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.

Nevin has plenty of Padres ties, as he lives just outside San Diego and played seven (1999-2005) of his 12 Major League seasons in a Padres uniform.  Since retiring from playing, Nevin has had a lengthy career as a coach and manager in the majors and minors, culminating in his first MLB managerial gig with the Angels over the last two seasons.  Taking over as Los Angeles’ interim skipper when Joe Maddon was fired in June 2022, Nevin was properly made the manager following the season, though given only a one-year contract.  Nevin posted an 119-149 overall record as the Angels’ manager, and he wasn’t given a new deal following the 2023 campaign as the Halos chose to instead look for a new dugout boss.

Gil has never managed at the Major League level, and has been on the Angels’ coaching staff for only the last two seasons.  Still, the 51-year-old Gil has the past experience of an eight-year playing career in the bigs, as well as some managerial experience outside of the affiliated minors.  Gil has worked as a manager in Mexican baseball, most notably helming Mexico’s national teams during the 2020 Summer Olympics and during the 2023 World Baseball Classic.  The Angels reportedly had interest in Gil as a possible candidate for their own managerial vacancy, though it isn’t yet known if the former infielder has sat down for a former interview with the Angels’ upper management.

In a sense, the two candidates represent the four (non-interim managers) who have run the Padres’ dugout during A.J. Preller’s tenure as the club’s president of baseball operations.  Nevin is a veteran baseball man with past managerial experience, like Bud Black (who Preller inherited Bud Black as his first skipper) and Bob Melvin (who managed the Padres over the last two seasons).  In between those hires, Preller went with Andy Green and Jayce Tingler, both first-time managers with relatively little coaching experience on a Major League staff.

This same dynamic exists between the other two known candidates for the San Diego job.  Bench coach Ryan Flaherty has never managed at the MLB level but has been on the Padres’ coaching staff for the last four seasons, while senior associate Mike Shildt was the Cardinals’ skipper from 2018-21.  Flaherty and Shildt are considered the favorites to be the next Padres’ manager, though Preller said that the team would be exploring external candidates out of more than due diligence.  “We’re going to make sure we exhaust all the different possibilities to get the right choice….We want to try to get it right,” Preller said.

Ghiroli also notes that Eric Chavez is “no longer expected to be in the mix” after garnering some level of interest from the Padres in their search.  Chavez has long been seen as a possible future manager, and he has worked on the Mets’ staff for the last two seasons, including a bench coach role in 2023.  Since the Mets are themselves looking for a new manager to replace Buck Showalter, Chavez’s future in New York could well be in flux, though it appears he won’t be part of the Padres’ search.

Chavez and Barnes were each new additions to New York’s staff last offseason. The former was initially slated to serve as assistant hitting coach with the Yankees, but he made the jump to the lead role in Queens just a couple weeks after joining the Yankees’ staff. His rapid ascent up the ranks continues with the nod as Showalter’s top lieutenant in year two.

A six-time Gold Glove winner during his playing days with the A’s, Chavez has spent some time in the front office and managed in the Angels’ farm system during his post-playing time. He’s drawn some big league managerial attention in the past, but the 2022 campaign was his first on an MLB coaching staff. The 44-year-old could certainly find his name in managerial searches during future offseasons.

Barnes had been the Mets’ director of player initiatives before getting the bump to the MLB staff last winter. The 35-year-old now gets a lead hitting instructor nod for the first time. A Notre Dame graduate, Barnes played in the Phillies farm system for four seasons. After his playing career wrapped up, he spent time in the Astros’ front office before joining the Mets. Heyman notes the Mets were concerned about the possibility of losing Barnes to a promotion with another team, presumably to fill a hitting coach vacancy elsewhere. New York valued him highly enough they bumped him to the lead role themselves.

San Diego is the first team known to explore hiring Beltran for any position, which does perhaps present a bit of a icebreaker towards his possible return with some team, though Davidoff opines that it doesn’t seem Beltran has interest in coaching.  That could be an obstacle if Beltran eventually wants to get back into managing, considering that Beltran has still never officially managed or coached at any level of pro ball; the Mets fired him before he ever led the dugout for a single game.  It remains to be seen exactly what Beltran’s next step might be, as Davidoff notes that the longtime star outfielder has moved his family back to Puerto Rico, and Beltran has the financial security “to be selective in his return — or to simply never return” if he so chooses.

