Former New York Mets hitting coach Eric Chavez took a flamethrower to his old team on Monday, accusing the organization of "coddling" star outfielder Juan Soto and saying the treatment reflected a broader breakdown in leadership. Chavez described Soto hanging out on couches near the batting cages between innings while clubhouse staff and front office aides handled him differently from his teammates, and said he raised those concerns directly with Mets president David Stearns as the club navigates a sweeping roster overhaul and a frustrating first half.
What Chavez Said
On his "The EC3 Pod" podcast, Chavez laid out specific clubhouse scenes and called for tougher accountability from the top of the organization on down. His remarks were summarized by Yahoo Sports, and the full episode is available on platforms such as Amazon Music.
Chavez said an assistant general manager would sometimes sit with Soto in that couch area and "kind of coddle him," behavior he argued sent the wrong message to everyone watching. He framed what he saw as part of a pattern inside the organization, calling it "a lack of leadership, a lack of accountability, from the top down."
Stearns' Response And Chavez's Mets Tenure
Stearns' office did not let the criticism slide. According to the New York Post, Stearns responded with a pointed reminder about clubhouse hierarchy, saying, "those players need to learn that they're not Juan Soto." Subtle it was not.
Chavez is familiar with internal friction in Queens. He was on the Mets' staff across the 2024-25 stretch and has publicly clashed over hitting philosophy and day-to-day clubhouse routines. Earlier coverage of Chavez's role and those debates was detailed by SNY.
Roster Overhaul And The Stakes
The flare-up comes as Stearns oversees a high-stakes remake of the Mets roster and the expectations that go with it. Transaction summaries at MLB.com note that the front office let long-time franchise fixtures leave and committed to Juan Soto on a record 15-year, $765 million contract. Those moves were supposed to reset the franchise, and critics now point to them while asking who truly sets the standard inside the clubhouse.
Clubhouse Fallout
Chavez did not identify the assistant GM he was referring to, as reported by the New York Post, but his comments have been bouncing around sports talk shows, social media and fan message boards. Analysts are divided on whether his account exposes a deeper cultural problem or just a series of questionable in-the-moment decisions.
Outlets such as Yahoo Sports have parsed Chavez's remarks alongside the Mets' slide on the field, noting how quickly the conversation around the club has shifted from optimism about a reset to questions about internal standards. The podcast episode adds one more layer of scrutiny to a franchise that changed managers less than a week earlier.
What's Next
Stearns, hired away from the Milwaukee Brewers to overhaul the roster and the operation, now finds his leadership style under the microscope right alongside the team's results. The firing of manager Carlos Mendoza was reported by AP News, and national coverage has suggested the Mets will be closely watched through the July trade deadline.
How the organization responds, whether through public messaging, clubhouse adjustments, personnel moves or all of the above, will determine whether Chavez's critique becomes a turning point or just another messy chapter in a season that already feels far bumpier than advertised in Queens.
