This Will UNLOCK Him...

This will unlock him. Brett Beatty carries a hot streak into the All-Star break due to a significant change in both his approach and reflection of at-bats after the fact. The latter mainly stems from a coach who mentors and helps him significantly. However, it's not the coach you would expect. Despite his struggles this season, Mets fans give him tons of credit based on the recent narrative, so let's break who this coach is and dive into Beatty's recent scorcher only here on Mets Digest. I'm your host today, Mike Duda, stoked to do so, but first, I want to thank each and a half thousand subscribers that we have on the channel. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to hit that free subscribe button. And if you're part of the 68% of viewers who has not yet done so, please consider on the road to 8,000 subscribers. It's free and it's worth the while. We got videos coming out each and every single day between myself and Josh Byrne, sometimes two, three, and even four videos in a given day. Thank you so much in advance. And today we're turning to Steve Gelbs and the rest of the SNY broadcast on Saturday afternoon in the Mets loss against the Boston Red Sox. They broke this very interesting and honestly pretty cool story. So Gelbs, the sideline reporter, starts off by saying after a Brett Beatty strikeout, and they show a replay of that strikeout, he has a little bit of a pow wow with catching coach J.P. Aroncevia. Yes, the catching coach, not the hitting coach. And that's something that they've been doing before and after each and every one of Beatty's play appearances in the last couple of weeks. The reason why? Back in Toronto, Beatty sought out Aroncevia and he said, listen, you know what it's like to be a first round pick and fail at the major league level. Keep in mind, Aroncevia, 21st overall pick back in 2007 by the Blue Jays, Beatty, the 12th overall selection in 2019, of course, by the Mets. And he feels bad. He says, look, I'm not doing well. I am failing as a first round pick. I feel bad for the fans. I feel bad for my team. I want to do better. I feel like I'm failing. I need some help. That is great responsibility that he is taking. He's owning up to his mistakes and simply saying, I need to be better. So the two of them came up with a plan that every single game for 10 minutes before the contest, they would talk about what Beatty's mentality was going into the game, what his approach was. And then before each A.B., they would have a similar discussion saying, hey, what is your specific approach in this exact at bat? If he didn't follow through with that approach, then it was on JPR and Aroncevia afterwards. Unfortunately, a ball was hit at this time, so it is a little bit inaudible to understand the last part of it. But it had something to do with his mentality, probably to me indicating that Aroncevia was responsible for Beatty's approach mentality. So Gelbs goes on to continue the story after that play happened, saying this new change in his approach and these conversations has directly led to Beatty's recent hot streak. He has been excellent of late. We'll dive into the stats in just a little bit. He just said that it kind of felt he was almost in the wilderness up there, just trying to see whatever's coming his way and hit the ball. Lacking the confidence in this new approach and connecting with someone who knows exactly what he's going through has kind of given him a newfound confidence and an ability to go out there and just let it rip. That is some excellent news. And of course, the broadcast echoed it starting off with the play-by-play guy Gary Cohn. He says, well, I think there are a number of things that we just learned from that report. One is that coaching is a collaborative experience. And of course, it's super vital. And just because Brett's going to a guy who's technically speaking the catching coach rather than the hitting coach, really, it reflects that. It doesn't matter who cares and everybody's cool with it. It doesn't matter. Whatever makes the best on-field product is what needs to happen. So go to whatever coach you need to do whatever you need to do in order to be the best possible player you can be on the field and therefore produce the best product. Hopefully, of course, that hasn't panned out this year because the Mets have been pretty bad. But nonetheless, the other thing is that J.P. Aaron Sabia can be a very inspiring person. As for Ron Darling, a very successful MLB ball player of his own, he says that he's just a great guy to talk to. That being Aaron Sabia, always a positive moment when you speak to him. That's sort of the kind of people that you want to seek out. And I'm sure J.P. is thinking as he's talking to Beatty, I wish I had somebody to talk to me like this when I was going through all my troubles. Keep in mind, we'll dive into his stats in just a little bit. He was not a successful ball player, despite being a first round pick. Very similar to Brett Beatty. And the final part of that, and nobody wants to hear it, but I'm going to say it anyway, is that big league experience on your coaching staff definitely helps. You want to have former ball players who formerly played because players want to seek out former players and fellow players that have done it in a big way positively or that have gone through stretches that are very difficult. That way, the players who have gone through those bad stretches, probably a retired player, relay that to the players who are doing the same. That, I think, is why J.D. Martinez, Albert Pujols, Carlos Beltran, those are huge names right now in the Mets managerial search for next season. And even just in a coaching staff way, the Mets really wanted to have J.D. Martinez as the hitting coach or some form of a coach. These former players are great coaches because they've been through it. So let's dive into this hot streak a little bit more. Here's the scoop on that, according to SNY. In their 6-2 loss to the Red Sox on Friday at Citi Field, Brett Beatty kept it rolling, going 3-4 with a solo shot. His big night at the disc extended his hitting streak to 10 games. And that basically directly correlates from when he started talking to Aaron Sabia. So there's a lot of