Mets Part Ways with Coaches Jeremy Hefner, Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes

Updated Post: Oct. 3 at 12:31 p.m. EST

A big day of changes on the Mets’ coaching staff continues.

According to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes will not be with the team in 2026.

Hefner, a right-handed pitcher who played for New York in both 2012 and 2013, joined the club’s staff as their pitching coach in December 2019 and had remained in that role through this past season.

Chavez, a six-time Gold Glover during his own playing days, was hired as the Mets’ hitting coach under Buck Showalter ahead of the 2022 campaign. He then transitioned to bench coach in 2023 before once again taking up his post as hitting coach next to Barnes ahead of the 2024 campaign.

The New York Post’s Mike Puma added that first base coach Antoan Richardson, who was behind the Mets’ unprecedented success in stealing bases this season, has not been let go. The club went on to announce that Richardson, strategy coach Danny Barnes and coaching assistant Rafael Fernandez have been asked back for the 2026 season while assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel and bullpen coach José Rosado have been given permission to speak with other clubs, pending New York’s search for a new pitching coach.

Original Post: Oct. 3 at 12:05 p.m. EST

Two days after it was announced that catching instructor Glenn Sherlock is retiring, SNY’s Andy Martino reported that bench coach John Gibbons as well as third base/infield coach Mike Sarbaugh will not return to the Mets in 2026.

Changes to manager Carlos Mendoza‘s staff were inevitable after New York failed to clinch a spot in the postseason, and the club now has three vacancies to fill with the potential for more openings in the near future.

The Mets hired Sarbaugh in November 2023 after he had spent nearly 30 years as a coach in the Cleveland Guardians’ organization, first serving as a hitting coach and skipper for several of the team’s minor league affiliates from 1995 to 2012 before joining the big-league staff as their third base and infielders coach for the 2013 campaign.

Sarbaugh, who coached Francisco Lindor throughout the latter’s entire tenure in Cleveland, was let go by the Guardians following the 2023 season after manager Terry Francona also left the club.

As for Gibbons, Martino noted that he let the Mets know he was leaving, but not retiring, and that he thinks it’s time for the team to have “some new blood” in his role.

Gibbons, who played in 18 games for the Mets as a catcher between the 1984 and 1986 seasons, is mostly known for his two stints as the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays from 2004 to 2008 and from 2013 to 2018. During that time, he compiled a 793-789 record and helped Toronto snap a 22-year playoff drought while also securing back-to-back ALCS appearances in 2015 and 2016.

Gibbons hadn’t coached in the major leagues since his departure from the Blue Jays before joining Mendoza and the Mets ahead of the 2024 campaign.

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