NY Mets snatching Braves coach Johnny Washington has big deal potential in both directions

Last offseason we got a taste of what it feels like to experience some debatable coaching decisions. The New York Mets moved on from longtime pitching coach Jeremy Hefner as well as popular first base coach Antoan Richardson. Both ended up with the Atlanta Braves in the exact same role.

Hefner seems to have fit in nicely with Atlanta while Richardson’s impact didn’t show in any sort of absurd stolen base result. Juan Soto swiping almost 40 bases in 2025 may go down as one of those most random achievements.

The Mets didn’t purposefully hire Johnny Washington to become their no co-hitting coach because of where he’s coming from. After spending this past season as the Braves’ minor league hitting coordinator, he’s back in the big leagues where he has spent multiple seasons, twice crossing paths with Andy Green, first with the San Diego Padres and later the Chicago Cubs.

We don’t really need to have much of an opinion about the hire just yet. Meanwhile, Braves fans can already start to question the decision because Washington’s departure coincides with them keeping their increasingly unpopular hitting coach Tim Hyers.

Johnny Washington either slipped through the Braves' fingers or the Mets hired another upcoming scapegoat

The Braves had a better offensive season than they did in Hyers’ first year with the team, scoring the 8th most runs in the league. They did lack discipline with the third-fewest walks in MLB. Their .309 OBP was a point lower than the Mets’ .310. Only the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies finished the 2026 season with a lower OBP than Atlanta.

Washington would have signaled change for change’s sake as Hyers didn’t do nearly enough to lose his job. It’s never fair to look at the players’ results and blame it all on the coaching. If we did that, Washington wouldn’t have a big league job again.

The 2024 Angels batting .226/.301/.369 with Washington as the hitting coach. Year two with Los Angeles saw them hit .225/.298/.397 as a team. Ouch! A discussion on Reddit before he was let go from the Angels included a note about an interview on his hitting philosophy. He was called a lover of home runs and criticized for a “wait for your pitch and end the at-bat” philosophy.

In a 2023 interview with The Athletic, Washington was asked about his reputation for helping to turn Cody Bellinger’s career around with the Chicago Cubs as well as the high praise he has received from Joc Pederson. The Mets aren’t completely out of their minds for hiring him.

Washington becomes the third of three hitting coaches in a room that’ll include Troy Snitker and Rafael Fernandez. Under David Stearns, the Mets have felt more like a system-ran team where it’s less about improvising your own skills and more about relaying the messages from the front office while adding your own input. This was clearly a Green-approved hire and we should be at least somewhat grateful Stearns has let the manager pick a part of the staff. It’s crucial for the manager to have this kind of input. With most of the Mets coaching staff returning, that option wasn’t available.

The Braves were satisfied enough with Hyers to keep him and not impressed enough by Washington to promote him to the big league staff. The narrative around the Mets hitting coaches is easy to predict. With Jeff Albert out, he becomes the one to blame while crediting Snitker, Fernandez, and Washington for the club’s success. Failure from the offense and Washington might become one of the first to get the finger pointed at him.

Did the Mets just pickpocket a helpful coach from an NL East rival or will his impact be so minor that Atlanta won’t even realize what happened?

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