Category: Baseball

The Dodgers haven’t so much beaten opponents this postseason as they have worn them down. A lineup that underperformed for much of the summer has been relentless, resourceful and unstoppable in the fall.

And deep. Did we mention deep? Because while the Dodgers have stars at the top of that lineup, it’s been the players at the bottom who have done the most damage.

Tuesday’s 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series is the most recent example of that. The Brewers managed to keep Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in check, only to see Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman, Kiké Hernández and Andy Pages knock them down repeatedly, combining for seven hits, three runs and three RBIs to give the Dodgers a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series which resumes Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

And that’s been a trend all postseason: The sixth through ninth hitters in the Dodgers lineup are slashing .302/.391/.448 with 14 RBIs and a playoff-best 35 hits in eight games. The top five hitters in the order are batting .235.

“It's just that trust and belief we have in each other that if you don't get the job done, the guy behind you is going to do it,” said Kiké Hernández, whose two hits Tuesday raised his postseason average to a team-high .379. Hernández has also scored a playoff-high seven runs.

“We know that, one through nine, we have the best and deepest lineup in the league.”

And the hits have been important ones, with Teoscar Hernández tying the score with his second-inning home run and Andy Pages, banished to the bottom of the order after managing just a single in his first 27 postseason at-bats, untying it three batters later by doubling in Kiké Hernández.

“I was just looking for a pitch in the zone that I could hit well,” Pages, who drove a 1-1 change-up into the right-field corner, said in Spanish. “Obviously it was really important. It put the team ahead. But more important was that I was able to make good contact.”

Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto's stellar complete game helps lift Dodgers over Brewers in Game 2

Making contact and putting the ball in play has been a hallmark of the bottom half of the Dodgers’ lineup — and it’s probably a big factor in its success. Even with his struggles, Pages has struck out just six times in eight games; leadoff hitter Ohtani has fanned more that twice as often.

“Any time you can create traffic, especially in the postseason, it puts a lot of pressure on the opposing pitchers,” Max Muncy said. “And any time you can get guys on base, it just amplifies that and they’re more liable to make mistakes.”

“From the beginning,” Teoscar Hernández added, “it’s putting pressure on the other side. We still have to go there and get our job done.”

The postseason spotlight is one Kiké Hernández and Edman have thrived under before. Hernández is batting .330 in his last seven postseason series with the Dodgers, almost 100 points better than his career regular-season average. And Edman, who matched Hernández with two hits Tuesday, was named MVP of the NLCS last season after hitting .407 in the Dodgers’ victory over the Mets.

“Those guys, they were made for this moment,” Teoscar Hernández, who leads all postseason players with 10 RBIs. “Kiké, I know he's doesn't get a lot of opportunities in the regular season, but he knows what he can do.”

“He was a player who was born for this moment,” Pages added of Kiké Hernández. “He’s demonstrated that. And he keeps doing it.”

Another key to doing well in the postseason, Teoscar Hernández said, is not paying attention to it. Each game, he said, offers another chance for success or failure and in the playoffs, each game — and each at-bat — is magnified.

So it’s all about what you’ve done lately. Play the game, celebrate the victory or mourn the defeat, then flush it and get ready to do it all over again.

Read more:Hernández: The Dodgers' latest starting-pitching flex? Make the bullpen a non-factor

“I know we have big names in our lineup. We have really good players,” he said. “But at the same time, we still have to go there and get our job done. It's not because we had a good lineup that we score a lot of runs. We go there with confidence, with a plan and the just try to execute.”

If they can do that two more times at home this week, the Dodgers can end the Brewers season and give themselves a week’s rest before returning to the World Series for the second time in as many years.

“We’re good. We’re really good,” said Kiké Hernández, who is one of the reasons for that. “The experience, the trust that we have in each other, that if we're down in the game early, we're going to find a way to come back and tie it or take the lead.

“We're 2-0 in the NLCS, but the goal is to win a World Series, not to win two games on the road. And as we're still playing the Milwaukee Brewers, we're going to focus on them and take it one day at a time. We haven't really accomplished anything yet.”

But when they do, expect the accomplishment to come from the bottom up.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Technically, Roki Sasaki was available to pitch in relief for the Dodgers on Tuesday night.

