The New York Mets have announced that former Binghamton hitting coach Luis Natera was named assistant hitting coach to the big league team. Natera has been working for the Mets for the last 24 years. Assistant hitting coach is a position that is new around baseball but now most teams have more than one hitting coach.
The Mets are now the 20th MLB team to have an assistant hitting coach. As long as Dave Hudgens and Natera are on the same page in terms of their approaches to the hitters, I have no problem with this move. The Mets elected to do this because they believe Natera is a good fit for their belief in being patient at the plate.
Clearly the trend in baseball is adding a second hitting coach so the Mets aren’t alone here.
Natera has certainly paid his dues in the organization and maybe an extra voice can help some of the Mets hitters that have struggled the past few seasons.