Luis Rivera returns as St. Lucie Mets manager
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (January 21, 2026) – The St. Lucie Mets are pleased to announce their coaching staff for the 2026 season. Luis Rivera returns for his second year as manager. He will be joined on the staff by pitching coach David Mervis, hitting coach Bryan Muniz, bench/assistant hitting
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (January 21, 2026) – The St. Lucie Mets are pleased to announce their coaching staff for the 2026 season. Luis Rivera returns for his second year as manager. He will be joined on the staff by pitching coach David Mervis, hitting coach Bryan Muniz, bench/assistant hitting coach Jonathon Cramman and assistant pitching coach Jimmy Nelson.
Rivera, 42, begins his 21st season in the Mets organization as a player and coach. In his first year managing St. Lucie in 2025, Rivera helped author one of the great turnarounds in MiLB. After St. Lucie posted the second worst winning percentage in MiLB in 2024, Rivera led St. Lucie to the best record in the Florida State League in 2025 (77-53). The Mets won the first and second halves of the FSL East Division in the same season for the first time in franchise history and made the postseason for the first time since 2022.
“Port St. Lucie has always felt like home and I’m thrilled to be back leading this team,” Rivera said. “I am grateful for the opportunity and can’t wait to reconnect with the community, fans and players as we chase success together.”
Rivera spent the 2024 and 2023 seasons as the organization’s roving infield coordinator. In 2022 he managed the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones to the South Atlantic League playoffs.
Rivera also spent time as a coach with Triple-A Syracuse and Double-A Binghamton. He was the Binghamton hitting coach in 2014 when the B-Mets won the Eastern League championship. Rivera would go on to manage the Kingsport Mets of the short-season rookie Appalachian League from 2015-2017. He also worked with former Mets affiliates the Savannah Sand Gnats and Columbia Fireflies. Additionally, Rivera spent three seasons as the Mets short-season hitting coordinator (2012-2014).
Rivera was a St. Lucie infielder in 2008 and 2009. He played in 73 games for the club. Rivera will be the first St. Lucie manager to manage the team in consecutive seasons since Chad Kreuter did so from 2017-2019.
David Mervis begins his first year in the Mets organization as the St. Lucie pitching coach after serving as the assistant coach/pitching coach for the University of North Alabama from 2023-2025. Prior to his time at UNA, Mervis was a pitching development coordinator at the University of Delaware in 2022.
Mervis pitched collegiately at Virginia Commonwealth, West Chester and Delaware from 2016-2021. He earned his master’s degree from West Chester in 2022.
Bryan Muniz begins his second year in the Mets organization and his first as the St. Lucie hitting coach. Muniz was Brooklyn’s hitting coach in 2025. Before joining the Mets, Muniz was a coach in the Houston Astros organization from 2020-2024. He served as a development coach from 2020-2021, hitting coach for the FCL Astros Blue team in 2022 and was the hitting coach for High-A Asheville from 2023-2024.
Prior to joining the Astros, Muniz was an assistant coach at the King’s Way Academy in West Palm Beach from 2019-2020 and at Suncoast Community High School in Riviera Beach from 2017-2019.
Muniz was drafted by the Astros in 2014 out of Southeastern University (Fla.). He played four years in the minors, advancing as far as Double-A.
Jonathon Cramman begins his first year in the Mets organization as St. Lucie’s bench coach/assistant hitting coach. Cramman joins the team from across the pond where he has held vital roles with Great Britain Baseball. Cramman has served as the manager for Great Britain Baseball U23s and guided the squad to its first ever world cup appearance in 2023 and European championship in 2025. Cramman was the hitting coach for the 2023 World Baseball Classic Great Britain team and bench coach for the 2023 European championship silver medal team.
Cramman has a degree in English from Open University.
Jimmy Nelson enters his first year with the Mets organization as assistant/Florida roving pitching coach. Nelson previously served as the pitching coach for the Frederick Keys of the MLB Draft League. Under his tutelage, a league-leading seven pitchers were drafted by MLB clubs and four more signed as non-drafted free agents. Nelson was a pitching coach for Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens in 2025.
Nelson was drafted in the second round by Milwaukee in 2010. He enjoyed a productive MLB career, appearing in 147 games (108 starts) for Milwaukee and Los Angeles (NL) from 2013-2017, 2019 and 2021. Nelson finished seventh in Cy Young voting in 2017 when he went 12-6 with a 3.49 ERA and 199 strikeouts.
Ruthie Sandberg begins her third season with the Mets organization and first with St. Lucie as head athletic trainer. Sandberg was a trainer with the FCL Mets in 2025 and an associate trainer in 2024. Before working with the Mets, Sandberg was an intern with the USFL.
Sandberg graduated from Youngstown State University in 2023 with a master’s degree in athletic training.
Ross Boyd will be the team’s strength and conditioning coach. Boyd was the FCL Mets strength and conditioning coach in 2025 and was an associate for the FCL in 2024. Prior to joining the Mets, Boyd held strength roles for the baseball teams at the University of Georgia, LSU and the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Cooper Fowler will serve as the athletic training associate. Fowler’s previous experience includes working with the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate and the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, Fla. Fowler is a graduate of the University of Tennessee.
Logan Nieves will serve as St. Lucie’s baseball tech & video associate.
The St. Lucie Mets open their season on April 2nd at the Palm Beach Cardinals. The first home game at Clover Park is Tuesday, April 7th against the Dunedin Blue Jays. Ticket information and promotions will be announced in the coming weeks.