described Espada as someone who “the evolving role of the modern coach, balancing responsibilities as a conduit to the front office with the traditional task of developing players.”

During his time with the Yankees, Espada was instrumental in implementing the infield shift. Cashman told the New York Times that Espada was “on the front line having to push it.” Met with heavy resistance from manager Joe Girardi, Espada kept to it and would be the middleman from the analytics team to the players where it would be implemented for on-field use. Over the years, the usage of the infield shift has grown leaps and bounds all across the league, putting Espada ahead of the game.

He’s also seen as a sound infield instructor who can get the best out of those with who he comes into contact when coaching. Carlos Correa had nothing but praise for Espada when working with him during his time with the Astros. “I think he’s one of the best infield coaches out there,” Correa said. “It’s unbelievable how much I’ve learned from him.”

During his time in college for the University of Mobile, his coach, Mike Jacobs noted that Espada knew what to do in every situation and knew where everyone was supposed to be in the field. Former Marlins coach and current Orioles manager Brandon Hyde describes Espada as “Very prepared. Very detailed. Passionate about sports. Passionate about teaching.” Hyde and Espada coached together during their time with the Marlins.

Recommendation

Having a strong analytical background and a plethora of experience as a coach on many different levels, Espada is someone that will eventually manage a major league baseball team. At a different time, Espada may be a home run hire for the Mets, but at this juncture, it doesn’t seem like a fit for the current iteration of the ballclub. Having let go two first-year managers in a row in Mickey Callaway and Luis Rojas, the Mets are looking for someone with major league experience to take the helm of the ballclub. Although he has previous working experience with Mets GM Billy Eppler (Espada was special assistant to GM when Eppler was Assistant GM in 2014), Espada lacks the major league managing experience that the organization is currently seeking.

Joe Espada is on track to become a major league manager one day but if the Mets are firm with their stand on finding someone who has previous managerial experience, then it doesn’t seem like Espada or the Mets will become partners any time soon.

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