NewsMets to make decision on coaches
Smith, Hale candidates to fill third-base coach needBy Marty Noble / MLB.com
10/28/09 2:32 PM ET
NEW YORK -- With a number of player personnel moves yet to come, the Mets are nearly finished revamping the staffs with that will work with their players next season. The club expects to appoint a third-base coach shortly, with former Phillies coach Steve Smith and D-backs coach Chip Hale among the candidates. It also is all but in position to announce appointments in its organization that will affect three members of its 1986 World Series championship team.Tim Teufel is to be promoted to manager of the Double-A Binghamton Mets after managing the St. Lucie Mets, the organization's most advanced Class A affiliate, for 3 1/2 seasons in the past five years. Wally Backman, Teufels's other half as the Mets' second baseman from 1986-1988, is to be hired to manage the St. Lucie affiliate. And Mookie Wilson is to return to the organization after a two-year absence to work in the Minor Leagues.
A person familiar with those changes and possibilities acknowledged them Wednesday while general manager Omar Minaya was in the Dominican Republic for the opening of the club's instructional league season. The final decisions involving the third-base coaching assignment and the Minor League positions and the announcements are likely to follow the end of the World Series.
Smith and Hale were among the men interviewed to succeed Razor Shines, who endured some difficult moments in his only season as the Mets third-base coach. Shines, a close friend of manager Jerry Manuel, is to return to serve as either the bench coach or first-base coach. Manuel said the day after the Mets season had ended that he preferred to bring in a third-base coach from within the organization. But neither Smith nor Hale has a Mets connection, and there is an indication no member of the Mets staff has been considered.
Smith, the Rangers' third-base coach from 1998-2006, served in the same capacity for the Phillies in 2007 and '08 before being replaced this year by former Mets third-base coach and Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo.
Hale has served as the D-Backs third-base coach in the three most recent seasons.
Efforts to contact both candidates Tuesday and Wednesday were unsuccessful. They were said to have been interviewed in Arizona last week when members of the Mets staff were there to monitor the Arizona Fall League and, in particular, Ike Davis, the left-handed-hitting first baseman the Mets now identify as a possible factor in their 2011 season.
Marty Noble is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
