by Gilbert Gómez sat in his office at Maimonides Park after the Brooklyn Cyclones’ third-to-last game of the 2024 season, eyes on the TV mounted on the wall. The New York Mets, Brooklyn’s parent affiliate, were tied 4-4 in the 10th inning with the Cincinnati Reds. The feed was slightly behind, and a cellphone notification tipped off the room that it wouldn’t be 4-4 for much longer.
And then, sure enough, it happened — Mark Vientos blasted a 97 mph fastball from Reds reliever Justin Wilson into the left field seats. Vientos knew it off the bat. Wilson knew it off the bat. Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen knew it off the bat. Everyone 20 miles down the road from Coney Island at Citi Field, and everyone watching on TV, knew it off the bat. Mark Vientos just won the Mets their eighth game in a row.
The New York Mets celebrated with Vientos as he leaped onto home plate while his jersey was torn clean off his body. Citi Field was rocking, and everyone in Mets-land rejoiced. And then there was Gómez.
“Why would you pitch to him?” Gómez exclaimed.
Cyclones manager Gilbert Gómez, a potential rising star in coaching ranks. Photo by George Velazquez / Brooklyn Cyclones.
Vientos had been crushing left-handed pitching all season and finished the year hitting .300 with an .884 OPS versus southpaws. The Mets had just held the Reds scoreless in the top half of the 10th inning, which meant the free runner on second was the winning run. First base was empty, the Reds would have lost nothing by giving Vientos the free pass in that situation. Instead, they pitched to him, and Vientos made them pay.
Gómez has been with the Mets as a coach since 2018. He’d known Vientos for years as he was working his way through the minor leagues and was the bench coach on a Single-A Columbia Fireflies team for which Vientos played 111 games. Gómez was very happy for him, but he was also thinking as a manager.
“Pretty much every game that I watch, I try to put myself out there and coach it, like if I was gonna make that decision at some point,” Gómez said.
Looking back on the Vientos walk-off seven months later, Gómez made it clear he would need more context than what he had at the moment. Who was available in the bullpen? How does the guy on deck match up with the pitcher?
“There are so many things, so many variables, that it’s easy for me to say at that point, ‘Why would you do it?’” Gómez said. “But understanding the context of it probably would have helped a little more.”
He still thinks he probably wouldn’t have pitched to him with the hope of getting a double play from the next guy up, but reiterated that he would need to know the context of the game better to truly make the call.
“I think it’s part of what makes him really good,” Mets director of player development Andrew Christie said. “He’s always thinking about those things.
Gómez just finished his first full season at the helm of Los Tigres del Licey, the oldest and winningest team in the Dominican Winter League. He took over as manager mid-year last season and led Licey to the 2023-24 championship. They returned this year looking to defend their title, but fell four games to three to Los Leones del Escogido.
Escogido’s manager? Gómez’s favorite player growing up, is Albert Pujols. The future Hall of Famer will be the manager for Team Dominican Republic in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, and Gómez will be his assistant manager.
“It’s an honor. Representing your country in any level, any sport, any event, I think it’s an honor and a privilege,” Gómez said. “Really happy when that call was made by Albert, letting me know that I was gonna be one of his assistants. Looking forward to that, really excited to work with all those great players and all those great coaches, and really looking forward to bringing the title back home.”
Juan A. Nuñez Nepomuseno, the President of the Dominican Baseball Federation, picked 7-time MLB All-Star Nelson Cruz to be the team’s general manager, and he and Cruz picked the coaching staff. Nepomuseno said he’s known Gómez for a long time and called him a youngster with a lot of talent, baseball knowledge, and experience.
“The thing is that he learns quickly,” Nepomuseno said through an interpreter. “He has learned quickly how to manage a game. He knows the game, and the passion that he has for it has allowed him to advance rapidly in all the positions he’s had.”
Gómez is 33 years old and won’t turn 34 until the group stages of the 2026 WBC. In fact, his birthday will be the same day the Dominican Republic is scheduled to play its second game of the group stage. He is extraordinarily young for the positions he’s held.
“I’ve been blessed, man,” Gómez said. “It’s been a lot of people teaching me. A lot of people that I’ve learned from. A lot of people that I’ve worked with after I became a coach I’ve been able to study them and learn the good things. Also, I learned from some of the mistakes that people make around me, just to make sure that I’m not doing the same stuff or doing it differently. But I’ve been blessed to have great professionals all over the place since I was playing the game.”
A former player who signed with the Mets when he was 16, Gómez spent seven seasons in the organization as a player. He made it as high as Double-A before departing after the 2015 season and returned a few years later in a coaching capacity.
Christie said the organization thinks very highly of Gómez and his skillset, and the aim from the beginning of this offseason was to have him back managing the Cyclones.
“He cares a lot, and that care comes through in the form of pretty quality connections with the people around him,” Christie said. “I think most managers that are successful at any level of baseball have deep connections with the people around them and get the best out of those people. That’s Gilbert’s biggest skill; he connects really well with individuals, and he gets the most out of them.”
Christie noted that Gómez is fluent in English and Spanish, which helps him connect with almost every single player in the organization. He’s aware of the small details that help teams win games, and, ultimately, he works hard.
“He’s like a sycophant for some of this stuff because he loves baseball and he loves finding different potential edges and different potential methods, and he just wants to keep doing that for no reason other than he actually loves it,” Christie said. “He works hard, and the hard work is born out of a place of real enjoyment, which is fun to see.”
Gómez will be on Pujols’ staff, assisting the longtime Cardinals first baseman with running the team. The coaching staff includes former MLB players Plácido Polanco as bench coach and Fernando Tatís Sr. as hitting coach. The operations staff, which includes Adrian Beltré, Juan Marichal, Pedro Martínez, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero Sr., and Edwin Encarnación, is stacked with bona fide MLB legends.
“You look at the rest of that staff, it’s a lot of guys who played in the major leagues and had success in the major leagues, and then it’s Gilbert,” Christie said. “I think that just shows you how highly those guys that have had that success think of him.”
One of the biggest storylines surrounding Team Dominican Republic heading into the 2026 WBC is whether or not Juan Soto will participate. Soto, who just signed a 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets this offseason, joked recently that he might play for the D.R. but needs “permission from the boss,” Tim Healey of Newsday reported.
Some Mets fans might have reservations about Soto participating after Edwin Díaz suffered a season-ending injury in the 2023 WBC, and Gómez said he thinks they have every right to have them.
“The stuff that happened with Edwin was unfortunate,” Gómez said. “It doesn’t happen that often, but it has happened. Same with [Jose] Altuve, he got hit in the hand at one time. So there’s always that fear factor that’s gonna be in there, but having the chance to represent your country, it’s something that is very unique, and players really love to do it.”
Gómez hopes Soto plays in 2026.
“He means a lot for our country and the stuff that he represents,” Gómez said. “Hopefully we’re able to get him in there.”
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