Eric Chavez Discusses Juan Soto’s Approach, Praises Carlos Mendoza

After parting ways with the Mets alongside a majority of the club’s coaching staff following a disappointing 2025 season, former hitting coach Eric Chavez appeared on the “Foul Territory” podcast and discussed a number of topics relating to this stint in New York.

Perhaps the most notable anecdote from Chavez came in the form of his thoughts on Juan Soto and a recommendation he made to manager Carlos Mendoza in potentially trying to get Soto to be more aggressive at the plate early in counts before noting that he didn’t want to get him out of his element and have him ditch his selective approach.

“There were times, and I’ll just be honest, there were times where, myself, and I even talked to Carlos, if we could get him to swing maybe 0-0 or some pitches he could do damage on early in the counts. But Juan, he is a precision hitter, I wouldn’t get him out of his comfort zone at all,” Chavez said.

In his first season as a Met, Soto led all qualified hitters in the National League with a .396 on-base percentage while mashing a career-high 42 home runs with a .921 OPS. Though he got off to a slow start, at least by his standards, with a .231/.357/.413 slash line through May 31, he eventually settled in and showed why he is one of the best hitters in the league the rest of the way.

Soto’s first-pitch swing rate (22.5%) was his lowest since 2020 as well, and his 15.9% chase rate ranked in the 100th percentile according to Baseball Savant.

Because of Soto’s propensity for getting on base and his newfound ability to steal bases at an elite rate, Chavez also believes the 26-year-old superstar could find additional success by batting leadoff, much like Shohei Ohtani has done for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Juan is so good at getting on base,” Chavez said. “He’s so selective. There are times when things are going and you’re in the middle of your lineup, your 3-4-5 [hitters], like Pete Alonso. We know Pete is going to chase, Pete is going to do damage. Juan can drive in 140 runs, but instead of doing that, where you’re telling him to get out of his comfort zone, slide him into the leadoff spot. He steals bases, he gets on base at a 40 percent clip, don’t have him get out of his comfort zone of what he likes to do, but you could be just as dynamic in the leadoff spot if you look at Shohei and what he’s done. Without changing the player too much, just change where he hits in the battling lineup.”

Chavez was complimentary of his former co-hitting coach in Jeremy Barnes too, with the two serving in that role over the past two seasons, but he acknowledged that having multiple voices in that regard can be counterproductive and work against the club even when the pair were in lockstep and had a strong working relationship.

“Jeremy Barnes did a great job,” Chavez said. “Him and I did a really good job of speaking different languages, believing in different things, coming from two different worlds and making it work together for the better of the group.  And that was the conversation him and I always had. We never disagreed on anything. We might’ve looked at each other and go, ‘Man, this guy is full of it,’ or ‘I disagree with him,’ but whatever it was, we made sure that we brought it to the group that him and I were on the same page. The only thing that I had mentioned, and I think Jeremy would agree with this too, you cannot have two head hitting coaches. Players get confused when there are multiple voices.”

In Chavez and Barnes’ two years as the hitting coaches alongside one another, the Mets finished with the fourth-highest wRC+ (110) and seventh-most runs scored (1,534) across MLB. Due to some inconsistencies at the plate and struggles to come through in big moments, particularly with runners in scoring position, New York ultimately decided to move on from the pair and go in another direction.

With that being said, though, Chavez had nothing but positive things to say about his experience coaching under Mendoza and praised him for his ability to work through some tough circumstances during his initial two years as a big-league manager, stating that he has a bright future ahead of him.

“He’s had a really tough go,” Chavez said. “Injuries, some of the pitching stuff, some of the highs and lows. It’s been really two difficult years for him, I know last year we went on that run, but we started the season I think 0-5, 0-6 to start out his managerial career. He blew a lot of saves last year, he had to manage a bullpen, our starters weren’t going very deep, I think we used the most pitchers or relievers in the history of the game where we’re shuffling in and out pitchers throughout the whole year. So he had to manage all this, and for this to be his first two years, I think he did a tremendous job and I think he’s got a tremendous future being a manager in this game.”

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