A number of teams who needed to fill some holes in their coaching staff and front office have came through. The Mets, Brewers and Braves added crucial pieces to move forward and begin preparing for 2015.
Perhaps the most interesting news was the New York Mets hiring Kevin Long as their hitting coach, who previously held the same job with the New York Yankees from 2007 until his dismissal a couple of weeks ago. Long will replace Lamar Johnson, who will return to his previous role in the minor leagues. Johnson filled in for hitting coach Dave Hudgens (now with the Astros) after the Mets fired him midseason.
The Milwaukee Brewers also filled their hitting coach vacancy with Darnell Coles on Thursday. General manager Doug Melvin opted to part ways with hitting coach Johnny Narron and first-base coach Garth Iorg following the team's collapse during the second half of the season. It was believed manager Ron Roenicke was going to receive the axe, but he'll remain with the team for 2015. Coles will join Roenicke's staff after serving as the assistant hitting coach for the Tigers last season. Prior to that he worked in the Brewers organization from 2011-2013 as the minor league hitting coordinator and then as manager of the Double-A affiliate.
Heading back to the AL East, the Atlanta Braves have some good news as well. After interim general manager John Hart turned down an offer to take over the job in 2015, the former GM of the Rangers and Indians agreed to assume the newly created "president of baseball operations" position. Hart took over as interim GM in late September after team president John Schuerholz fired Frank Wren.
Hart got his start in the business when he was named the general manager of the Cleveland Indians before the 1991 season and then left to take the same position with the Texas Rangers before the 2001 season. Under his oversight in Cleveland, the Indians ended a 50-year playoff drought and appeared in the postseason five consecutive times from 1995-1999. They made it to the World Series twice, but lost to the Braves in 1995 and Florida Marlins in 1997.
His time spent with the Texas Rangers from 2001-2005 was much less successful. The team didn't make one postseason appearance and Hart stepped down from the position in 2005 after signing an extension a year earlier and was replaced by the team's current GM Jon Daniels. He served as a Senior Advisor to Baseball Operations for the Rangers until joining the Braves in 2014.
He'll now be the man in control in Atlanta, and based on their performance in the second half of the 2014 season, changes are likely coming.
