According to Mike Puma of the New York Post, New York Mets new hitting coach Chili Davis will bring a “shift in hitting approach” with him to his new gig — his third job in three years.
Davis, 58, played 19 seasons with the Giants, Angels, Twins, Royals, and Yankees, hitting .274/.360/.451 with 2,380 hits, 350 home runs, and 1,372 runs batted in. Since retiring after the 1999 season, Davis made stops in Los Angeles, Oakland, Boston, and Chicago as a hitting coach before taking his most recent post on Mets’ manager Mickey Callaway‘s staff.
As per Puma, there will be a direct focus shift for Mets hitters, especially in situational hitting positions.
“Previously, [the] Mets had hitters using one kind of swing, regardless of [the] situation,” Puma tweeted. “Davis will implement different swings for different situations, with [the] goal of putting more balls in play.”
Despite Davis’ reported aversion to embracing advanced analytics, instead relying on more traditional lines of thinking, he has had a modest level of success in his most recent stops.
Last season, the Cubs finished tied for third in the majors with their .258 team batting average and tenth in OPS (.744). In 2017, the Red Sox — Davis’ previous stop — put up very similar numbers (.258/.329/.407), with Boston landing in the middle of the major league pack (13th in batting average, 22nd in OPS).
While putting more balls in play seems like a strong focal point for most hitters, there’s a whole lot more that goes along with that line of thinking.
On Saturday night, John Edwards of MMO tweeted a terrific, easy-to-grasp thread explaining the potential pitfalls of focusing on simply making contact instead of making the right contact.
Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen has filled out his front office with a substantial base of analytics-rooted baseball minds, as well as a quality control coach to act as a conduit of sorts, from the players to the coaches to the scouting and analytics departments.
In what can only be described as a best-case scenario, the Mets hired Chili Davis to be that old-school-minded hitting coach, with a streamlined chain of communication relaying advanced data from the front office, through quality control, and down to Davis, who then passes it along to the players.
In a perfect world, this seems like a well thought out plan with the potential to bring a level of stability and direction to a team that looked a bit lost and unprepared under their previous hitting coach, Pat Roessler, who was let go after the season.
Last year, the Mets hit .234/.312/.389 as a team, finishing 29th in batting average, 21st in on-base percentage, and 26th in slugging percentage, respectively.
With some added pop in this Metsies lineup in Robinson Cano, a solid positional core in Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, and Amed Rosario that’s one year older and more developed, this “change in approach” could be a good thing. Let’s hope it works out.
