1 Mets employee keycard that won’t be working next week at Citi Field

Jul 13, 2022; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; A detailed view of a New York Mets hat and glove in the dugout
Jul 13, 2022; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; A detailed view of a New York Mets hat and glove in the dugout / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Mets are playing disappointingly in 2023. A team assembled to compete for the title, with the highest payroll on the market, has not been able to keep playing even at an average level.

The Mets have been lacking in different areas of the game, but the offense stands out among all. The 101 games won in 2022, were channeled by an offense that led different categories, including the batting average, in which this year they are among the worst teams, and there is a clear culprit for this situation.

Jeremy Barnes should be fired as soon as the Mets finish this next series

This is a topic that we have addressed before that presents itself as an urgent situation. The Mets have changed their approach at the plate, and this is due to a change in the direction of the team.

With Eric Chavez as the hitting coach, the line was clear in 2022. With a roster built of players with little power but a lot of contacts, they needed to be aggressive at the plate and put the ball in play.

In 2023, Chavez moved to bench coach, leaving the position to Jeremy Barnes as hitting coach. Barnes was a player who did not have much success as a baseball player but who came to the Mets after four years working in the front office for the Houston Astros and two as a minor league hitting coordinator.

Barnes does not have much managerial experience in the field. Before becoming a hitting coach, Jeremy Barnes had just had a year of experience in a Major League clubhouse as an assistant hitting coach to Eric Chavez in 2022 with the Mets.

Now the Mets team finds itself with the wrong approach in the batter's box. A team with a lot of passivities has diminished its ability to put the ball in play, showing a BABIP that went from being #7 in the league in 2022 to being ranked in the bottom three in 2023.

This decrease in BABIP goes against the nature of a composite roster to boost these types of stats. This is because the team is swinging less than in 2022, which shows a direct mandate from the team's hitting coach to the players.

Billy Eppler must now decide to let Barnes go and look for another option for the team. A new hitting coach that better understands the nature of this roster and rescues what was achieved with a lot of effort in 2022 and that we completely lost this season.

manual