The most important reason the NY Mets needed to move on from hitting coach Jeff Albert

The New York Mets aren’t overhauling the coaching staff, but will have at least three changes. The most significant was deciding Jeff Albert would no longer be one of their hitting coaches. A member of the organization for several seasons, Albert will be one-and-done as an actual hitting coach. There’s a chance he could remain with the organization in a different role.

After such a poor offensive output by the Mets, particularly to start the year, some sort of change felt necessary. Albert was a reasonable enough change to make as he wouldn’t be losing his job after one year. It’s not so much different from when Eric Chavez went back to becoming a hitting coach after a year as the bench coach in 2023.

The impact of a hitting coach sometimes feels exaggerated. Whether he was to blame or not, the importance of the change is staring us right in the face.

The Mets changing hitting coaches comes at a time of another transition

The next wave of position player prospects has already begun with Carson Benge putting together a Rookie of the Year worthy season and A.J. Ewing proved he’s big league capable. The next couple of prospects to come through will set the stage further for what the Mets look like in the near future.

Rather than continue with coaching or philosophy that wasn’t satisfactory enough for what they wanted, the Mets will look elsewhere. This doesn’t appear to be some sort of a dirty breakup like there was with Chavez. A difference in opinion? A new front office directive based on data Albert wasn’t so keen on? It could always be as simple as Albert wanting out of the job and into a different role altogether.

The timing does work well, though. Albert was hired as the Director of Hitting prior to the 2023 season. This was a time when Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, and Mark Vientos all started their MLB careers in full. The results don’t all fall on Albert and yet he is one of the more consistent presences. Maybe not any longer if he does leave the organization.

Syracuse hitting coach Nate Irving has been working his way up through the minor leagues and could become a candidate at some point to join the big league organization. The club already has Troy Snitker retained as well as Rafael Fernandez. They aren’t starting completely from scratch. An external candidate could still serve them best as they haven’t done much at all to bring in outside voices.

In 2027, whether we get a full year of baseball or not, the expectation is for Jefferson Rojas to be in the big leagues at some point. He could be joined by several others not long after. Fastening down the hitting aspect of the game is becoming more necessary for the Mets who’ll have their new crop of green bats looking to make an impact. If Benge and Ewing are any indication, they’re on the right track. Meanwhile, the lack of success from those before them and even some incoming veterans tells us something needed to be done.

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