This unsung hero of Mets' coaching staff is 'a huge asset'

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- On a recent morning at Clover Park, Rafael Fernandez stood atop an elevated platform behind the batting cage, watching various Mets take their swings. To his right was Juan Soto, one of the game¡¯s greatest players. To his left was Starling Marte, a well-respected veteran. Fernandez laughed with them both, adding to the conversation while rarely taking his eyes off the hitter in front of him.

This past offseason, for the first time in more than a decade, Mets officials opted to bring back their entire Major League coaching staff. That included their two hitting coaches, Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes.

It also included a third, lesser known instructor. Yet Fernandez, whose official title is ¡°coaching assistant,¡± is so much more than that.

One of the longest-tenured Mets employees in any capacity, Fernandez is part hitting coach, part batting practice pitcher, part interpreter, part psychologist. On any given day, he¡¯s just as liable to be lugging equipment between fields as he is to be offering advice to multi-million dollar superstars. He¡¯s there on the team plane, breaking down swings with Francisco Lindor. He¡¯s there in the batting cage, helping Brandon Nimmo find his feel against lefties.

¡°Nobody sees him,¡± Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez said, referring to the outside world. ¡°But I think he¡¯s a great guy for us.¡±

How Fernandez got here is a bit of a winding tale. Way back in 2006, Fernandez signed with the Mets as a 17-year-old outfielder who barely spoke a word of English -- just another hopeful with Major League dreams. Unlike so many of his peers, however, Fernandez secured a college scholarship as a condition of his signing. His father had insisted on it. So when Fernandez¡¯s climb up the Minor League ladder ultimately stalled at Double-A, he cashed in that promise and began pursuing a psychology degree back in the Dominican Republic.

Or at least he tried to. Juan Henderson, the administrator at the Mets¡¯ Dominican Academy, saw coaching potential in Fernandez and encouraged him to remain in the organization. So for three years, Fernandez spent his days waking up at 5 a.m., instructing teenage ballplayers, then heading straight to his classes and arriving home around 10 p.m.

He was a year away from graduating when the Mets offered him a full-time coaching job in the United States. As much as he wanted to earn his degree, Fernandez couldn¡¯t refuse, so he put his lessons on hold and spent the 2018 season in Port St. Lucie.

His next break came quickly, early in 2019, at a time when the Mets¡¯ left-handed hitters were struggling against same-sided pitching. Specifically, Nimmo and Michael Conforto wanted to play every day, but felt they couldn¡¯t improve if they were rarely seeing lefties. So they asked then-GM Brodie Van Wagenen to find a left-handed batting practice pitcher.

Fernandez was left-handed. Still ambivalent about his decision to leave school, he agreed to a stint in New York, thinking: ¡°Maybe this is what God¡¯s got for me.¡±

¡°And he¡¯s been with us ever since,¡± Nimmo said.

After COVID, Fernandez settled into a hybrid role, helping the big league staff when the Mets were at home and serving as a Minor League instructor when they were on the road. As much as he enjoyed life in the Majors, Fernandez harbored some reservations. Ultimately, he hoped to climb the organizational ranks as a hitting coach. If he spent all his time throwing batting practice, Fernandez worried he wouldn¡¯t progress as a coach.

Then-manager Luis Rojas became one of several to offer a sympathetic ear, encouraging Fernandez to start attending daily hitters¡¯ meetings. His relationships around the organization blossomed. One day early the next season, Barnes was trying to teach Marte a concept, but the subtleties were (quite literally) lost in translation. Fernandez stepped in, delivering Barnes¡¯ message in a way that Marte understood intrinsically. Something clicked.

¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me that earlier?¡± Fernandez recalled Marte saying.

¡°Dude!¡± Fernandez replied. ¡°We¡¯ve been trying to tell you that for weeks.¡±

Partially on Marte¡¯s insistence, and with support from Barnes and Chavez, Fernandez began traveling regularly. That opened new avenues for him to help hitters -- on buses to and from the ballpark, on team planes and of course in batting cages around the country. Over the last three years, Fernandez has become enmeshed in Mets culture, particularly with Latin players like Marte, Alvarez and Lindor.

¡°He talks the language -- not Spanish, but he talks the hitting language that a lot of us talk, too,¡± Lindor said.

¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t know what Jeremy and I would do without him,¡± Chavez said. ¡°He¡¯s a huge asset to what we do. You can tell with the players, they really love him.¡±

Asked how he wants his career to progress from here, Fernandez doesn¡¯t hesitate: He hopes to become a full-time hitting coach. At this point, he¡¯s well on his way.

In the interim, he¡¯ll keep helping players where he can. Fernandez spends his free time watching video of hitters so he¡¯ll be prepared if any come to him with questions.

Entering his 20th season in the organization, he ranks second in tenure among uniformed personnel behind only longtime bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello.

¡°I feel like I¡¯m a Met,¡± Fernandez said. ¡°So I will do whatever it takes to help the guys get better.¡±