2 Mets coaches who deserve to be fired after Buck Showalter, 1 who doesn’t but will be
How much cleaning of the coaching staff will the Mets do?
We should all expect David Stearns to clean house as soon as possible. It’s what he did with the Milwaukee Brewers. It feels like it’s going to happen with the New York Mets.
It’s fair. It’s his ship now. He should get to pick his skipper.
While the expectation is for everyone to get fired, not everyone will deserve it. Who has earned a pink slip and who’ll get one unfairly?
NY Mets hitting coach Jeremy Barnes didn’t do anything to keep his job
The hitting coach is usually one of the first scapegoats. Jeremy Barnes somehow managed to survive the season and we can speculate as to why. Aside from people maybe liking him, an early firing of Barnes would have eventually led to the possible elimination of someone else. Steve Cohen may be a ruthless businessman but owning a team that fired two hitting coaches in the same year is probably unsettling if you could have just stuck it out with one of them.
Where Barnes deserves the negative press is how poorly many of the younger Mets performed. Brett Baty was in a season-long slump. It wasn’t until the final weeks when Mark Vientos finally began to show signs of life.
Without question, Barnes will be gone. It’s not all his fault, though. A hitting coach can only direct players so far along before the onus falls solely on them.
Nevertheless, the philosophy of a hitting coach is a big deal. How can Stearns justify keeping around a guy like Barnes who failed to prove himself? This is the nature of the beast called working for Major League Baseball. You’re hired to eventually get fired.
NY Mets assistant hitting coach Eric Hinske will go along with Jeremy Barnes
There was an internal debate about whether or not Jeremy Hefner deserved to finally lose his job. Hefner has been with the Mets since December of 2019. He was a Wilpon hire who managed to survive quite a while with the organization. I won’t discuss him much here because I do think there’s a slim chance he does make it to the next step with Stearns at the helm.
Instead, let’s discuss Eric Hinske. He’s the assistant hitting coach to Barnes and equally as culpable. The only thing Hinske has over Barnes is a long major league career to fall back on. When the debate about coaches or managers comes up, sometimes the amount of success they had as a professional makes an appearance. Hinske seems to check off this box, however, it would be a bit strange to keep him around unless of course Stearns finds out something we don’t already know.
While Hefner has built up enough of a resume and credibility to have some defenders, Hinske probably hasn’t. He seems too tied to Barnes. If he’s the assistant to him, would his approach to coaching be any different?
We should fully expect the next manager of the Mets to have a lot of input into what his staff looks like. Hinske did bounce around a lot in the majors so perhaps he’ll get lucky and a former teammate or friend of his gets hired.
NY Mets bench coach Eric Chavez doesn’t deserve to get fired
Could Eric Chavez actually be the next manager of the Mets? It feels doubtful. If Showalter had been fired without Stearns coming into the picture then there’d be a good chance. Instead, Chavez is likely to end up as one of those top managerial choices. Who are the San Francisco Giants leading toward? Chavez has a strong connection to the Bay Area from his time with the Oakland Athletics. He’ll surely remind them of this.
Certain scenarios could allow Chavez to stay put. If the Mets end up hiring Carlos Beltran, a man they already employ, it could work. Chavez gets to pad his resume a little more under a rookie manager. It’s weird but not outrageous.
If it’s Craig Counsell or some other external entity, they’re going to want their own bench coach. This is unfortunate for Chavez who left the New York Yankees shortly after being hired as their assistant hitting coach to take on the role for the Mets in 2022. We know how well that year went. He built up a strong reputation already within this organization.
It does seem like the next step for Chavez is to manage. He’ll pass his resume around this offseason. Now might be the only shot the Mets have at hiring. Most likely, he’s not who Stearns has in mind.