Here we go again.
The Mets recently-fired hitting coaches have once again become a lightning rod for controversy. Even though he lost his job as the co-hitter coach with the Mets last week, Eric Chavez’s appearance on “Foul Territory” has him in the news. To recap, an SNY.com staffer took an anecdote from Chavez’s Thursday appearance on the show, using it to write a story around it, which was then posted on social media with a headline that did not reflect the accuracy of what Chavez said.
Chavez was rightfully angry, and took to his Instagram stories about the issue.
The story was posted on X with the caption, “Eric Chavez tried to change Juan Soto’s approach during the slugger’s first season with the Mets.” The anecdote used was a discussion between Chavez and manager Carlos Mendoza, regarding how Soto takes pitches early in counts.
“I’ll be honest, there were times where, myself, and I even talked to Carlos about if we could get him to swing maybe 0-0 or some pitches he could do damage on early in counts,” Chavez told the hosts. “But Juan, he is a precision hitter, I wouldn’t get him out of his comfort zone at all.”
That’s not exactly trying to “change Soto’s approach” at the plate.
The writer, John Flanigan, didn’t necessarily do anything wrong. In journalistic terms, this story is considered an aggregation. When aggregating from another source, like quotes from a show or a podcast appearance, you have to give proper attribution — which he did by linking to the interview clip, and explaining where the quote came from. Supporting information, like stats, were also included.
However, Chavez isn’t incorrect in asserting that the story was misleading.
Chavez was answering a question from former MLB catcher Erik Kratz about whether or not he would ever suggest that Soto should try swinging at pitches outside of the zone. Kratz asked if a hitter in the middle of the lineup could theoretically drive in 130 runs if he never swung at pitches out of the zone.
It sounds like a conversation Chavez and Mendoza had that never came to fruition. The Mets had information on how teams were trying to pitch Soto, and it’s the job of the coaches to make suggestions and come up with new ideas based on the information provided, especially when the team isn’t performing to its capabilities.
Plus, while Soto finished with numbers typical of what we’re used to seeing from the superstar slugger, he started slow. Soto hit just .241 in March and April, and .219 in May with a .345 on-base percentage. Some of that was luck — as Chavez mentioned earlier in the interview — as is evidenced by Soto’s .211 BaBIP in May.
Fans were ready to rage when Soto looked at called strikes early in the season. For some reason, they latched on to Chavez, blaming him for everything that went wrong with the Mets’ offense, though Barnes and Mendoza took plenty of heat too. The coach was regularly attacked on social media, and fought back frequently, angering fans even further.
The players weren’t happy with how Chavez or even his co-hitting coach, Jeremy Barnes, were being treated by the fanbase. They felt fans failed to understand just how difficult their job is.
For what it’s worth, I asked J.D. Martinez last year if he had any interest in becoming a hitting coach. At the time, he didn’t, mostly because, well, it is a tough job, but also because he was still playing and hoping to continue playing.
Something else of note from Chavez in the interview: He felt that two hitting coaches was too many. Initially, the Mets liked how Chavez and Barnes each brought different perspectives and different philosophies. For the most part, that remained the case in 2025, but it also led to an issue of having too much information that became tough for players to digest. There were some musings about it during the season.
It could have been one of those things that wasn’t an issue when they were winning, but once the losing started and the Mets desperately searched for answers, it became something.
In the end, Soto had a fantastic season, nearly going 40-40 and leading all of baseball with 127 walks. Soto spoke highly of Chavez and Barnes, but it matters little since the two of them won’t be returning next season anyway.
“The coaches, they definitely advise us, and they definitely try and help us, and they try and do the best that they can and give us all the information that they possibly can,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said before the end of the season. “Ultimately, it comes down to us and us executing out there. So I think the responsibility falls on us as the players.”