More notes from the coaching and organizational ranks…

• Earlier this week, Deesha Thosar of The New York Daily News reported that the Mets were lining up “an exciting, headline-grabbing hire” as their next bench coach.  In her latest update, Thosar reports that Eric Chavez was that planned major name, as the Mets talked with the longtime A’s star about the bench coaching role before eventually settling on Chavez as the team’s new hitting coach.  As one might expect, hiring Chavez involved “a tricky negotiation process with the Yankees,” considering the Yankees only just hired Chavez as their assistant hitting coach in December.
• In regards to the bench coach role, the Mets are now aiming towards hiring “a younger, analytics-driven individual,” Thosar reports.  It will make for an interesting complement to veteran manager Buck Showalter, providing something of an old school/new school approach between Showalter and his next chief lieutenant.  Reds game planning/outfield coach Jeff Pickler is one of the names under consideration for the Mets’ bench coach job, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link).
• Reds scout Bruce Manno is retiring after close to 45 years in pro baseball, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).  Manno has been a familiar face in many front offices over the years, working with the Blue Jays, Brewers, Orioles, Cardinals, Braves, and Reds in various capacities, including working as the Cards’ director of player development during the club’s 2006 World Series season.  Manno worked as an assistant GM with both the Brewers (1987-94) and Braves (2007-14), and his time in Atlanta helped pave the way towards their 2021 title.  Freddie Freeman was drafted, developed, and extended during Manno’s tenure, and Ronald Acuna and Ozzie Albies joined the organization on their initial amateur contracts.  (Manno discussed the Acuna/Albies deals with David O’Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution back in 2018, with Manno praising the work of then-director of international scouting Johnny Almarez).  We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Manno on a fine career, and we wish him the best in his retirement.

Chávez is best known for his lengthy, highly successful run in the big leagues as a player. A left-handed hitting third baseman, he broke into the majors with the A’s late in the 1998 campaign and settled in as a regular the following season. Chávez spent more than a decade in Oakland, emerging as one of the game’s best third basemen by 2000.

He posted above-average offensive numbers each season from 2000-07 and was among the league’s best glovemen at the hot corner for much of his prime. Chávez claimed six consecutive Gold Glove awards between 2001-06, and he also earned a Silver Slugger thanks to a .275/.348/.513 showing in 2002. He picked up down ballot MVP support in each of the four seasons between 2002-05.

Chávez’s numbers tailed off by the end of his time in Oakland, but he enjoyed a few productive seasons as a part-time player with the Yankees and Diamondbacks to end his career. He retired from playing in July 2014 and spent a little more than a year as a special assignment scout with the Yankees. Over the 2015-16 offseason, Chávez made the jump to the Angels front office. For much of that time, he worked as a special assistant to then-Angels general manager Billy Eppler. Now the Mets GM, Eppler presumably had a key role in bringing Chávez to Queens.

It’ll be the Southern California native’s first MLB coaching job, save for his two-week tenure with the Yankees. Chávez also spent some time managing in the Angels farm system during his time with Anaheim and has been mentioned as a possible managerial candidate with the Angels and Rangers in years past. He joins pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and base coaches Wayne Kirby (first) and Joey Cora (third) on Buck Showalter’s first Mets staff.

Perhaps of most interest, the Yankees announced they’ve added longtime big league third baseman Eric Chávez as an assistant hitting coach. The left-handed hitter appeared in 17 MLB seasons between 1998-2014, compiling a career .268/.342/.475 line that checked in 13 points above the league average by measure of wRC+. Chávez spent the 2011-12 seasons with the Yankees, but he’s best known for his run with the A’s. During his time in Oakland, he earned six consecutive Gold Glove awards from 2001-06. He also claimed a Silver Slugger in 2002, a season in which he hit .275/.348/.513 and earned a 14th-place finish in AL MVP balloting.

Chávez hung up his spikes in July 2014 and quickly jumped into his post-playing days in the Bronx. He accepted a role as a special assignment scout with the Yankees before making the jump to the Angels’ front office after the 2015 campaign. Chávez spent the next few seasons there — including an interim stint managing in Triple-A. The 44-year-old had been mentioned as a candidate for managerial searches in both Anaheim and Texas in years past, although this’ll be his first stint on an MLB coaching staff.