Realistically, he wasn’t.

“I wouldn’t say unavailable,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “But it is unlikely that we will use him.”

The Dodgers had only one potential silver bullet, and it wasn’t even loaded for Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

They still won. They still took the best-of-seven series to a place where it’s out of the Brewers’ diminutive reach.

Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto's stellar complete game helps lift Dodgers over Brewers in Game 2

How?

By making their bullpen a non-factor.

The possibility of one of their relievers blowing the game was eliminated by a complete game thrown by Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Another late-inning scare was avoided because of a persistent offense that tacked on insurance runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

With a 5-1 victory at American Family Field, the Dodgers extended their lead in the best-of-seven series to two games to none.

Two more wins and the Dodgers will advance to the World Series for the third time in six seasons. Their dreams of becoming baseball’s first repeat champions in 25 years are starting to take realistic shape.

Ninety-three teams have taken a two-games-to-none lead in a best-of-seven postseason series. Seventy-nine of them have advanced.

In other words, this series is over.

If the Philadelphia Phillies couldn’t overturn a 2-0 deficit against the Dodgers, the tryhards from Milwaukee certainly won’t.

With the next three games at Dodger Stadium and Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell scheduled to start those games, the most pressing question about this NLCS is whether it will return to baseball’s smallest market for Game 6.

Don’t count on it.

The Brewers’ bullpen was supposed to be superior to the Dodgers’, but that advantage has been negated by the Dodgers’ superior starting pitching.

Reaching this stage of October has forced the Brewers to exhaust their relievers, so much so that by the time setup man Abner Uribe entered Game 2 in the sixth inning, he might as well have been Tanner Scott.

The Brewers’ bullpen was suddenly as rickety as the Dodgers’, and that was with Sasaki just spectating.

The uncertainty over Sasaki’s ability to take on an October workload is suddenly in question, and that should make for some nervous moments between now and the conclusion of the postseason.

Sasaki’s failure to close out Game 1 sounded alarm bells, and rightfully so. The converted starter still looked exhausted from his three-inning relief appearance against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the NL Division Series. His fastball velocity has gradually declined over postseason, and he’s the type of pitcher who isn’t nearly as effective when he’s throwing 96 mph instead of 100 mph.

“It’s one of those things that we’re still in sort of uncharted territory with him,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers provided an elegant solution for a frightening problem: Throwback starting pitching.

A day after Snell faced the minimum number of batters over eight scoreless innings, Yamamoto registered three more outs in a three-hit performance.

The only run charged to Yamamoto came on a homer hit by the first batter he faced, Jackson Chourio.

For Yamamoto, the start represented an opportunity for redemption.

Redemption for his loss to the Phillies in the NL Division Series and redemption for his start in this ballpark three months earlier, which marked the first time in either the majors or the Japanese league that he failed to pitch out of the first inning.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy didn’t place much stock in that early-July game in which Yamamoto registered only two outs and was charged with five runs.

Read more:Just how much are the Dodgers charging for World Series tickets?

“He’s going to make the adjustment,” Murphy said. “He’s been really, really good. He’s been one of the five best pitchers in baseball.”

However, Murphy warned, “We’ve studied him, studied him, studied him.”

So when Dodgers catcher Will Smith called for a fastball on the first pitch of the game and Yamamoto delivered it, Chourio was ready to pounce. Chourio sent the ball over the right-field wall to move the Brewers in front 1-0.

The Brewers didn’t score again.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Milwaukee Brewers have used the slogan “Magic Brew” as the tagline for their postseason run.

On Tuesday night, the Dodgers made it feel like the magic was running out.

In their first truly stress-free win of these playoffs, the Dodgers slowly suffocated the Brewers in a 5-1 Game 2 victory in the National League Championship Series, riding a complete game from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a relentless attack from their star-studded lineup to leave the plucky, but overpowered hometown Brewers very nearly left for dead.

In every which way, this one felt like a mismatch.

Milwaukee’s staff ace, Freddy Peralta, couldn’t limit the damage against the Dodgers’ juggernaut lineup, giving up three runs in a 5⅔ inning start.

