Third base coach Chip Hale is staying with the Mets following the team’s house-cleaning and apparently pitching coach Dan Warthen will be sticking around too.
Andy McCullough of the Newark Star Ledger reports that “Warthen says he’s been asked by Sandy Alderson to return next year as the Mets’ pitching coach.”
Warthen replaced Rick Peterson as the Mets’ pitching coach in mid-2008. In his first two full seasons on the job the pitching staff ranked ninth and sixth in runs allowed among NL teams while calling a pitcher-friendly ballpark home.
Young starters Mike Pelfrey and Jon Niese have both developed well under Warthen, but he wasn’t able to keep Oliver Perez from imploding and it’s unclear how much credit any pitching should get for the success of a knuckle-baller like R.A. Dickey.