Mets catching and strategy coach Glenn Sherlock to retire, source says
Mets first-base coach Glenn Sherlock at Citi Field on Aug. 21, 2019. Credit: Newsday/Chris Ware
The changes have begun.
Three days removed from a collapse that stained the Mets’ years-long attempt at reinvention, the organization parted ways with one of its coaches. Catching and strategy coach Glenn Sherlock is retiring, a source close to Sherlock confirmed.
And it might very well be a sign of things to come. Monday, president of baseball operations David Stearns said the organization intended to retain manager Carlos Mendoza, but offered no such assurances for the rest of his staff.
“We’re going to go through an evaluation of our entire coaching staff,” Stearns said. “We’ll do that over the course of the coming days to a week and then we’ll make our decisions there.”
Sherlock retires after a 30-year professional coaching and managerial career that included two stints with the Mets. As the Mets’ catching coach, the positional players thrived: Luis Torrens’ 12 caught stealing above average was the best in baseball, while Francisco Alvarez, who came into the majors as a bat-first backstop, also improved before seeing some regression.
All told, Torrens, Alvarez and Hayden Senger combined to catch 35% of potential base stealers, which was best in baseball. This is despite the unit having the sixth-worst exchange time in the league (the time it takes for a catcher to get the ball from his glove).
Sherlock, 65, is a baseball lifer who began a coaching career in earnest in the Yankees’ minor-league system in 1990, and eventually worked with the major-league club as a catching instructor in the mid-90s.
Respected by Buck Showalter, Sherlock joined the Diamondbacks as a minor-league instructor in the 1995 offseason and stayed with the franchise until 2016 before joining the Mets as the third-base coach.
After a foray with the Pirates, he reunited with Showalter as the Mets' bench coach in 2022 before transitioning to catching coach the next season.
Sherlock is unlikely to be the only change the Mets make, as Stearns said Monday that the entire organization is under a period of evaluation after the unraveling that saw the $340 million team go 38-55 over its final 93 games before losing to the Marlins – a team with less than one-fifth of their payroll – in Games 160 and 162, denying them a playoff spot.
The Mets struggled on all parts of the field – their defense was far below average, their pitching ultimately sealed their demise, and their offense was inconsistent. Players, however, declined to blame the coaching staff.
“The coaches can do what they can do, but ultimately, all responsibility comes back on us,” Brandon Nimmo said Sunday. “Anything that did or did or did not happen on the field, that comes down to us. We have to make the final decisions out there and we’re the ones that should take the blame for that. The coaches, they definitely advise us and they try to help us and they try to do the best that they can and give us all the information that they possibly can, but ultimately, it comes down to us and us executing out there.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
