The Mets made a handful of coaching changes on Monday. Gary DiSarcina is now the third base coach. Glenn Sherlock is now the first base coach. Pitching coach Dave Eiland and assistant hitting coach Tom Slater were retained. Bullpen coach Ricky Bones will be reassigned within the organization. Hitting coach Pat Roessler was not retained. Also, notably, former first base coach Ruben Amaro, Jr. has been named the new advisor to new GM Brodie Van Wagenen.
According to Tim Britton of The Athletic, Amaro let the Mets know about his interest in their open GM position and other potential front office positions near the end of the 2018 season. Ultimately, the Mets decided to go with the now-former agent with zero experience. As Newsday’s Tim Healey points out, Van Wagenen is surrounded by plenty of people who do have experience. Along with Amaro, he has Omar Minaya and J.P. Ricciardi, both former GMs, as well as John Ricco who has been the Mets’ assistant GM since 2006.
Amaro’s career path has been interesting, to say the least. The son of a former major leaguer, Amaro Jr. spent parts of eight seasons in the majors with the Angels, Indians, and Phillies. He joined the Phillies’ front office upon retiring under then-GM Ed Wade and continued to work under Pat Gillick, who took over after Wade. When Gillick stepped aside following the Phillies’ championship in 2008, Amaro was named the new GM. The Phillies fired him late in the 2015 season. Amaro took a job as the first base coach for the Red Sox in 2016, then took the same job with the Mets in 2017. Now he’s back in the front office.
Amaro has also dabbled in acting, having multiple cameos on ABC’s show The Goldbergs:
Here’s former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. (playing his father, Ruben Amaro Sr., on tonight’s episode of The Goldbergs) being told to sit down and shut up. pic.twitter.com/gvNjtbSduq
— Matt Mullin (@matt_mullin) January 4, 2018
Amaro is anything but typical.