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Jeff McNeil of the New York Mets strikes out to end...

Jeff McNeil of the New York Mets strikes out to end the seventh inning against the Chicago White Sox with the bases loaded at Citi Field on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac

Before hitting coach was an actual position on a big-league staff, the Mets had one in their inaugural season of 1962 in Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby.

“He didn’t offer a whole lot of instructions,” Ed Kranepool once said. “His only comment to me was, ‘They don’t make ’em like they used to’ and ‘swing at a strike.’ ”

Hitting coaches have evolved a bit since then. The Mets have two, as do most teams, in Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes.

If you follow Mets Twitter, you know their names. And you know some of the Mets’ most rabid, worrying fans are calling for their heads as the Mets’ knotty problem with runners in scoring position persists.

Would the Mets fire one or both of their hitting coaches during the season?

The franchise has before, such as in 2022, when Chili Davis was shown the door by Zack Scott after only 23 games with the Mets last in runs, and in 2014, when Dave Hudgens was fired in May by Sandy Alderson and replaced by Lamar Johnson, and in 2007, when Rick Down was fired by Omar Minaya during the All-Star break and replaced by (or so people thought) Rickey Henderson, only for the team to decide days later that Howard Johnson would be the hitting coach and Henderson would coach first base, and 2002, when Steve Phillips fired Dave Engle and gave the job back to Tom Robson, whom Phillips had fired in 1999 after a loss to the Yankees (Mickey Brantley got the job in 1999), or way back in 1989, when 1986 World Series-winning hitting coach Bill Robinson was fired by Frank Cashen and replaced by Mike Cubbage.

So it can happen.

The Mets, as you may have heard 50 or so times in the last week, are having trouble hitting with runners in scoring position. RISP has replaced HRs and RBIs and OPS as the offensive stat du jour for the Mets and their fans.

Going into Friday, the Mets are 28th in baseball with a .211 batting average with runners in scoring position. They are ahead of Baltimore and the 30th-ranked Chicago White Sox, who left Citi Field on Thursday with a .206 average in such situations.

The Mets – who it should be noted are 34-22 -- took two of three from Chicago despite going 4-for-25 with runners in scoring position in the series.

Chavez held a meeting with his hitters specifically to address this RISP-y business before Tuesday’s game.

“It’s been bad. We all know that,” he told the New York Post. “We’re not going to hide from it. We’re not running from it. We’ve got to turn it around. We know we need to improve. Let’s give this some time and see where we are in a week or two.”

It’s always a good idea for coaches or managers to hold a meeting before facing a bad team. The Mets on Friday start a 10-game span against Colorado and the Dodgers and then the MLB-worst Rockies (9-47) again.

If manager Carlos Mendoza wants to hold a meeting, doing it before any of the upcoming three games or the three in Denver next week would be a good idea. This weekend, the Mets are facing these pitchers: Kyle Freeland (0-7, 5.86 ERA), Antonio Senzatela (1-9, 6.50 ERA) and Carson Palmquist (0-3, 8.78 ERA).

Time to fatten up, right? Well, you could have said the same before the series against the White Sox, who are the worst team in the American League, even if they did send out some promising young arms.

“We’ve got to get better with runners in scoring position,” Mendoza said after the Mets went 2-for-12 with RISP in Wednesday’s 9-4 loss. “We’re all aware of it.”

Here are some individual Mets who are not getting the job done in such situations:

  • Juan Soto (.130)
  • Mark Vientos (.146)
  • Luisangel Acuna (.176)
  • Francisco Lindor (.180)
  • Francisco Alvarez (.211)
  • Jeff McNeil (.211)
  • Brandon Nimmo (.217)
  • Starling Marte (.217)

That's much of the lineup. But you can't fire them all.

Is firing the hitting coaches the right move if a team’s offense starts to threaten its very realistic World Series dreams? It’s not as if  it hasn’t been tried by the Mets before, sometimes just to shake things up, with varying degrees of success (the 1999 team was pretty darn good, but not sure how much Mickey Brantley had to do with it).

Do hitting coaches actually make that much of a difference?

As Rogers Hornsby said, “swing at a strike” is good advice. No matter who gives it.

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