More than two years after the Cubs scapegoated coach Chili Davis, the current Mets coach took a shot at his former Chicago employers.
Who asked him?
No one. That was the beauty of it.
Because it spoke to the sincerity, if not the truth.
Asked about the value of personal coaching this year after ‘coaching’ remotely from home last summer over concerns about COVID-19, Davis spoke before Wednesday’s game about the value of face-to-face chats and “ a factor of trust here. ”
“And I enjoy it because I left a place where there was no trust factor with me and the hitters there,” he added. ‘So this is a relief for me here.
Then the triple All-Star with 350 career homers and .360 on-base percentage went further over the Mets hitters.
The Cubs said after the 2017 season they hired the three-time World Series champion and longtime hitting coach to help tackle some of the young, talented hitting core – and fired him after one season when batters like Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo “didn’t connect” to the message he was hired for.
Then-team chairman Theo Epstein said that “the attack broke” in the second half of that 2018 season, and Davis became the fifth offensive coach to be fired by Epstein in seven years.
Davis was not long out of work. And no matter what anyone may think of the offensive production of Mets since Davis took over, the ongoing troubles of the Cubs who have brought that young core to the brink of demolition have at least justified him.
Not that he asked for any justification.
‘I know what I know. And I know what I’m bringing isn’t wrong, ”Davis said the day he left Chicago after being fired. ‘I’m not going to blame myself for this. I’m not going to blame anyone. It did not work. “
And since he brought it up on Wednesday, here’s what else he said that October day in 2018:
Regardless of who [the hitting coach], some players will have to make some adjustments there because the game has changed, “he said,” and pitchers pitch them differently. They no longer throw to launch corners and fly balls and all. “
Fast rewind to Wednesday. And again, since Davis brought it up, he’s been asked to follow up on the Cubs.
“I want to beat them, probably as much as any other team,” he said.
And all the trouble the Cubs have had with hitting baseball as a team during last year’s shortened season and much of the start of this year?
“I don’t know what the problems are there,” he said. “What I saw that happened there, I expressed. And I voiced it to the leadership before they fired me. But that is a thing of the past.
“There are some good guys out there. I don’t wish them sick. And they lost a lot of players that were there when I was there, ”he added, praising Albert Almora, who is now with the Mets.
“They are currently undergoing a makeover, but I am sure they are still trying to win. And they still have a good ball club. … You cannot underestimate them. And whatever problem they have internally, that is not my problem. None of my business. “
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