Juan Soto discusses Mets’ failure despite lofty expectations for 2025
After the Mets were eliminated from playoff contention on the season’s final day, Juan Soto discussed what went wrong on Sept. 28, 2025, in Miami.
After cleaning house and seeing six coaches exit following the Mets’ collapse at the end of the 2025 season, the club has officially announced the overhaul of its coaching staff on Wednesday afternoon.
With Carlos Mendoza returning as manager, the team has made major changes throughout its leadership group, including bringing on director of major league hitting Jeff Albert, bench coach in Kai Correa, hitting coach Troy Snitker, pitching coach Justin Willard, first base coach Gilbert Gomez and third-base coach Tim Leiper.
While Willard’s inclusion as the replacement for Jeremy Hefner had been speculated, the 35-year-old confirmed his hiring in a clip on Rob Bradford’s Baseball Isn’t Boring Podcast on Wednesday.
“Definitely a really exciting opportunity,” Willard said. “Loved my job with the Red Sox and loved what we were building and when this opportunity just came up I just had to jump at it and really excited to get to know the Mets and get to know their system and get to know their players and start a new journey and adventure.”
With Willard now set to chart the course for the Mets’ pitching development at the major league level, here are three things to know about him:
Justin Willard spent last two seasons with Red Sox
Over the last two seasons after being hired in November 2023, Willard has had his fingerprints all over the successes of the Red Sox’s pitching staff as its director of pitching under pitching coach Andrew Bailey.
While embracing advancements in technology to maximize a pitcher’s efficiency, Willard was viewed in high regards for his ability to develop the organization’s younger arms while strengthening the major league approach.
With Willard aiding in the team’s process, the Red Sox had the sixth-best rotation ERA in the American League last season. The club’s bullpen had the second-best ERA in MLB and ninth-best WHIP.
The club also had successful growth beginning down in the minor league ranks, with Connelly Early and Payton Tolle breaking through and seeing immediate success.
He cut his teeth in the Minnesota Twins organization
Before heading to Boston, Willard got his feet underneath him as a member of the Minnesota Twins organization.
He began as a coach in the team’s minor league before elevating to the system’s pitching coordinator — a role he served in beginning in 2021 through the 2023 season.
Before he latched on with a major league organization, Willard served as an assistant coach at Radford University beginning in 2013 until 2017. He pitched for three seasons at Concord University in West Virginia before working as a graduate assistant with the program.
Justin Willard’s task with the Mets
Through the month of May last season, the Mets pitching staff was delivering the best results in MLB, with the best combined ERA (2.88), fourth-best opponent batting average (.224) and seventh-most strikeouts per nine innings (9.0).
But it slipped from there, with the the Mets posting the sixth-worst ERA (4.70), sixth-highest WHIP (1.37) and sixth-highest opponent batting average (.257) over the final four months.
Willard will be tasked with helping the Mets staff to deliver more consistent efforts across a full 162-game campaign.
The club’s new pitching coach must also help Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga return to the form that enabled them to once be regarded as the club’s top arms while ushering in a new generation which includes exciting young talent in Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong at the top.