On the same day the New York Mets reportedly hired the son of Atlanta Braves legendary manager Brian Snitker, they also failed to retain the coach who Juan Soto credited for turning around his base running. That could prove to be a very costly mistake and one that benefits Atlanta greatly.
Antoan Richardson, despite being one of the few Mets coaches to survive the club's coaching purge after a embarrassing 2025 will not return to the New York Mets in 2026.
The New York Mets and first-base coach Antoan Richardson have not come to terms on a new contract and Richardson is expected to leave the organization, sources told ESPN. Richardson was lauded for his work with Mets baserunners and will seek another job when his contract expires.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 27, 2025
Mets fail to keep their best coach in latest blunder
Despite all of their failings in the 2025 season, the New York Mets were an excellent team on the base paths. The Braves rival set the record for the highest stolen base success rate, going 147 out of 165 on stolen base attempts, good for an 89.1% rate.
Much of the credit to the Mets stolen base success rate was attributed to their first base coach, Antoan Richardson. The Mets were the slowest team in baseball, 0.1 feet per second slower than the second-slowest team, the Braves, but finished the season fifth in MLB in stolen bases.
While speedy players like Luisangel Acuña stole their fair share of bases, slower players like Juan Soto, who stole a career-high 38 bases despite being in the 13th-percentile in sprint speed, and Brandon Nimmo, who stole 13 bags despite being in the 46th-percentile, were also dangerous on the base paths.
Soto especially credited Richardson for his newfound basestealing abilities, saying, "Antoan did an unbelievable job, he's been helping me since Day 1. So I think I give him all the credit," after joining the 30-30 club.
Considering the Mets have essentially an unlimited budget, letting a heralded coach leave because they couldn't agree to terms seems like a blunder that only the Mets could make. With Richardson leaving, one of the only silver linings from the 2025 Mets season seems destined to regress in 2026, which could only be good news for the Braves.