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Eric Chavez leaves Yankees for Mets before even starting in shocking twist

Adam Weinrib
Adam Weinrib

Yanks Go Yard

OAKLAND, CA - MARCH 29: Matt Olson #28 of the Oakland Athletics is presented with his Rawlings 2018 Gold Glove Award by former Oakland Athletics gold glover Eric Chavez prior to the start of his game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on March 29, 2019 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Of all the Yankees disappointments we’ve been prepared for by the past decade-plus of coming up short, here’s one we earnestly didn’t see coming.

Laugh all you want. We did not know this was possible.

Just two weeks ago, the Yankees did the One Good Thing they’d accomplished this offseason, announcing a stacked new coaching staff featuring three collaborative hitting coaches, the way baseball’s elite offenses tend to do.

Alongside Dillon Lawson, who’d been their minor-league coordinator and would serve as their main hitting coach, were young assistant Casey Dykes, as well as former Yankees third baseman Eric Chavez.

We didn’t see it coming, but Chavez had made a strong impression in the Angels’ managerial race several years ago, and has been on New York’s radar for quite a while. Reportedly, he absolutely blew Aaron Boone away during the hiring process, leading us to gush about the irony of Boone heaping praise on someone who’d be a “Swiss Army knife” on his forthcoming staff … you know, the type of job usually held by a future manager.

It happened. Chavez was hired. It was written in ink, announced by the team in prepared graphics, written about and chatted about.

Yankees hitting assistant coach Eric Chavez has left for the Mets.

Except … no, not exactly.

In a move that can only be described as “Steve Cohen finding a contract loophole, and/or paying through the nose to embarrass the Yankees without caring about potential punishment,” that is exactly what has somehow happened.

And it worked! We’re very, very embarrassed.

Two weeks after he joined the Yankees — which, again, did happen — Chavez has reportedly bounced and taken the solo hitting coach job with the New York Mets.

Again, we’ve come to expect things will somehow fall apart in this modern Yankees generation, but … finalized coaching hires? Across a two-week holiday? How?!

Does this officially make Steve Cohen’s Mets the new Evil Empire? Hal Steinbrenner hasn’t done anything evil in his life, outside of some probable financial crimes.

Hell, he hasn’t even done anything interesting.

Can any coach leave one organization for another for a promotion in professional sports, too, or is that just a collegiate rule? Is there no breach of contract? Did the Yankees forget to sign a contract?

Oh wait … it actually might be even dumber than that.

You let an assistant you just hired … interview elsewhere for a better job?

Certainly, this failure is magnified in an offseason with player moves legally banned (Hal Steinbrenner’s dream). But the Mets waltzing in two weeks after the Yankees heaped praise on their favorite external hire of the offseason, only for Steve Cohen to take Christmas off, then say, “We’ll take that” in the dead of night, is worth of scorn.

Just another day in the life of the pushover Yankees.

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib is a Content Director on the FanSided network, and has been the co-editor at Yanks Go Yard for 6 years. He also co-hosts The Baseball Insiders Podcast thrice weekly, alongside FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray, as well as the Yanks Go Yard Podcast. Previously, he was a Senior Editor at 12up.com, and has been covering MLB and NFL for 10 years. He was also a headline and features contributor at ClickHole and Onion Sports, as well as the Associate Producer of the ESPN 30 for 30 film "Believeland". An avowed fan of the New York sports teams -- specifically the Yankees -- as well as the North Carolina Tar Heels, you can find Adam complaining mid-game on Twitter, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn if the game goes really poorly.