correlation there, meaning it is working. Beatty shed light on the work behind the scenes, which has led to his offensive surge in his high-below machine work. When asked about his mentality in the batter's box, Beatty gave himself well-earned credit, responding that he is That's what you have to do. You're on offense for a reason. You cannot be a defensive offensive player. That makes no sense. You have to be an aggressive offensive player. He's turning into a dog out there, said Mets interim manager Andy Green of Beatty. That is also a huge facet of baseball because baseball is basically all mental. Yes, there's some physicality in it, but it's such a mental sport. You can't let things linger. You have to have the memory of a goldfish when you're out there. So I'm really encouraged by the steps that he's taking. The skip continued. That is excellent. So let's turn it over to how the stats play out. And that hot streak looked great. Is Brett Beatty back as sleeper Mets? The Mets starting infielder over his 10-game hit streak was 13 for 38. That's a 342 batting average, 359 OVP, 885 OPS, a Dinger and 5 RBIs. Some excellent stuff right there from Brett Beatty. And that hot streak basically directly began after this. No, Brett Beatty with a 592 OPS in 255 at bats this season. He is 153rd and there are only 154 qualified hitters. He was the second worst OPS hitter in all of professional baseball. We are begging you to end the Brett Beatty torture. But right after this note happened is when Beatty hit the scorcher. So let's hear a little bit more from Brett, who is likely going to stay as we'll dive into in a second. My pregame work is really good right now. Trying just to clear my head and hit balls hard because I've always been good at that. And the first part of this year, I've been terrible at it. I don't want that to happen. I'm just trying to hit the ball hard again. And he definitely has been doing so. Mostly because of JP Arantzivia, who has a huge part in this. So who exactly is this Mets catching coach? Well, he was a 17th round pick back in 2004. But as we aforementioned, was a first round selection, 21st overall in 2007 by the Blue Jays. He and the pros spent time with the Jays, the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays. From 2010 to 2015, did average 0.7 war per 162. 1.2 on the offensive front, 0.4 on the defensive side. But was just a 212 hitter with a 258 OBP. He was a bit of a power guy, 412 slug to up that OPS to 670. Not great, 80 on the OPS plus scale. Meaning he was 20 OPS plus points worse than the average MLB hitter. However, he did average 28 homers and 85 RBIs per 162. After his MLB career ended, he coached at the University of Tennessee in 2018. Then he actually went into the broadcasting industry for both Fox Sports and Valley Sports Florida TV. He was an analyst for the Miami Marlins from 2019 to 2022. Then got back into the coaching side, AAA Syracuse, that being the Met affiliate, bench coach in 2023. He remained in that role, but also took on the assistant hitting coach role in 2024 and 2025. And with the dismantling of the entire coaching staff before this season, with the exception of then manager Carlos Mendoza, he was one of the guys that earned a promotion, being the MLB catching coach for the 2026 Amazons. And it has worked out, at least seemingly, because we know Luis Torres has very good defense. Francisco Alvarez has a pretty good bat. And not even catching wise, Brett Beatty has now caught fire because Aaron Sabia has practically been his personal hitting coach, which I think is super cool. So let's dive into that Beatty hot streak a little bit more, statistically speaking, and it looks great. A 277 average since the start of that Toronto series. Of course, that is when the two of them started having their conversations and doing their pregame work with a 426 slug for a 720 OPS. Not really where you want it to be, but still much better than the Brett Beatty that we all know. And of course, from those total numbers in 2026 that are on the bottom over those games, he was averaging a pace of 12 homers for 162 and 62 RBIs for 162, which is not bad whatsoever. You can see the month-by-month breakdown. If anything, you could argue maybe that he was better in May, especially with a higher OPS because that OVP was much higher. He was drawing more walks and getting hit by pitches more. But the batting average and the slugging are much better in July. The homers for 162 as well. So July has treated him really well, as has the last seven days and the last 15 days. And I think that this hot streak is so imperative, especially because of the light of the organization's confidence that they had in him and that they showed in him as of the 6th of July, which is when this update from Sleeper Mets released saying that people within the Mets front office still hold the belief that Brett Beatty will emerge as a lineup staple, which means they will not part with him for nothing, according to Chelsea Janes of SNY, meaning it would take the right package. It has to be a good package in return in order to trade Brett Beatty. This is not a guy like Freddy Peralta or AJ Minter or Brooks Raley, who you're trading just because you need to trade him and has an expiring contract. Beatty does not. In fact, he's been hot of late. And probably I would say this Aaron Sabia thing had something to do with it. So a lot of credit to this guy, JPA Aaron Sabia, but go down there in the comment section. Let me know what you think. Does this narrative and recent hot streak deter you from wanting Beatty gone? Do you want to keep him, give him a shot now? Another shot, I should say. Or does it not matter at all to you? Also, how about him owning up to his mistakes? I love that when a guy does that. I'm super happy that he did it. Does that at all sway your mindset? And finally, what about how all of this plays out? Where are you on that? Do you think that Beatty is going to end up doing well? Do you think he's not going to do well? Do you think he's going to get traded? Give me all your thoughts down below. Let me know if you agree or disagree with me. But unfortunately, that's all the time I have for you in today's video. Thank you so much for watching, and let's go Mets!