Immediately following the conclusion of the Yankees‘ season, they fired several coaches, including hitting coach Marcus Thames, assistant hitting coach P.J. Pillitere and third-base coach Phil Nevin. With replacements needed, the Yankees aren’t looking too far from home to discover a supplement, interviewing former Mets skipper Luis Rojas for a base-coach position over the weekend, per The Athletic.
Rojas was released following a disappointing season with the Mets, but he’s highly regarded as a secondary coach and could fit the Yankees’ need quite well. Apparently, he left a good impression after his meeting with management and Aaron Boone.
The Yankees will have competition for Rojas, who recently interviewed with the San Diego Padres for their vacant head caching position, via Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Rojas also has an option to stay with the Mets, but in a demoted role, which isn’t something he’s expected to accept. There’s a solid chance he elects to hit the reset button with the Yankees if he doesn’t land the HC job on the West Coast. He would be working directly under Boone, who had himself somewhat of a tough 2021 campaign as well.
Boone, in fact, was retained on a 3-year extension despite being knocked out of playoff contention in the Wild Card. He will be looking for new faces to add to his coaching staff, and with first-base coach Reggie Willits also departing, he will be busy scouring the free-agent market for new assistants.
Yankees decline club-option of Joely Rodriguez:
After hosting a 4.66 ERA this past season, the Yankees elected to decline the $3M club-option for relief pitcher Joely Rodriguez. However, after posting a 5.93 ERA with the Texas Rangers to begin the year, he finished with a 2.84 ERA in New York — he was a part of the Joey Gallo trade.
Rodriguez is known as a ground-ball pitcher, but the Yanks simply didn’t see the value at his price-point, rather electing to allocate that money toward a different free agent. The team will pay Joely a $500K buyout instead.