Brady ‘surprised’ Bill’s left out
Mets get development staff on board with camp just days away
Count Tom Brady among those puzzled by Bill Belichick’s unemployment.
Belichick, who won six Super Bowls with Brady and the Patriots, failed to land a head-coaching job this offseason after his 24-year tenure with New England came to an end last month.
“I don’t know the criteria for hiring coaches. I’ve never been a part of it,” Brady said on his “Let’s Go!” podcast. “I mean, I’m surprised that the greatest coach ever doesn’t have a job, absolutely. But I’m surprised (by) a lot of things in the NFL.”
The 71-year-old Belichick interviewed twice with the Falcons before they hired Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to be their new head coach.
Belichick also had “had support from some decision makers” with the Commanders about their vacancy, according to The Athletic. The Commanders opted instead to hire Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who was head coach of the Falcons in 2017 when Atlanta blew a 28-3 lead to Belichick’s Patriots in the biggest collapse in Super Bowl history.
Hiring Belichick comes with complications, considering he would be the oldest head coach in the NFL and also operated as the Patriots’ general manager. Belichick’s drafting and development of offensive players repeatedly earned criticism, with quarterback Mac Jones, running back Sony Michel and wide receiver N’Keal Harry among his underwhelming first-round selections.
Brady left the Patriots for the Buccaneers in 2019, and Belichick went 29-38 over the four subsequent seasons. That included a career-worst 4-13 record in 2023, during which the Patriots’ brutal offense tied for the league-worst scoring average at 13.9 points per game. He and the Patriots described their breakup this offseason as mutual, and New England promoted Jerod Mayo to head coach.
Speculation swirled about the state of Brady’s relationship with Belichick when the quarterback left the Patriots, though Brady has publicly praised his former coach multiple times in the years since.
“When I was a free agent, there were a lot of teams that didn’t want me,” Brady said. “There’s a lot of things that happen that, for one reason or another, don’t go exactly the way you think they should go.”
Belichick won 17 AFC East titles in his 24 seasons with New England. His 333 career wins between the regular season and playoffs are 14 behind Don Shula’s NFL record of 347.
The Mets have their entire staff in place for the 2024 season.
The club announced its full player development staff and minor-league coaches for the upcoming season Thursday. Andy Green will lead the player development efforts this season, transitioning from an on-field role to a front-office role for the first time. The former Padres manager and Cubs bench coach had always envisioned himself working in a front office and an interview for the managerial job that went to Carlos Mendoza turned into that opportunity.
Green has several holdovers on staff, including much of his front-office staff and the managers of minor-league affiliates. It’s a mix of familiar and new for the Mets as they continue to make changes to their player development system in order to meet their goal of becoming a “sustainable” contender.
Dick Scott will return as the manager of Triple-A Syracuse. Scott has been with the Mets for 11 seasons in several roles, including player development, coaching development and as a bench coach for Terry Collins. Hitting coach Collin Hetlzer and bench J.P. Arencibia also return to the Syracuse staff, with Grayson Crawford joining them as pitching coach. Crawford previously coached for the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate in Somerset, as well as in Division I.
Much of the Double-A Binghamton staff will return after guiding the team to the Eastern League Championship series last season. Manager Reid Bringac will be in the dugout for the third straight season and he’ll be joined by the same pitching, hitting and bench coaches: AJ Sager, Darin Everson and Mariano Duncan. Juan Loya replaces Jeremy Cologna as the Rumble Ponies’ development coach.
Gilbert Gomez has been promoted from the Low-A St. manager to the High-A Brooklyn manager. His bench coach in Port St. Lucie, Yucarybert De La Cruz, will replace him in the Low-A dugout.
Andrew Christie, Max Vogel-Freedman and Eric Jagers all received promotions. Christie is now the director of player development, Vogel-Freedman is the manager of player development and Jagers is the vice president of pitching. They will report to Green.