The St. Lucie Mets announced today that Luis Rojas will return to manage the team with newcomers Marc Valdes as the pitching coach and Valentino Pascucci being the hitting coach. St. Lucie is coming off a disappointing 2015 in which they finished 68-70 and missed the playoffs.

This will be Rojas second season as the St. Lucie manager and his eleventh year overall coaching in the Mets minor leagues. He was the manager of the Savannah Sand Gnats in 2013 when they won the South Atlantic League championship. Rojas was also the manager of the Leones del Escogido who were the Dominican Winter League champions this offseason.

The former minor leaguer (1999-2005) started coaching in the minors at age 25 in 2006 with the Washington Nationals. His first job in the Mets system was as a coach with the Dominican Summer League team back in 2007.

Valdes will join the St. Lucie staff after serving as the Sand Gnats pitching coach for the past two seasons. He will be taking over for Phil Regan who was the pitching coach the past seven seasons for St. Lucie. It will be his tenth season serving as a Mets coach for the former first round pick of the Marlins. He pitched in the majors for six seasons then in the Japanese Professional League for three years.

Former Met Pascucci gets a promotion following two seasons as the hitting coach for the Sand Gnats after he retired from playing following the 2013 season. He played in ten games with the Mets in 2011 hitting one homerun and was an Expo during their final game in team history at She Stadium in 2004.

Valentino played three seasons in the Mets minor leagues too from 2010-2012 including winning the International League Home Run Derby while playing for the Buffalo Bisons during the 2012 All-Star festivities.

The St. Lucie hitting coach for 2015 was Joel Fuentes who will slide down to the Columbia Fireflies for their first season as the Mets Low-A affiliate.

Here you can read my review of the St. Lucie 2015 season.