Let’s go back to 1969. There were four people on the Major League coaching staff for Gil Hodges: Yogi Berra was the First Base Coach, Eddie Yost was the Third Base Coach, Rube Walker was the Pitching Coach, and Joe Pignatano the Bullpen Coach.
And I truly believe that you would be hard-pressed to find any true Mets fan who didn’t know those four names, and were familiar with those guys as players, and could talk about their careers.
Fast forward to 2026 and there are 11 people on the staff for Carlos Mendoza and I honestly don’t have ANY clue as to who any of these people are: Kai Correa as the Bench Coach; Jeff Albert, Director of Major League Hitting; Troy Snitker Hitting Coach; Rafael Fernandez, Assistant Hitting Coach; Justin Willard is the Pitching Coach; Daniel McKinney, Assistant Pitching Coach; Jose Roasado, Bullpen Coach; Gilbert Gomez is the First Base Coach and Outfield Coach; Tim Leiper is the Third Base Coach and Infield Coach; J.P. Arencivia is the Catching Coach; and Danny Barnes is the Quality Control Coach? And now add in J.D. Martinez as a special advisor.
First, what IS a “quality control” COACH on a baseball field? I know this a new age of baseball with terms such as “exit velocity” and “launch angle” but what exactly does a “quality control” coach do?
And why do you need so many coaches? I covered spring trainings and I always saw extra people working with players, most of those were members of the organization employed at the lower levels with the Minor League teams.
I remember when adding a “hitting” coach to the bench was a huge thing. Charlie Lau was such a big influence that it became apparent that teams may want to have a guy around who could just focus on and analyze hitting.
Then, for some reason, the manager could no longer “manage” by himself. So then came a “bench” coach. I can’t imagine a Billy Martin or a Gil Hodges or an Earl Weaver or a Bobby Cox wanting or needing a bench coach to sit next to him and babysit him. For the most part, the pitching coach was right there next to him already.
These guys are MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYERS so why do players on that level, of that caliber, require coaches to be with them every game once the season begins? Why is the training, the teaching, the COACHING not done and retained in spring training? It’s understandable that if there is a problem and a player goes into a funk, and that does happen, that a coach may come in to help out. But when did the four coaches that were always a part of the staff become so incompetent?
And, quite frankly, what good is this expanded staff doing anyway? The Mets, as well as the rest of Major League Baseball, have no idea how to execute fundamentals, they can’t bunt (nobody can anymore), they don’t know how to run the bases, hitting a cut-off man is crap shoot (usually the throw will bounce around someplace), and pitching, well, that’s an entirely different issue.
Sure, pitchers are throwing harder than ever, but they certainly don’t know HOW to pitch. Going five innings is now a hopeful prospect, six innings is applauded, and seven innings is a miracle. Think about this – the Mets had 51 complete games as a staff in 1969. In 2025 all of Major League Baseball only threw 29 complete games.
The game itself has evolved and changed, some for the better, but a lot for the worse. A lot of the little nuances, the parts of the game that made it so special, are for the most part gone. It’s become more of a game similar to Home Run Derby – home runs and strikeouts. The players are not fundamentally sound and make way too many what would be called “mental mistakes” simply because they just don’t know the game…not really.
So do all of those extra coaches make difference? And given the job being done, what would the “quality control” coach think about the quality of the play?
