Former Star Third Baseman Predicted Mets Offensive Woes

The New York Mets struggled to score runs this season, and there are plenty of good reasons why. Some of the struggles were individual, with Francisco Lindor being the primary culprit. He got hurt and never found his stroke as a result, but Lindor had plenty of company on the diamond if you’re looking for scapegoats. 

But there’s another important reason, and former hitting coach Eric Chavez nailed it on the way out the door. Chavez was fired after the 2025 season along with the second hitting coach, Jeremy Barnes, with Barnes handling the analytics while Chavez dealt with the daily ups and downs regarding approach, swing adjustments, etc.

Chavez’s comments were sharp and not subtle at all. He thought the Mets wouldn’t have any success until they went with one hitting coach and a single-voice approach, and he was absolutely right. 

The Mets canned the entire coaching staff out from under manager Carlos Mendoza, who was doomed as soon as this happened. It took until June of this season for Mendoza to be fired, but you can make a strong argument that it should have happened way sooner. 

Now the Mets are doing the same thing. They’re swapping out fewer coaches, but New York is still approaching hitting in layers, and those layers are the essence of the problem.

Why? Because that’s not how hitting works. It does start with a single voice, usually, backed up by the appropriate use of analytics and hopefully the right level of on-field experience. 

There are a couple of examples of how this impacted specific Mets hitters, with the best probably being A.J. Ewing and Brett Baty.

The impact on both was dramatic, but let’s take Ewing first. He shot out of the gate as the Mets’ leadoff  hitter, but by June he was slumping badly, and he looked like he didn’t have any way to get out of his tailspin. He eventually stopped chasing and went back to a base-hits approach but it almost looked like he was also chasing fellow rookie Carson Benge and his power numbers. 

Ewing basically did a self-fix according to all available reports, and Baty’s problems were just as dramatic. He struggled offensively because he was being moved around the diamond, and his numbers cratered until the Mets started mostly using him at second and first base. 

This is the baseball version of hedge fund management at its finest. Lots of data, lots of voices, lots of confusion. It may have made owner Steve Cohen a very rich man, but it’s not a very good approach to baseball.