Photo Credit: CARMEN SMYTH/SPECIAL TO THE VENTURA COUNTY STAR
In an interview with Justin Toscano of The Record, New York Mets director of player development Kevin Howard detailed how he is going to help revamp and improve the organization’s player development. In terms of his plan and philosophy, Howard said, “I think the one thing that you can focus on is having a good process and attacking every day with a lot of focus and a lot of effort.”
One of the bigger developments we are going to see is the expansion of the Mets analytics department. While we saw the impact of that at the Major League level with the shifting in 2021 leading to a significantly improved defense, we are going to see those efforts duplicated at each and every level of the minors. To aide and assist in that, the Mets have hired Dave Schoenfeld from the Kansas City Royals as their coordinator of minor league analytics.
The plan is for each and every affiliate to have their own analyst who will create reports and translate them to the players. Ultimately, the concept is for the minor leagues to get the type of information the major league players are receiving.
Building a structure like this is part of the mission – to actually build a structure. As Howard described to Toscano, the Mets have had strong player development people in the past, but there wasn’t necessarily the best structure in place to help the players develop. On that front, instead of having an organization approach to player development, the new concept will be to have individual plans for improvement. The ultimate goal is for “[t]he players need to hear one voice, one message, and it needs to be consistent over a period of time.”
Really, in many ways, the Mets were looking at all areas to try to create a more conducive environment for their players to develop. Notably, Howard indicated the Mets were already in the process of seeing which of their levels needed more support. With the recent dictate, that process will now include player housing. On that front, Howard indicated the Mets have been investigating different locations, and Howard indicated “no player will have to come out of pocket for their living unless they wanted to go above and beyond, something extravagant.”
Unfortunately, this is a process delayed by a year because Howard was the assistant hitting coach after Chili Davis was fired. However, now, he’s back in the role for which he was initially hired, and he’s pushing forward to create the best possible environment for the Mets minor leaguers to succeed. Howard is excited to be back to doing this, and he says “I love anything that I can do to try to get these guys better.”
