Buck

Showalter

Morosi adds that Showalter, who is coming off a two-year stint at the helm for New York, is among several finalists for the position. It wouldn’t be surprising the see the Angels bring him in as an experienced, stabilizing force in the dugout. No word yet on exactly how close Los Angeles’ front office is to making a decision.

Morosi adds that Angels general manager Perry Minasian and Showalter have a longstanding connection dating back to their time with the Rangers organization. Showalter parted ways with the Mets at the conclusion of the regular season following two years at the helm in New York. There was speculation that Los Angeles would be interested in him for their managerial vacancy this offseason and it sounds like he’s a legitimate candidate at this point.

Showalter broke the news during a press conference before Sunday’s game against the Phillies. The 67-year-old skipper went 175-147 in his two years with the Mets. The move will allow new general manager David Sterns to select his own manager as the Mets look to get back above .500 next season.

Jeremy Barnes is taking over as the Mets’ hitting coach this upcoming season after Eric Chavez was promoted to a bench coach role. Hinske, who played 12 seasons in the majors from 2002 until 2013, previously worked under Mets general manager Billy Eppler with the Angels as a hitting coach back in 2018.

Cairo filled in admirably as the White Sox’ interim manager for the final few weeks of a challenging 2022 season in Chicago after Tony La Russa was forced to step away due to health issues. The former big leaguer will head to New York to work with their minor leaguers moving forward.

Chavez was serving as the Mets’ hitting coach; assistant hitting coach Jeremy Barnes will now be elevated into the head job. Glenn Sherlock, the Mets’ bench coach last year, will stay with the organization as a catching instructor. Chavez is positioned as a future manager -- maybe even in Queens -- and Barnes was being “coveted by a couple different teams,” per Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

The 66-year-old skipper guided the Mets to a 101-win season in his first year at the helm of the Mets -- though they then unceremoniously fell to the Padres in the Wild Card round to begin the postseason. Showalter becomes the first manager in big league history to win the award with four different teams -- having taken home the hardware with the Yankees in 1994, Rangers in 2004 and Orioles in 2014. Dave Roberts finished second in the voting, followed by Brian Snitker, Oliver Marmol, Rob Thomson and Bob Melvin.

Albert had been serving as the Cardinals’ major league hitting coach since 2019, but he left that job on his own accord shortly after their season came to an end in a Wild Card Series loss to the Phillies. St. Louis was prepared to make Albert a multi-year offer to return, per team president John Mozeliak. Now the 42-year-old native of Rochester, New York heads to Queens to presumably work in more of a development/oversight role in conjunction with existing MLB hitting coach Eric Chavez and assistant hitting coach Jeremy Barnes. Eric Jagers was also recently hired to be the Mets’ new director of pitching.

Terry Francona (Guardians) and Scott Servais (Mariners) have also been named finalists. Hyde helped guide the Orioles to a surprising 83-79 record this year, a 31-win improvement over where they finished in 2021. The three finalists for the award in the National League: Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Mets manager Buck Showalter, and Braves manager Brian Snitker.

The 36-year-old has served as the pitching coach for the Mets for each of the last three seasons -- and it sounds like he’ll be there in 2023 and beyond after this extension gets completed. As a staff, the Mets had the seventh best ERA in all of baseball during the 2022 campaign -- despite missing star right-handers Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer for a large portion of the season.