(Jacob Resnick/MetsMinors)
With the New York Mets announcing Tony DeFrancesco was joining Carlos Beltran‘s staff as the team’s first base coach, there is now a vacancy for the managerial position with the Triple-A Syracuse Mets. Additionally, with the elevation of Kevin Boles to minor league field coordinator, the Mets will also now have a vacancy at the Double-A level as well.
Last year, DeFrancesco led the Syracuse Mets to a 75-66 record, and the team would lose the tiebreaking game to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders for the North Division title despite leading in that game 6-1 and 13-6. In his two years as the Triple-A manager in the Mets organization, he had a 146-135 record while helping develop players like Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil. As the Mets new first base coach, he will be reunited with both players in Flushing.
Boles served his one and only year as a minor league manager in the Mets organization with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. The Rumble Ponies finished the year with a 67-73 record, but there would be some positive developments. Anthony Kay, Sam Haggerty, and Stephen Nogosek would begin the season in Binghamton, and all three players would make it to the Major Leagues. Prior to coming to the Mets organization, Boles was a manager in the Red Sox farm system who had a hand in developing players like Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, Jr.
At the moment, it is not known who the candidates are to fulfill the manager roles in the higher levels of the Mets minor league system. For what it is worth, Benny Distefano was the bench coach for Syracuse, and Ender Chavez was the bench coach for Binghamton. Ender is the older brother of Endy Chavez, who finished his first season as a coach with Brooklyn and may be in line for a promotion.
On that note, the Mets will also need to find a manager to replace Edgardo Alfonzo with the Brooklyn Cyclones. This leaves the Mets organization in need of filling the manager role with at least three different affiliates which also looking at the right coaches to work with their new managers to help develop many of their key prospects.