Joining Chávez as an assistant hitting coach is Casey Dykes. The 31-year-old was poached away from Indiana University after the 2019 season, part of a leaguewide trend for teams looking to the amateur ranks in search of coaching talent. Dykes spent the 2021 campaign coaching hitters with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre but will now get a bump to the big league level.

In other new additions to the staff, the club confirmed the previously-reported hirings of former Mets’ manager Luis Rojas as third base/outfield coach and Desi Druschel as assistant pitching coach. Longtime minor league coach and field coordinator Travis Chapman gets a bump to the big league staff as first base/infield coach. New York also brought back bullpen coach Mike Harkey and quality control/catching coach Tanner Swanson in the same roles.

Like Maddon, both Showalter and Farrell have managed multiple major league teams apiece to this point. The 63-year-old Showalter is a three-time Manager of the Year who oversaw the Yankees, Diamondbacks, Rangers and Orioles for a combined 20 seasons from 1992-2018. The O’s parted with Showalter after last year, a 47-win season in which they launched a full rebuild.

Farrell, 57, is an ex-major league right-hander who was a member of the Angels from 1993-94. He’s better known for his post-playing career, though, having managed the Blue Jays and Red Sox between 2011-17. In his greatest accomplishment in the role, Farrell helped the Red Sox to a World Series title in his first year atop the club in 2013. The rest of Farrell’s tenure with the team produced mixed results. The Red Sox finished below .500 twice in a row from 2014-15, but they took home AL East crowns in each of the next two seasons.

Despite its regular-season success under Farrell from 2016-17, Boston parted with him after back-to-back first-round knockouts in the playoffs. Farrell has stayed in the game since then by working as a scout and a pitching consultant for the Reds.

Perhaps most interestingly, Fletcher adds that while there’s been heavy speculation about the Angels and Maddon, there had been no contact between the two sides as of Tuesday. Maddon wasn’t fired and is technically under contract with the Cubs through the end of October, although the Cubs organization clearly wouldn’t stand in the way of him talking with other teams at this point.

A lack of contact between the two sides certainly doesn’t mean that there won’t be any at all. To the contrary, it’d be a genuine surprise if Maddon didn’t emerge as a viable contender for the job. At the same time, the fact that the two sides haven’t even talked suggests that Maddon to the Angels perhaps isn’t set in stone. To that end, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger lists Angels special assistant Eric Chavez, Astros bench coach Joe Espada and former Yankees manager Joe Girardi as possible candidates. Girardi, who publicly voiced a desire to return to the dugout just this morning, knows Eppler quite well from the pair’s days with the Yankees. Eppler, though, made clear yesterday that he needs to sit down with Moreno and team president John Carpino to formulate a list of interview candidates.

Furthermore, Eppler was emphatic in taking accountability for the Angels’ poor season. “I want to make it clear Brad is not solely responsible for the result of our season,” said the GM in yesterday’s call. “The majority of our short-term acquisitions that we made this past offseason did not produce to their forecast. And those failures lie with me.”

Indeed, the trio of Matt Harvey, Trevor Cahill and Cody Allen proved unproductive, although Eppler did make some shrewd pickups over the past year. Right-hander Hansel Robles has proven to be one of the more successful waiver claims in recent memory, and Eppler nabbed another waiver gem just prior to Opening Day when he claimed Brian Goodwin off release waivers from the Royals organization. Those additions might’ve provided some bright spots this season, but the team’s starting pitching situation remains bleak and will surely be an area of focus for the Angels as the offseason approaches.

We’re tracking developments in the hiring process in this post. The latest:

Latest Updates

• Both Twins bench coach Derek Shelton and Dodgers third base coach Chris Woodward have emerged as “strong” candidates in the Rangers’ managerial search, per Ken Rosenthal and Dan Hayes of The Athletic (Twitter link). Rosenthal notes that Woodward, who interviewed earlier today, was “extremely” impressive in his interview.

Click below to review the prior updates to the search and additional remaining candidates …

Read more

As of late last week, the Halos were wrapping up their first round of chats with potential candidates, as Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group reported. At least ten candidates were slated for an early look, with the remainder of the process — and the identities of most names under consideration — largely unknown.