Milwaukee’s typically opportunistic offense led the game off with a home run, then hardly touched Yamamoto en route to the Dodgers’ first postseason complete-game performance since a José Lima shutout in the 2004 NL Division Series.

Even on defense, the Brewers came up just short. In very nearly the same spot as where he robbed Max Muncy of a grand slam in a mind-bending double play in Game 1, Milwaukee center fielder Sal Frelick drifted back on another drive from Muncy in Tuesday’s sixth inning, made a similar leaping effort at the wall, but this time came up empty as the ball barely cleared the fence.

The Brewers, plain and simple, failed to stack up against the defending World Series champions.

And now, with a commanding 2-0 lead as the NLCS shifts to Dodger Stadium, it would require a major surprise for the Dodgers to let this series return here again.

Despite winning six of their first seven games in this year’s playoffs, little of the Dodgers’ October success had come easy.

In each of their previous three wins (all of which came by just one run), their opponent had the winning or go-ahead run in scoring position in the final inning — including a bases-loaded ninth-inning jam at the end of Monday’s NLCS opener.

In the game before that, the Dodgers let the potential tying run reach base in the eighth. Go back one more contest, and the tying run was at the plate against the team’s shaky bullpen.

On Tuesday, however, there were no late-game theatrics.

Behind Yamamoto’s nine-inning gem, the team imposed its will from the start (well, almost) to the finish.

Only in the first inning, when Jackson Chourio went deep on Yamamoto’s first pitch, did it feel like the Magic Brew was being stirred.

But then, the 27-year-old Japanese right-hander immediately quelled it, turning in yet another historic pitching performance from a Dodgers rotation beginning to make them feel routine.

Yamamoto was unfazed by a string of early traffic, working around a Muncy error in the second, singles in the third and fourth, and his lone walk of the night in the fifth.

He was dominant down the stretch, retiring his final 14 batters while finishing with seven strikeouts on just 111 pitches.

The Dodgers’ offense, meanwhile, quickly staked him to a lead. In the top of the second, Teoscar Hernández tied the score on a towering home run to left before Andy Pages shot a two-out RBI double down the line for a 2-1 advantage.

And from there, the Dodgers didn’t relent, eventually pulling away after Muncy’s home run in the top of the sixth.

With a swing that both stretched the Dodgers’ lead and etched his name into Dodgers postseason history, Muncy took Peralta deep on the right-hander’s final pitch, hitting his 14th career playoff home run (a franchise record) on a scorching line drive to center.

For a brief moment, some in American Family Field cheered, believing Frelick had denied Muncy of a long ball just like he did on the Game 1 double play.

Alas, Muncy kept rounding the bases this time as Frelick revealed his glove to be empty. And from that point on, a crowd of 41,427 watched in relative silence, as the Dodgers scored again in the seventh (on an RBI single from Shohei Ohtani, breaking a one-for-23 slump going back to the start of the division series) and the eighth (on an RBI single from Tommy Edman) to give Yamamoto breathing room to finish his complete-game domination.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Less than a week after their season ended in an American League Division Series loss to Toronto, the Yankees have made several changes to their coaching staff.

According to league sources, the team is promoting hitting coordinator Jake Hirst to the major league staff, moving on from longtime bullpen coach Mike Harkey and first base/infield coach Travis Chapman, and discussing a new role in the organization for beloved assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler.

The Yankees are also bracing for the potential of losing third base/outfield coach Luis Rojas and hitting coach James Rowson to managerial opportunities. Rojas has interviewed for the vacancy in Baltimore, league sources say. The New York Post first reported that Rowson is a candidate for the Minnesota job.

Taken together, these represent significant changes for manager Aaron Boone’s staff. The rest of the staff -- bench coach Brad Ausmus, pitching coach Matt Blake, assistant pitching coach Preston Claiborne, assistant hitting coach Casey Dykes, major league field coordinator and director of catching Tanner Swanson -- will likely be invited to return.

The Yankees value Rojas and Rowson, and would keep both unless another team hires them to manage.

Harkey served as bullpen coach for a total of 16 years across two stints. Pitchers loved his feel for the game and warm personality.

