The Mets’ New Pitching Coach: Justin Willard : Smart Hire or Scary Movie?

If you’ve been a loyal reader of Kiner’s Korner over the years, you probably know I’m usually all in on most things the Mets do. I take a wait-and-see approach to most moves, rarely critical, because let’s face it anyone sitting in that chair at Citi Field making Major League hires has more baseball smarts in their pinky fingernail than I do in my entire body.

That being said, this is one of the first moves in a long, long time that has me scratching my head. Time will tell, of course, but I think the Mets got this one wrong.

After yet another late-season “so-close-you-can-taste-it” collapse, the Mets made another change to their coaching staff, naming Justin Willard as their new pitching coach. On paper, he checks a lot of the modern boxes analytics background, tech-driven, player development chops. But when you dig a little deeper, it starts to feel less like the sequel to “Moneyball” and a little more like, well… “Willard.”

Yes, that Willard.

The 1971 horror flick (and its 2003 remake) about a lonely guy who trains rats to do his bidding. In those movies, Willard’s pet rat army was loyal and clever — until it wasn’t. Let’s just hope the Mets’ version of Willard has a better ending than that.

Now, let me be clear: I had no problem with the front office shaking things up on the hitting side. Troy Snitker, their new hitting coach, comes in with an impressive résumé from Houston, real-world results, and a knack for developing hitters into legitimate big leaguers. But Jeremy Hefner’s dismissal on the pitching side? That one didn’t sit right with me.

Hefner, at just 39, wasn’t some old-school holdout stuck in 1985. He was forward-thinking, communicative, and respected by the staff. He’d helped guide more than a few success stories during his tenure — from Taijuan Walker, Chris Bassitt, Kodai Senga’s transition from Japan, Sean Manaea’s late-career revival , the steady growth of David Peterson as well as helping Clay Holmes go from a reliever to a starter.

He wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t the problem. One bad season, and it felt like he was shown the door for the sake of “new ideas.”

And while Hefner may not have had an All-Star caliber playing career, he absolutely earned his stripes on the mound. Over 200 professional games across ten seasons, he posted a respectable 4.65 ERA in the majors, a solid 3.96 in the minors, and a strikeout-to-walk ratio north of 2.7. He even found his way to the big leagues with the Mets and Cardinals, grinding his way up every rung of the ladder.

That’s not just teaching experience — that’s lived experience.

Which brings us to Justin Willard, the new man in charge. Willard, 35, spent the past couple of years as the Red Sox’s Director of Pitching after serving time in the Twins organization. He’s sharp, ambitious, and by all accounts a “systems guy” a coach who talks in terms of “alignment” and “philosophy” more than ERA and WHIP.

Unlike Snitker, though, Willard’s résumé doesn’t feature much in the way of tangible, on-field success. Boston’s pitching staff under his watch was… Meh. In 2024, the Red Sox posted a 4.20 ERA (10th in MLB). In 2025, that crept up to 4.35 (middle of the pack). Their walk rate improved slightly, but strikeouts dropped. There was progress in the lab, not so much in the standings.

And his playing record? Let’s just say it makes Hefner’s numbers look like Cy Young. As a college pitcher at Concord University, Willard compiled an 11.61 ERA over three seasons. That’s not a typo — 11.61. He gave up 64 hits and 46 earned runs in 35 innings. There’s an old saying: “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” Willard might be the poster child for that adage.

What makes this hire even more puzzling is who didn’t get the job.

If the Mets truly wanted a development-minded pitching coach who understands their next wave of arms guys like Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, and Brandon Sproat why not promote A.J. Sager?

Sager has been a rock star in this organization, working wonders at Double-A Binghamton, where he was named the Mets’ Minor League Staff Member of the Year in 2023. Before joining the Mets, he spent 20 years in the Tigers’ system, even serving as Detroit’s minor league pitching coordinator and a stint as their big-league bullpen coach in 2018.

He’s coached everywhere from Low-A to Triple-A, and he’s been instrumental in shaping the very pitchers the Mets say they want to build around. If experience counts and it should then Sager seemed like the natural choice to move up.

Instead, the Mets went outside the family for someone with less big-league exposure, fewer results, and, let’s be honest, a résumé that’s heavier on buzzwords than box scores.

None of this is to say Willard can’t succeed. He’s clearly intelligent, open-minded, and fluent in the modern language of pitching — spin efficiency, tunneling, biomechanical feedback, and all the key buzzwords. And maybe he connects with this staff and helps them turn the corner.

But in a city like New York, theories don’t get much of a honeymoon. Wins do. And for all the data and pitch design and high-tech wizardry, there’s still a very human element to pitching , knowing your guy, earning his trust, and helping him dig out of a fifth-inning jam on a hot night in July. That’s the part Hefner did well, and the part we’ll find out if Willard can do at all.

If the “Willard” movie analogy holds, he’ll have his loyal pack soon enough — McLean,Senga, Manaea, Holmes, Peterson,Tong, Sproat, and whoever else buys in. The question is whether he leads them to the promised land or gets chewed up by his own creation.

For the sake of the Mets, and all of us who still believe in miracles in Flushing, let’s hope this Willard story has a happier ending than the original.

And if it doesn’t? Well… cue Michael Jackson and Ben. Sorry in advance for the earworm.