Regardless of how the process went down, the Mets' decision to hire Luis Rojas as the team's manager entering the 2020 season made the 38-year-old coach's dream a reality.
The Mets elevated Rojas from his internal position of quality control coach, a spot he earned for the 2019 season, last Wednesday after Carlos Beltran's short-lived stint as manager from Nov. 1 through Jan. 16 ended. Beltran's involvement in the Astros' electronic sign-stealing scandal, a Jan. 13 report by MLB investigators showed, led the Mets to part ways with him before he could manage a game.
As Rojas steps into Beltran's place, he is promoted within after earning his stripes. Rojas worked his way up the coaching ladder -- and through the organization -- as a a manager of the Mets' affiliates in the minor leagues over the past decade, most recently including the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies from 2017-18.
Getting ready for the 2020 season, Rojas puts the whirlwind sequence into perspective as he rounds up prepares his team for Spring Training sooner than later. Rojas opened up on his experience in the minors, among other topics, during an interview with SNY's Steve Gelbs on Mets Hot Stove.
"Managing in the minor leagues and managing at the same time in winter ball, I felt it -- I felt that I was preparing myself for something like this," Rojas said. "The news comes in and I'm still like it's a dream come true to me. I'm feeling the emotions. I've got to put my feet on the ground already because we've got to go. We're in go mode right now. Spring Training's right there and we have such a great team to accomplish a lot of goals. But definitely is something that I felt it. I felt that it was happening, I was getting there and I'm just excited to be here."
Rojas gets thrown into the fire as a first-time MLB manager, but he gained experience at each stop along the way of his climb up the minor leagues. While the recent MLB trend has grown accustomed to hiring managers without experience, Rojas is a unique case.
"The first (benefit) is all the experiences that you go through," Rojas said. "Interacting with players. Different cultures. Different methods of teaching. Collaboration with fellow coaches. Just different things. From a developmental standpoint, that's (the biggest benefit). As far as games, somebody told me one time, 'You're going to learn how to lose games in the minor leagues.' And that is true. And it helps. And losing games and watching stuff unfold teaches you how to win, too. And it taught me how to win. And it was special."
As the Spring Training schedule creeps closer with Feb. 22's split-squad slate at the Cardinals (1:05 p.m.) and against the Marlins (1:10 p.m.), Rojas will soon get some in-game reps before things get real. But with coaching experience at both levels, he has an idea of what his first year on the job will throw at him.
"With what I was working with, that's probably the most different -- just the sources of information that you gather," Rojas said. "How much information was being gathered to prepare the guys to play the game. You have different sources -- StatCast, we have our own system, you have bats, you have different things that the guys feed off and it helps us with our hitters, our pitchers, if we take some things, and our defense as well. So at the beginning, it was overwhelming just to see all that information, but it was the first year in the position. But thank God we get (used) to it."