There still aren’t a ton of names available, but we learned more about the club’s approach from MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link). Beyond reviewing resumes and speaking with candidates, the Angels front office is said to be “administering [a] 2-hour written test to managerial candidates” that poses “questions spanning analytical, interpersonal and game-management aspects of the job.” Needless to say, that’s an interesting process.

Here’s the latest on individual candidates:

Latest Update – 10/20

• The Angels have interviewed Rays major league field coordinator Rocco Baldelli, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports and Fletcher confirms. Baldelli’s among 10 candidates who interviewed during the first round of the process, per Fletcher, though he reports there are only six confirmed names (Baldelli, Vizquel, Chavez, Ausmus, Espada and Hyde). While it’s unknown which candidates have stood out to the Angels thus far, Fletcher writes that they could name their next manager by Monday.

Earlier Update — 10/18

• Longtime big league infielder Omar Vizquel interviewed for the position but is no longer in consideration to be hired, per Venezuelan journalist Efrain Zavece on his podcast (Twitter link; hat tip to MLB.com’s Maria Guardado). The 51-year-old Vizquel previously served as the Tigers’ first base coach (under fellow Halos managerial candidate Brad Ausmus) and has spent the past two seasons managing in the White Sox’ minor league ranks.

Previous updates below…

Read more

Here’s more from the NL East:

• Meanwhile, the Blue Jays now face an increasingly interesting situation with their own general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports. The crux of the matter isn’t money, says Davidi, who writes that Anthopoulos “is believed to have a strong extension offer on the table.” Instead, it’s a matter of resolving the authority structure between Anthopoulos and new president Mark Shapiro. Per Davidi, working that out is the key; if that can’t be done, a departure is “a real possibility.”
• The Phillies finally installed a new baseball operations leader by hiring Matt Klentak, and the organization now seems largely set up to begin moving back toward contention in earnest. As MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes, the organization’s newly accessible leader, owner John Middleton, wants to make the team a consistent presence at the top of the standings. He acknowledged that the Phils “didn’t recognize early enough and act upon that recognition that the window had closed.” Now, the work to open a new window will start with a new philosophy. “The word that [president Andy MacPhail] has talked about and the word [Klentak] has talked about today is ’discipline,'” Middleton said. “So I think you’re right. I think you have to have a goal and you have to have a road map to achieve it, and you have to be disciplined to know where you are on that road and therefore use that to dictate your decisions and what you do. That’s what I think is going to be the key to success. The other part of this is being objective about yourself and your performances.”
• Of course, the Phillies’ front office decisionmaking process is an important matter in and of itself, even after the hiring, and CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury lays out where things stand in that regard. MacPhail said that he will vest substantial authority in Klentak, even though his job is also baseball-focused, and both men emphasized that they are looking for balance in all regards (including, notably, between analytics and scouting in player assessment). Klentak also noted that he sees a big opportunity in the club’s worst-in-baseball finish last year. “There’s a really strong foundation of players in this organization, some of whom are in the big leagues and some of whom are coming,” he said. “I think that, coupled with the first pick in the draft, the largest international bonus pool this year, the first priority in the waiver period, the first pick in the Rule 5 draft, etc., creates some inherent advantages at least in the short term that are incredible. And I think if we do our jobs right, we will turn this into a winner and it’s going to be fun for a long time.”
• Former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington has joined Columbia University’s Sports Management Program as an “executive in residence,” according to a press release. As Alex Speier of the Boston Globe writes, the move isn’t as surprising as it might seem at first glance.
• Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Yankees tried to hire Cherington following his resignation from the division-rival Red Sox in August. “I reached out to him,” Cashman told Sherman. “I have a lot of respect for him, his integrity and how he did his job.” Sherman notes that Cherington could have conceivably become an assistant GM when Billy Eppler left to go become the Angels’ GM, but Eppler’s responsibilities go to top scout Tim Naehring, as has been previously reported. Cherington will eventually join a front office, but for the time being, his role at Columbia makes sense, as his wife and children were living in suburban New York even while he was Boston’s GM.
• In another interesting GM transition, former Phils GM Ruben Amaro Jr. has taken the unusual step of moving to the Red Sox as their first base coach, and Tim Britton of the Providence Journal delves into the reasoning for the move. As manager John Farrell noted, both men have some similarities in having moved from the front office to the field, though obviously the skipper made that move much earlier in his post-playing career. “I guess it’s unusual but for me, I’ve always had an itch to be back on the field,” Amaro said. “It’s always been something I’ve thought about quite a bit, and I was afforded a wonderful opportunity…. Had it not been the Red Sox, frankly I probably would not be doing this.”
• The Angels have added former big league third baseman Eric Chavez as a special assistant, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported earlier today in his latest notes column. Chavez had served in that capacity last year for the Yankees, working there with new Halos GM Billy Eppler. It sounds as if the 37-year-old will have wide-ranging job responsibilities, including working with the club’s younger players and performing various scouting-related functions.

