Mets name Luis Rojas as managerial replacement to Carlos Beltran

Luis Rojas (Google Images)

The New York Mets  have named Luis Rojas of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic as their new manager according to the New York Times on Wednesday. The Mets were in need of a new manager as they parted ways with Carlos Beltran last week. Beltran’s name was included in the Houston Astros’ cheating scandal that rocked Major League Baseball over the last three years.

Rojas is 38 years of age, and this will be his first job as a Major League Baseball manager. It is interesting that Beltran was also hired as a Major League Baseball manager for the first time in the offseason, but never got a chance to showcase his managerial skills because of his involvement as an Astros player in the biggest scandal to hit Major League Baseball since the steroid controversy earlier this century.

Rojas had managed throughout the Mets system in rookie ball, A ball and AA. He was the New York quality control coach in 2019. So what does a quality control coach actually do? Well a quality control coach is found more frequently in the National Football League than Major League Baseball. Their duties are to prepare teams for their opponents weeks in advance through detailed statistical analysis.

Outstanding preparation is a trait Rojas got from his father, Felipe Alou, who was outstanding manager with the Montreal Expos from 1992 to 2001. In that time period, the Expos overachieved on a regular basis, and Alou helped Montreal be in contention in the National League East on a regular basis despite a very low payroll. In 1994 the Expos were the best team in Major League Baseball, at 74 wins and 40 losses, but Alou never got his chance to manage in the postseason because of the midseason strike that cancelled the World Series.