In an email, Harkey said, “Had a great 16 years and I’m very grateful for the opportunity I had with the Yankee organization! I wish them nothing but the best!!”

Hirst, who has coached most of the Yankees’ homegrown players, attracted interest this fall for major league jobs in other organizations.

Roessler, 65, has long been a valued member in the organization, going back to his time in a leading role in player development in the mid-2000s. He later went on to serve as hitting coach for both the Mets and Washington Nationals before returning to the Yanks.

He is beloved by stars like Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, whom he coached both with the Yankees and Nationals. The Yankees were happy with his performance as assistant hitting coach and are considering ways for him to help the organization.

The Yankees are shaking up their coaching staff this offseason.

SNY's Andy Martino reports that longtime bullpen coach Mike Harkey and infield/first base coach Travis Chapman will not be returning next season. Other roles are being discussed, per Martino.

Harkey was the Yankees' bullpen coach for two separate tenures. He was a part of Joe Girardi's coaching staff from 2008-2013 before joining the Diamondbacks as the team's pitching coach for two seasons. In 2016, he returned as the Yankees' bullpen coach under Girardi and then Aaron Boone.

Before coaching, Harkey was an eight-year veteran (1988-97), where he pitched for the Cubs, Athletics, Angels and Dodgers. He finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in 1990, when he pitched to a 12-6 record and a 3.26 ERA.

Chapman was a coach in the Yankees' minor league system before joining Boone's staff in 2022 as first base and infield coach. 

The news comes the same day that the Twins were granted permission to interview Yankees hitting coach James Rowson for the open manager's job. 

Martino adds that Yankees hitting coordintor Jake Hirst could be in the mix for a job on the major league staff and that Rowson is seen as a "legitimate candidate" for the Twins job. 

The recent resignation of John Gibbons as Mets bench coach created a vacancy in the dugout, but it took less than two weeks for the team to choose a new top assistant for Carlos Mendoza's staff.

As first reported by Sports Illustrated's Pat Ragazzo, the Mets are hiring Kai Correa to fill their bench coach void. 

The 37-year-old served in the same role for former Giants skipper Gabe Kapler from 2020-23, and spent the last two seasons as the Guardians' major league field coordinator, among other titles.

Correa, who played collegiately at Puget Sound in Washington state and was born in Hawaii, began his MLB coaching career in 2018, as a coach in the Guardians' farm system. He later became the league's youngest bench coach with the Giants, and managed the final three games of 2023 after the team's firing of Kapler. 

The Mets made one other coaching move on Tuesday, tabbing director of hitting development Jeff Albert to lead the team's major league hitting program. He too willl be in the dugout for the 2026 season, and the Mets will look to hire an additional hitting coach to work under him.

Can you put a price on the experience of enjoying a World Series game at Dodger Stadium?

Yes, and it's a very high one.

The Dodgers put tickets for potential World Series games on sale Tuesday, with the cheapest seat available for $881.95, according to an afternoon review of the team website. That seat — $800 for the ticket and $81.95 for fees — is located at the end of the reserve level, high above the field and next to the foul pole.

World Series prices posted on the website Tuesday ranged as high as $1,510.05. The best seats are sold as part of season packages, so that $1,510.05 seat ($1,371 ticket plus $139.05 fees) is located on the field level, near the foul pole and bullpen.

Read more:Shaikin: Blake Snell replicating what Sandy Koufax achieved 60 Octobers ago

If the Dodgers advance to the World Series and play the Seattle Mariners, the Dodgers would play as many as four home games, starting Friday, Oct. 24. If the Dodgers advance and play the Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers would play as many as three home games, starting Monday, Oct. 27.

On Oct. 24, a family of four could get into Disneyland for a total of $796. On Oct. 27, a family of four could get into Disneyland for a total of $676.

Ticket prices are subject to change based on demand.

When the Dodgers put National League Championship Series tickets on sale, the cheapest price was $155. On Tuesday, the cheapest ticket on the team website for Game 3 on Thursday was $168.

However, since the game time has been set at 3 p.m. and weekday afternoon games are not popular, tickets on the resale market could be bought for about $100 Tuesday.

