The New York Mets have already seen enough out of Chili Davis and Tom Slater for 2021.
The Mets on Monday fired Davis and Slater. They will replace them with Hugh Quattlebaum and Kevin Howard. Quattlebaum previously served as the minor-league hitting coordinator, and Howard was the farm director.
Team GM Zack Scott says the move is not about the results early in the season, but about changes to the process they want to make.
““We felt like the players needed a different level of support, and maybe some different skills brought into the mix,” Scott said Monday.
Davis was hired by the team’s previous GM, which helps explain why he was let go.
Davis, 61, was in his third season as the Mets’ hitting coach. He was hired in Nov. 2018 after being fired by the Cubs after the 2018 season. He was the Cubs’ hitting coach for just one season.
Slater, 53, has been an assistant hitting coach since after the 2017 season.
The Mets were batting .241 entering Monday, which is actually good for ninth in MLB. Their .686 team OPS was 21st.
Here is video of Scott’s comments:
Mets GM Zack Scott discusses the decision to fire hitting coaches Chili Davis and Tom Slater:
"The reason we felt like it was the right decision, it's based more on a vision for what we want our major league hitting program to be…it's not about 23 games of results" pic.twitter.com/9QAXcuYQ6w
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 4, 2021
