Gilbert Gomez, the skipper of LIDOM’s Tigres del Licey, will join the New York Mets’ Major League staff as first base coach for 2026 after three seasons as a minor league manager in the Mets system.
Gomez, 33, took over as the manager of the Tigres del Licey, LIDOM’s most successful team, in December 2023, when the team parted ways with Jose Offerman after the team went 21-23 through the first 44 games of the season after winning the league title and the Caribbean Series the previous year. He took over as interim manager and led the team to another LIDOM title and a berth in the 2024 Caribbean Series at loanDepot Park in Miami, where they lost in the championship game to Venezuela’s Tiburones de La Guaira.
He returned to the Tigres with the interim tag removed in 2024, guiding the team back to the LIDOM championship series, which they lost in seven games to the Leones del Escogido. Thus far this season, the Tigres are 9-11 and in third place, 7 1/2 games back of the first-place Aguilas Cibaenas.
Gomez began managing in the Mets minor league system in 2023, leading the St. Lucie Mets of the Low-A Florida State League to a 44-84 record. In 2024, he was promoted to the Brooklyn Cyclones of the High-A South Atlantic League, where he has a 137-126 record in two seasons.
The move to put Gomez on the MLB staff comes as part of a shake up of manager Carlos Mendoza’s staff following another disappointing season in Flushing, where the Mets went 83-79 and missed the playoffs despite a $212 million payroll, the second-largest in MLB. Hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, bench coach John Gibbons and third-base coach Mike Sarbaugh were all fired, and catching instructor Glenn Sherlock retired.
Photo: Tigres del Licey manager Gilbert Gomez will join the New York Mets coaching staff in the 2026 season. (Photo courtesy of the Tigres del Licey)
