Mets Announce Entire 2017 Columbia Coaching Staff

By Kevin Fitzgerald / MILB.com

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Former South Atlantic League Manager of the Year Jose Leger will return as skipper of the Fireflies in 2017, the New York Mets announced today. Leger piloted Columbia through the Inaugural Season in 2016 after having managed the previous South Atlantic League affiliate of the Mets, the Savannah Sand Gnats, in 2015. The 2017 season will mark the 34-year-old's third managing at the class-A level.

The dugout will feature three other familiar faces. Jonathan Hurst (Pitching Coach), Joel Fuentes (Hitting Coach) and Kiyoshi Tada (Athletic Trainer) also return to Columbia in 2017. Tanner Miracle rounds out the coaching staff as the new Strength and Conditioning Coach. 

"We are thrilled to welcome back Jose and the entire coaching staff from last season and are excited to have Miracle join the staff as well," Team President John Katz said. "Jose is one of the top young managers in baseball and an outstanding person as well."

This will be Leger's eighth season managing in the Mets minor league system. The native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, was named South Atlantic Manager of the Year after guiding the 2015 Sand Gnats to a Mets organization-best 84-53 overall record. Even despite seeing 13 different Fireflies hit the disabled list in 2016, Leger still managed Columbia to a 67-73 overall mark in its inaugural season in 2016. He was also the skipper of the advanced-rookie level Kingsport Mets from 2012-2014 and the Dominican Summer League Mets in 2010 and 2011.

Hurst and Fuentes both return for their second seasons in Columbia. 2017 marks the 12^th and 11^th seasons respectively for Hurst and Fuentes coaching in the Mets organization. Hurst, a native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, pitched for the Mets in 1994, two years after making his major league debut with the Montreal Expos in 1992. Fuentes spent three years playing in the San Francisco Giants organization from 1997-1999. The former infielder grew up in Puerto Rico before playing collegiately at Southeastern Illinois College.