Rojas could flourish under front office led by Cohen, Alderson
NEWYORK— The abundance of support for Luis Rojas within the Mets clubhouse ranged from wanting to run through a wall for the manager to applauding his great baseball mind.
No matter how players assessed his first year as a major-league manager, one thing was clear: Luis Rojas was a popular and constructive voice in the Mets’ failed 2020 season.
“They’re a really good group of guys,” Rojas said of Mets players last month. “They’re talented, they’re very professional, they’re very approachable.
“I think our level of communication is very high. That helped a lot this year.”
In any other offseason, his return to the helm would be more certain than it is now — against the backdrop of an impending change of ownership.
Rojas did what the front office wanted, carried out lineup decisions from a tiny analytics team, executed standard in-game adjustments, avoided media meltdowns and maintained relationships with his players and bosses. It was a solid year for a rookie skipper who only learned of his new job title a few weeks before spring training and navigated an unprecedented pandemic baseball season.
He even managed to avoid whispering about his bosses over a hot mic, and Rojas would speak to reporters twice a day on game days. That’s 120 news conferences without a brutal mess-up — in the age of Zoom-only interviews. It might seem like a low bar, but around Flushing that’s a rare class.
Yes, the last-place Mets (26-34) — who failed to reach the postseason for the 17th time this century — departed from their 2020 expectations. But this year’s unfortunate outcome cannot entirely be placed on Rojas’ shoulders.
“When you have a manager like Luis, you want to run through a wall for him,” Dominic Smith said.
For instance, one of Rojas’ starting lineups while the Mets were still vying for a final spot in the expanded playoffs included outfielder Guillermo Heredia, a Pittsburgh Pirates defect with a career .660 OPS. Onanother occasion, Rojas was forced to choose between righthanders Ariel Jurado or Franklyn Kilome to compensate for the team’s lackluster starting-pitching depth.
The roster depth Rojas was handed by general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, whose hands were budgetarily tied upon torching the Mets’ farm system, was substandard.
It would be fascinating to see how Rojas fares with a healthy big-league pitching staff, an advanced analytics team and a front office that grants him freedom and doesn’t meddle. Some of the 39-year-old’s top moments as manager arrived when he spoke candidly of his team’s shortcomings and made visible his vast baseball knowledge.
It ’s fair to wonder whether Rojas could flourish when working in tandem with a sophisticated staff or, better yet, taken off the leash.
Enter Steve Cohen.
The hedge-fund whiz signed last month an agreement to purchase the Mets and majority approval from baseball owners, the final hurdle before crossing the finish line, is expected to come soon.
Cohen has already said he would make former GM Sandy Alderson the team president under his reign. Alderson would assume the duties of current Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon.
It is still unclear whom Cohen and Alderson would prefer as GM.