November 29, 2022

Coach Shuffle

The Mets move coaches around, promoting Eric Chavez to bench coach. His assistant, Jeremy Barnes, takes over as hitting coach. Last season’s bench coach, Glenn Sherlock, moves to fight crime:

Glenn Sherlock, Showalter’s right-hand man who served as bench coach last year, is to move to a role where he coaches the team’s catchers and works to prevent the opposition running game via pitch calling. It’s seen as a vital role, especially with the expectation that top prospect Francisco Alvarez will be on the team in 2023, if not at the beginning of the season than certainly at some point. 

NYPost.com

Alvarez is a young catcher with two hits in the majors leagues, both for extra bases.

I always like Chavez as a player, and am glad to see he’s doing well as a coach. Chavez serves as a good example of why players take the money in contract extensions rather than test the free agent market. Chavez performed at a four to six WAR level through his age 27 season, making him look like a hall of famer. Oakland signed him to a six-year extension, and in season two, and injuries started to eat away at his production. The promise of his early career kept him around until he was 36, but he was never the same player.

1 thought on “Coach Shuffle

  1. Luis Venitucci

    I am a bit perplexed by this catching/running game issue. It seems that it would be more incumbent upon the pitching coach to work with the pitchers on a slide step, and a better move. McCann throws well, but is otherwise a barely average defensive catcher. Nido lacks McCann’s arm strength but has a similar success rate vs the SB and is superior defensively. Neither is any good as a hitter, but personally I prefer Nido at the plate when it matters. Hopefully Alvarez is good defensively(what little I saw makes me doubt that he is) and is allowed to develop as a hitter. The new rules re holding runners (which seem idiotic) and the larger bases, will have some interesting consequences..

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