According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, former big leaguer Eric Chavez is slated to become the Mets new hitting coach. The Yankees announced just a couple of weeks ago that they had hired Chavez to be their assistant hitting coach.
Chavez, 44, began his post playing career as a special assistant to Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman in 2015. The same time that Mets’ GM Billy Eppler was the assistant GM with the Yankees. When Eppler was hired to be the Angels’ GM in 2016, Billy brought Chavez over to LA to become a special assistant there as well. Chavez held that role through the 2020 season.
The six-time Gold Glover spent 17 seasons in the big leagues between the Oakland A’s, Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Yankees. The left-handed hitter also won one Silver Slugger Award, finished in top 30 of MVP voting four times, and finished his career with a 115 OPS+ and 230 home runs.
The Mets started out the 2021 season with Chili Davis as their hitting coach, but he was fired quickly by the new regime in May after the Mets struggled to score runs. The Mets also fired assistant hitting coach Tom Slater at the same time.
Davis and Slater were replaced by Hugh Quattlebaum and Kevin Howard, both internal promotions from the minor league side. Following the 2021 season, both Quattlebaum and Howard were moved back to their roles in the Mets farm system.
Earlier in the week, it was reported that former big leaguer Joey Cora was joining the Mets as their third base coach and Wayne Kirby would be the first base coach. Jeremy Hefner is the lone holdover of the staff as the pitching coach.
The Mets are still searching for a bench coach to work along with new manager Buck Showalter. I reported on Wednesday that Dave Jauss will not be returning to the Mets organization in 2022 after serving as their bench coach last season.