Read more:It took some luck, but good things finally happen to Dodgers' Blake Treinen

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Why Dodgers players refuse to stay at infamous Milwaukee hotel during NLCS originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

MILWAUKEE — There’s postseason pressure, and then there’s the kind that comes from things that go bump in the night. For the Los Angeles Dodgers, it seems both have followed them to Milwaukee.

As the National League Championship Seriesstarted at American Family Field for Games 1 and 2 on Monday and Tuesday night, a different kind of storyline is swirling around the visiting clubhouse — one involving ghost stories, sleepless nights, and a century-old hotel that’s been unsettling Major League Baseball players for decades.

The Pfister Hotel, an elegant landmark in downtown Milwaukee built in 1893, has long been rumored to be haunted. From flickering lights to phantom footsteps, players have whispered about eerie experiences for years. 

Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts has heard enough. Once again, the eight-time All-Star refused to stay there, opting instead for the safety of an Airbnb — as he’s done on every Milwaukee trip since 2022.

“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Betts said last season. “But I don’t want to find out that I’m wrong.”

That superstition — or self-preservation — has now spread through the Dodgers clubhouse. Ahead of Game 2 on Tuesday, Teoscar Hernández admitted that he and his family decided not to stay at the Pfister either after teammates shared their own ghostly encounters since arriving Sunday night.

“I’ve stayed there before and never seen anything,” Hernández told reporters during his pregame media session. “But my wife said she didn’t want to stay there. Then I started hearing stories — lights going off, doors opening, footsteps. I was like, okay, that’s enough.”

For the Dodgers, this isn’t just another road trip. It’s a test of nerves — not just against Freddy Peralta and the Brewers’ elite pitching staff, but against the kind of folklore that seeps into a team’s psyche. Players from Bryce Harper to Adrian Beltre to Pablo Sandoval have all claimed strange encounters at the Pfister, and the stories never seem to die.

“I laid a pair of jeans and a shirt on that table at the foot of the bed,” Harper recalled while staying at the haunted hotel in 2012. “When I woke up in the morning — I swear on everything — the clothes were on the floor and the table was on the opposite side of the room.”

While playing for the Dodgers in 2001, Beltre said he heard knocking at his door while staying at the Pfister, even with the TV and air conditioner turned off.

“I went to take a shower, and I remember putting my iPod next to a speaker,” former Giants’ infielder Pablo Sandoval recalled about his experience at the hotel. “When I came out, it was playing music, and I have no idea why.” Sandoval and teammate Edgar Renteria refused to stay with the rest of the team at the Pfister in 2010.

Sandoval, Harper, and Beltre were not the only MLB players to experience paranormal activities either. Some of the most eerie stories come from former baseball players who stayed there over the years. 

“It was more like a moving light that kind of passed through the room,” said former Cardinals infielder Brendan Ryan to a local TV station. “The room got a little bit chillier.”

“A couple of years ago, I was lying in bed after a night game, and I was out. My room was locked, but I heard these footsteps inside my room, stomping around. It woke me up,” said former Ranger Michael Young. 

“I was on the computer one night, doing my typical shtick — surfing the web, sending an email, editing a photo — and then all of a sudden the lights started flickering,” said former Angels’ pitcher C.J. Wilson. “I’m thinking to myself, I’m going to be so pissed if my computer dies. Then the light just shuts off. And then the TV shuts off. And then the light turns back on, but the light at the front door turns off. I just yelled out, ‘Really?'”So after that, I went back to whatever I was doing on the computer, but then 30 minutes later there’s scratching in the walls. Now I’m thinking, OK, it’s the Midwest, there could be a possum or something in the wall, right? That’s possible, isn’t it? All I knew was that there were definitely noises coming from the wall.”

And finally, former Korean slugger Ji-man Choi was a first baseman also with the Angels when he said he was laying in bed and felt the “presence of a spirt lying in bed” next to him.

Yeah, no thanks. 

But whether you believe in ghosts or not, the legends have become part of baseball’s strange October magic — a mix of tension, tradition, and superstition that defines the sport. And for Betts, Hernández, and the Dodgers, one thing’s for sure: they’d rather face a 100-mph fastball from rookie Jacob Misiorowski than a restless spirit at 3 a.m.

