Albert shouldn’t spark a major shift within the team’s hitting plan, especially among the young corps. He has been with the Mets since the 2023 season as the Director of Hitting for the entire organization. Albert oversaw the entire Mets farm system when it comes to hitting. Over the past few seasons, the Mets have developed plenty of MLB-caliber talent throughout the minor leagues.
The biggest name is top prospect Carson Benge, who broke camp with the club and will be the team’s starting right fielder when it takes the field later today. Although players such as Luisangel Acuña, Drew Gilbert and Jett Williams are no longer with the team, Albert has played a huge part in the hitting depth the Mets were able to develop over the last few years.
Albert has a proven track record for developing young talent into big league hitters. He worked within the Houston Astros minor leagues from 2014-2017. During this time period, players such as Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa were hitting their stride in Houston’s farm system.
One can argue that Correa and Bregman were top two picks, so they were destined to be great regardless of the structure around them, but we just saw another LSU standout in Washington Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews get optioned to minor leagues after struggling mightily during last season’s big league stint.
Even if we want to assume Correa and Bregman did not need a ton of development, the same can not be said regarding Alvarez. Remember, the Los Angeles Dodgers willingly traded away the star slugger for Josh Fields. The left-handed hitter hit the ground running with the Astros and has been an instrumental part in the team’s sustained success long after some of the franchise’s notable departures.
After a season with the Astros big league team, Albert was hired by the St. Louis Cardinals to be the team’s hitting coach. Although the hard hit rate numbers won’t jump out, Albert was a key member of baseball’s launch angle revolution.
In 2019, the Cardinals were eighth in average launch angle after being in the bottom half during the previous season. The team then ranked fifth in both 2021 and 2022. Although it took a few years for the process to meet the results, the Cards catapulted from 24th in long balls in Albert’s first season to placing in the top 10 by the time the hitting coach ended his tenure with the organization.
In addition to retaining a familiar face in Albert, Carlos Mendoza did bring in a new one as well in the form of Troy Snitker, the son of former Atlanta Braves Skipper Brian Snitker. Like Albert, Snitker made a name for himself with the Astros. It’s noteworthy that Snitker replaced Albert on the Astros staff when Albert went to St. Louis.
The new hitting coach had been with Houston since 2019 before taking his new role with the Mets. Although the Astros already possessed a loaded lineup, Snitker partnered with Alex Cintron to help develop the next wave of Astro stars, such as Jeremy Pena. Pena made his debut in 2022 when he was named the World Series MVP. Snitker also played a significant role in the development of Kyle Tucker.
The corner outfielder struggled in limited playing time before the 2019 season. Under Snitker and Cintron’s guidance, Tucker took off and inked a massive four-year contract worth $240 million after the Mets pursued Tucker in an effort to reunite him with Snitker.
From 2019-2021, the Astros lineup saw a full mile-per-hour increase in its average exit velocity. This might not seem like a lot, but the team’s ranking went from barely inside the top 20 (88.4 MPH) all the way up to seventh (89.5 MPH). During that same timeframe, the Astros jumped from 12th to fourth in launch angle and went from 17th to sixth in hard hit rate.
The Astros also were on-base percentage monsters when Snitker first landed in Houston. Although the organization was already in the top 10, it jumped to number one in all of baseball in 2019 (.352) and was ahead of everyone else by 10 full points. The team remained number one in 2021 and placed inside the top seven in each of the three years after that.
The New York Mets have a new look going into 2026. It was clear based on the moves made that last season’s second-half collapse was an embarrassment to both Mendoza and Stearns, who were both determined to make changes to ensure 2026 will see a different finish.
Both Albert and Snitker have experience in multiple hitting roles throughout organizations across the league. Not only have they seen their offenses succeed at the highest level, but they also have shown a proven track record of developing talent at all levels where hitters have gone on and found success.
Today is Opening Day. It’s a long season. Just remember to enjoy the 162-game marathon.
Let’s hope the new hitting philosophy helps not just Benge, but also Vientos, Alvarez, and Baty.
ReplyDeleteThe philosophy may be good, but in the cold weather of March/April in the northern cities, I don't expect many hits.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the article, but it would be great to have a piece or two on what it is that hitting coaches do. I think it is largely an insufficiently characterized and complicated role. If I think of my role as a golf coach as something of a hitting coach, but in a very different overall sport -- one is reactive to the ball moving, the other not -- I ask myself what is structurally similar between the batter and the golfer and their coach, and what is different.
ReplyDeleteThere are some general principles that you would want to embed in all your players -- the earlier in their development the better -- and then there are particular things for each player, which is much more dependent on facts about them individually. I know which of those I look at first -- where the opportunities for both marginal gain are greatest, and where there is a gain to the foundation for taking at bats, everything from learning how to get into the ground to learning how to approach an at bat -- but I wonder how hitting coaches in baseball approach their task. What are the general principles they think apply to all hitters, and how do they embed them in their players. What do they believe are the key individual factors? It would be great to interview hitting coaches, and also to see how technology has impacted their approaches.