The Mets have a new hitting coach.
On Tuesday, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the Mets have promoted from within to fill the vacancies left by the recently fired hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez.
“New York Mets director of hitting development Jeff Albert will be in charge of the major league team’s hitting program in 2026, sources tell ESPN,” Passan writes, via X/Twitter. “Albert will be in uniform and help fill the void left by the firings of hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez.”
Albert, 44, previously served as the St. Louis Cardinals’ hitting coach between 2019 and 2022. In 2023, he joined the Mets as director of hitting development.
He got his coaching career started in the Cardinals’ minor league system in 2008 before helping the Houston Astros’ minor league hitting program from 2013 to 2017. Under him, players like George Springer and Carlos Correa developed into big league players with the Astros.
Following a disappointing 2025 season, the Mets underwent a coaching shakeup. On top of Barnes and Chavez, the Mets parted ways with third base coach Mike Sarbaugh.
Bench coach John Gibbons resigned from his role and catcher’s instructor Glenn Sherlock retired after a career spanning more than 30 years.
After the Mets were officially eliminated from postseason contention, president of baseball operations David Stearns delivered his post-mortem on a disappointing season at Citi Field. There, he reinforced his confidence in Carlos Mendoza as the manager of the club next season.
“Yeah, Carlos is coming back next year,” Stearns said without hesitation when asked if Mendoza would return.
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