Game 2 of the NLCS between the Dodgers and Brewers continues Tuesday night in Milwaukee — and no matter what happens on the field, the ghosts of the Pfister will be watching closely.

Alex Bregman will hit free agency after opting out Red Sox contract: Report originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Alex Bregman reportedly will hit MLB free agency for a second straight offseason.

The veteran infielder, who signed a three-year, $120 million contract with the Red Sox in February, will be opting out after playing the first year of his deal, according to a report from The New York Post’s Jon Heyman on Tuesday night.

Bregman’s contract included opt outs after each of the first two seasons. It doesn’t come as a major surprise the 31-year-old would pursue a deal with longer term after being named an MLB All-Star for the third time in his career.

Bregman departing Boston is not a definite, however.

The Red Sox remain a logical fit for Bregman, Heyman wrote. But Boston likely will have competition for the Gold Glove third baseman with the Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros viewed as potential suitors.

Bregman hit .273 with a .821 OPS in 433 at-bats for the playoff-qualifying Red Sox. He belted 18 home runs with 62 RBIs in 114 games, numbers that were a product of being sidelined 43 games with a right quad strain. He didn’t play from late May through mid-July but returned to help Boston in its pursuit for the postseason.

Bregman’s on-field production was complemented by his leadership in the clubhouse. With Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and other youngsters entering the big leagues, Bregman was credited for instituting his work ethic and professionalism behind the scenes.

There’s an argument to be made the Red Sox should do whatever it takes to retain him.

On the latest episode of The Mets Pod presented by Tri-State Cadillac, Connor Rogers and Joe DeMayo look at the road ahead for Pete Alonso and the Mets offseason. 

Connor and Joe discuss the money and years necessary for the Mets to bring back both Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz, and they also talk about what the Mets can learn from the playoff exits of the Reds, Phillies, and Dodgers. 

Later, the guys recap their Mets 2025 preseason predictions (yikes), and dig back into the Mailbag to answer questions about prospects who could make the major leagues in 2026, the future for Brett Baty, the thought of Houston’s Hunter Brown as a possible trade target, and ideas for improving center field.

Be sure to subscribe to The Mets Pod at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

While the Yankees haven't conveyed that noticeable changes to their coaching staff are expected this offseason, it appears they're at least comfortable seeing one of Aaron Boone's trusted minds pursue a promotion elsewhere.

According to a report from the New York Post, the Yankees have granted the Twins permission to interview hitting coach James Rowson for their open managerial position. Red Sox bench coach Ramon Vazquez and former Pirates skipper Derek Shelton are reportedly in the running as well.

It's not at all surprising to see Rowson -- who assumed the Bronx role ahead of the 2024 season -- on the Twins' radar. The 49-year-old oversaw a Yankees offense that produced league-high marks in home runs (274), runs (849), OPS (.787), and walks (639) during the 2025 campaign.

Rowson also has a history with the Twins, as he worked as their hitting coach for three seasons (2017-19) before serving as Marlins bench coach from 2020-22. The Yankees knew they were receiving a power-centric approach from Rowson -- the Twins smacked a league-record 307 homers during his third and final season there.

It remains to be seen whether Rowson emerges as a serious managerial candidate. The Mount Vernon native has a long history with the Yankees, too -- he played a few seasons in the Yankees' farm system (1995-97) and spent seven seasons (2006-11, 2014-16) as their minor league hitting coordinator.

With Eric Chavez and Eric Barnes not returning, the Mets will have some new hitting instructors in the dugout in 2026.

First reported by ESPN's Jeff Passan, Mets director of hitting development Jeff Albert will be in uniform and in the dugout this season, leading the team's major league hitting program. 

The Mets plan is to reportedly "complement him with another hitting coach."

Albert joined the Mets organization in 2022 as director of hitting development after previously working with both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Houston Astros in a handful of different roles. Now 44, Albert severed as the Cardinals hitting coach from 2019-2022, helping Paul Goldschmidt win an MVP in 2022.

The Mets have not yet made any external additions to Carlos Mendoza's staff, as the manager returns for his third season with the club.