Yankees News: Former coach returns after Mets stint, James Rowson's status with Twins

It was only a few weeks ago we speculated that the New York Yankees could benefit from the crosstown Mets' coaching purge, and they already did. The Bombers are bringing back one of their pitching coaches they lost after the 2024 season.

According to reports, Desi Druschel, who the Mets poached from the Yankees the same offseason as they did the same with Juan Soto, is returning to the Bronx after he was all but officially relieved of his duties in Queens. The Mets did quite the overhaul to their coaching staff around manager Carlos Mendoza following their collapse.

Druschel was viewed as an important piece for the Yankees, spending three years under pitching coach Matt Blake, who helped transform the team's pitching staff. So when Druschel went to the Mets for the same job, Yankees fans expressed frustration as it was more of the same.

The Mets have been taking from the Yankees left and right, only to mostly discard the remains. You've seen the revolving door of former players. They liked Eric Chavez "so much" that they stole him from the Yankees by giving him a promotion to hitting coach, knowing the Yankees didn't have the flexibility to counter with the same offer. A year later they reassigned him to bench coach. The year after that they brought him back into his old role as a hitting coach, but partnered him with another. This offseason, they let him go.

Perhaps he returns to the Bronx as well because there's another report brewing that could affect New York's pitching staff. For now, though, it's nice to see Druschel back where he belongs instead of with the dumpster fire Mets.

Yankees News: Hitting coach James Rowson a finalist for Twins manager job

According to Dan Hayes of The Athletic, Yankees hitting coach James Rowson is among the finalists for the manager job with the Minnesota Twins. Hayes pegged Rowson and former Pirates manager Derek Shelton as the current leaders, with Scott Servais and Ryan Flaherty also "in the mix."

Rowson's MLB coaching career began with the Twins when they brought him on as their hitting coach back in 2017. That was his first legitimate opportunity, and he spent three years in that role. But it all began with the Yankees where he served as the organization's minor league hitting coordinator for six seasons before taking the same job with the Cubs in 2012.

After his stint with the Twins, Rowson bounced around to the Marlins and Tigers before rejoining the Yankees has their hitting coach after the playoff-less 2023 season. Rowson's certainly been a great voice based on his interviews and the players speak highly of him, but the Yankees' offense has been largely more of the same over the last couple years. They are boom and bust. They are power or nothing. They are strikeout-heavy. They disappear in big moments. That's probably not Rowson's fault — one hitting coach is not going to change the identity of the same personnel the front office chooses year after year.

If anything, his overall influence and experience is valued, and that'd be a notable loss for Aaron Boone if Rowson gets the Twins job.