A few other items on the Yankees and the rest of the AL East …

• In a piece for Baseball America, George King examines changes to the Yankees’ player development structure and notes that the team is much happier with its current crop of minor league talent than it was two years ago. However, King also spoke to an NL scout who said the minor league system lacks depth beyond Luis Severino and Gary Sanchez, adding that he didn’t feel there was a true power-hitting bat that could play every day in the Majors. Baseball America’s Josh Norris released the Yankees’ list of Top 10 prospects today, which is headlined by Severino, outfielder Aaron Judge, shortstop Jorge Mateo, first baseman Greg Bird and Sanchez.
• The Red Sox declined reliever Craig Breslow’s $4MM option after a poor 2014 season, but they could aim to bring him back at a lower price, Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald writes. “He has a lot of good qualities and we have a great relationship with him, so we’ll see what happens,” says GM Ben Cherington.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs, which are owned in part by Rogers Communications, signed defenseman Dion Phaneuf to a seven-year contract. As the Canadian Baseball Network’s Bob Elliott reports, agent Scott Boras wonders why the Blue Jays, which are owned in full by Rogers Communications, don’t sign players to seven-year deals. “If they can give one of their hockey players a seven-year deal, why can’t they give a seven-year deal to a baseball player?” asks Boras. Of course, the last Blue Jay to receive a seven-year contract was outfielder Vernon Wells, which might provide a partial answer to that question. The Jays haven’t been very active in recent years in signing key free agents to shorter deals, either, although they’ve made some splashy moves via trade.

Chavez hit .246/.346/.449 in 81 plate appearances for the Diamondbacks this season, but hasn’t played since early June due to injury. He’s battled knee trouble this season and also has a long history of back issues.

Of course, his best seasons came earlier in his career with the Athletics, when Chavez was among the game’s more productive players. Over the 2000-2006 time frame, Chavez compiled a .273/.352/.495 slash with 199 home runs. With outstanding defense, he was worth 31 rWAR and 31.1 fWAR during that stretch.

From that point forward, Chavez was limited by injuries, and never saw more than 400 trips to the plate in a season. But he remained a productive reserve, ultimately moving to the Yankees and then Diamondbacks.

It was no coincidence that the “Moneyball” Athletics made five postseason appearances in the time that Chavez was at his peak. Though he never quite delivered full value on a six-year, $66MM extension signed before the 2004 campaign, Chavez nevertheless was, in the aggregate, a cheap source of top-level production for Oakland after being taken 10th overall in the 1996 draft.

• Diamondbacks right-hander Brandon McCarthy will receive a $1MM assignment bonus if he is traded, tweets ESPN’s Buster Olney. The Diamondbacks will likely have to eat that sum in any deal, Olney adds.
• Eric Chavez says retirement is a “possibility” after being transferred to the 60-day disabled list by the Diamondbacks, writes MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert. “I’m just so close to the end, you know, where I’ve got to worry about feeling good for the rest of my life,” said Chavez, who is dealing with an injured left knee. “So surgery would be the worst-case scenario for me to kind of be going down that line.” 
• The slumping Rockies have been hit hard by injuries with nine players currently on the disabled list, but are not yet ready to become sellers at the Trade Deadline, according to Nick Groke of the Denver Post. “We’ll get to see our club whole, or closer to the point we know it should be,” Assistant GM Bill Geivett said. “At that point we’ll sit down and discuss where we’re at.“

Charlie Wilmoth contributed to this post.