Inside The Mets

Ex-Mets coach Eric Chavez seems to throw shade with 3-word hitting award comment

Was Eric Chavez trying to send a message with this comment about the New York Mets' three silver slugger finalists?
Grant Young|
Mar 13, 2022; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets hitting coach Eric Chavez looks on as players take batting practice during spring training. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Mar 13, 2022; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets hitting coach Eric Chavez looks on as players take batting practice during spring training. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

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New York Mets

On October 3, news broke that the New York Mets were making several sweeping changes to their coaching staff under manager Carlos Mendoza.

MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reported that morning that Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, along with co-hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez, would not be returning to the team in 2026. What's more, catching coach Glenn Sherlock retired, third base and infield coach Mike Sarbaugh would also not be back with the team, and bench coach John Gibbons told the organization that he won't be coming back either.

In the wake of this, Eric Chavez (who had been on New York's staff since the 2022 season) made a post to his Instagram story that read, "So thankful for my time w/ the Mets. Thank you to the Cohen's best owners in baseball. And especially the players, that group is super special and they worked their a**** off to. Be grateful in every situation. On to the next !!!" per an X post from SNY.

New York Mets hitting coach and former Oakland Athletics third baseman Eric Chavez on September 23, 2022
Sep 23, 2022; Oakland, California, USA; New York Mets hitting coach and former Oakland Athletics third baseman Eric Chavez waves after being inducted into the Oakland Athletics hall of fame before the game at RingCentral Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

While the sentiment in this message was clearly positive, some comments Chavez made in an October 3 article from The Athletic suggested that he wasn't completely content with his arrangement as a co-hitting coach, if only because that made it tough to have the ultimate say when trying to get through to hitters.

Eric Chavez's Instagram Message Amid Mets Hitting Award Finalist Reveal Turns Heads

On October 23, MLB's finalists for each position's Silver Slugger Award were announced. For the Mets, Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto were all listed as finalists, which is an impressive accomplishment for one team.

Read more: Mets could lose Edwin Diaz to higher bidder in free agency

Chavez reposted an SNY graphic of this announcement to his Instagram story on Thursday night and captioned it, "TAKE THAT IN," per an X post from SNY.

While it's unclear what exactly Chavez was trying to say with this comment, many fans on social media are making it clear that they believe he's showing frustration, as if these three players being named Silver Slugger finalists should be an indication that he did a good job with the team and didn't deserve to be fired.

This is just speculation and shouldn't be taken as fact. But something clearly compelled Chavez to write, "TAKE THAT IN" as a caption, unless it's some inside joke between him and Mets players.

Regardless, Chavez does deserve some credit for helping these three New York stars produce solid offensive seasons in 2025.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Mets and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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