Posted on by Dancehall General

Luis Rojas… Come On Down!

The Mets were recently put in a uncomfortable position.

The recent cheating scandal that rocked baseball to it’s core had the Mets scrambling once Carlos Beltran was named in the official report. The Mets decided to fire Beltran before he was able to step foot in the dugout.

Ironically, Rojas was helping Beltran prepare for the upcoming season before he was fired.

We can argue all day about the hiring and firing of Beltran. But what’s done is done. And, in my opinion, the Mets hiring of Luis Rojas was a fantastic move.

Luis Rojas descends from baseball royalty. Rojas is the son of Felipe Alou and the half-brother of Moises Alou.

*FUN FACT* Luis Rojas (38) is younger than Moises Alou was (40) when the Mets signed him to be their left fielder.

Rojas began his relationship with the Mets in 2007 when the team hired him as a coach for their Dominican Summer Mets League in 2007. He managed the Gulf Coast League Mets in 2008. He was a coach for the Savannah Sand Gnats in 2010. He later was promoted to manager for both of those teams respectively. He was named the manager for the St. Lucie Mets in 2015, and managed the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in 2017 and 2018. The Mets named him to their major league coaching staff as the quality control coach for the 2019 season.

Luis Rojas was voted by his peers as the Best Managerial Prospect in the Florida  State League in 2015 and 2016 and Best Managerial Prospect in the South Atlantic  League in 2014 for Baseball America’s MiLB Best Tools voting.

That’s quite the resume for a 38 year old.

Come on! He started in the mailroom and is now the CEO! How can you not root for a guy like that?!

Mar 24, 2019; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets first baseman Dominic Smith (right) laughs beside Luis Rojas (left) before a spring training game against the Washington Nationals at First Data Field. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Here are some of the Mets he’s managed or coached at various levels of the minors:

The list goes on.

So, the “experience” argument is lost on me. Is Buck Showalter more qualified because he managed the Yankees twenty five years ago? Is Dusty Baker more qualified because he managed the Cubs in the late 90s?

At this time I’d like to mention that the last three World Series winners were AJ Hinch, Alex Cora and Davey Martinez. But, um, given recent events, that’s not the best point to make. The point I would like to make is that hiring a young manager isn’t a death sentence.

https://twitter.com/Pete_Alonso20/status/1220062128071237639?s=19

We could debate all night. But it looks to me like the players approve of the hire, so who are we to disagree?

Hell, half of the fanbase wants Terry Collins back as  manager because he called an umpire a “cocksucker” in the “ass in the jackpot” video, so who knows? Maybe, we aren’t being completely rational here?

Rojas is a terrific hire.

I’m looking at the tag team of Luis Rojas and bench coach Hensley Meulens, and I’m thinking, “that’s a fantastic duo!” You have Rojas, a man who worked himself up through every level of the organization. You have Meulens, who saw the Giants win three World Series championships in his time with the team as bench coach under Bruce Bochy.

Let’s give Rojas a chance!

  • Rojas is the sixth Dominican manager in MLB history. (His father, Felipe Alou was the first.)
  • Rojas and Alou are the fifth father-son manager tandem in MLB history.