The Mets are planning to move Eric Chávez back to a hitting coach role, reports Andy Martino of SNY. Current hitting coach Jeremy Barnes isn’t going anywhere, with Chavez set to serve as a co-hitting coach alongside him.
Chávez, 46 next month, played in the majors from 1998 to 2014. The Mets hired him to be their hitting coach prior to the 2022 campaign but he got moved to bench coach duties in 2023, with Barnes taking over his previous title. The club has made some shifts to their dugout staff in recent months, with manager Buck Showalter having been fired and replaced by Carlos Mendoza. Amid those changes, it seems Chávez will go back to focusing on the hitting side of things.
It’s clear that Chávez is quite respected around the game, having been connected to managerial openings throughout the league in recent years. Just a few weeks ago, he was considered for the Padres’ managerial vacancy. That job is still open but it doesn’t appear Chávez will be taking it, instead sticking with the Mets.
Evaluating the impact one individual coach can be difficult when teams consist of dozens of players of varying skill levels and multiple staffers of different kinds, but Martino suggests the players on the team will be pleased, adding a second post that says Chávez was viewed favorably by the club for his work in 2022.
Great. But Barnes should go. The offense tanked when he became the primary hitting coach. So this is half the right move, half a wrong move by keeping Barnes.
All I’ll say is that if you’re going to have co-hitting coaches, they had better be aligned on philosophy, else that will confuse the hell out of their hitters.
Maybe one will teach a contact approach to guys with less power and the other will focus on the more TTO type players
Your right Barnes should go. Glad to have Chavez back as the hitting coach. The 2022 Mets had a completely different hitting philosophy then the 2023 version. Barnes had a lot to do with that. Who knows they may still fire him anyway.
Get Jeremy Barnes the HELL away from Brett Baty
im envisioning a 0-2 htting coaches, a 3-0 htting coaches, bunting coach, bunting with 1 out 2 risp, bunting with 2 out 0 risp. batting 1 out 2 on, 1 out 2 risp, the list is endless.
Barnes needs to go and Chavez can join him on way out
Mets were a better hitting team with Chavez as the hitting coach. With Barnes, not so much
Would love to see Willie Randolph brought back as the bench coach. He was done dirty by the wilpons. Could be a great guy for Mendoza to learn from
Willie was so done dirty! One of the most head scratching things is that Willie has never managed again, anywhere. He would be a great bench coach if not for the Mets, then any team.
Look back to when they promoted Chavez from hitting coach to bench coach, I said that was a stupid idea. The team hit great with Chavez, if its not broken don’t fix it. This team tanked with Barnes. Barnes cares more about how much weight he can bench press then actually showing players how to hit
So a demotion.
Heard Donnie Diesel was making a comeback.
“We’ve been cured of The Hinske Effect !”
– Miracle Mets
Barnes and Chavez worked in 2022.
I said it all year, Hinske was the problem.
Our power hitters literally resembled his approach and numbers.