Thomas Slater (born April 6, 1968) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Moder ...

coach. He was the assistant hitting coach for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) from 2018 to 2021.

Early life

Slater graduated from St. Christopher's School in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, and the

Virginia Military Institute The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the U.S. In k ...

(VMI). He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

for the VMI Keydets as a

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

for four years.

Career

He coached baseball at St. Christopher’s School in 1991, and served on the coaching staffs of the Marshall Thundering Herd, VMI, and

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) a ...

. Slater was the head coach of VMI's baseball team from 2001 through 2003. He served as an assistant coach for the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni an ...

in 2004. He coached the

from 2005 through 2008. He joined the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

organization, managing the Gulf Coast Yankees of the

Rookie-level Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National L ...

Gulf Coast League in 2010 and the Staten Island Yankees of the

Class A-Short Season Class A Short Season (officially Short-Season A) was a level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States from 1965 through 2020. In the hierarchy of minor league classifications, it was below Triple-A, Double-A, Class A-Advanced (crea ...

New York-Penn League New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

in 2011, before becoming the hitting coach of the

Trenton Thunder The Trenton Thunder are a collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League. They are located in Trenton, New Jersey, and play their home games at Trenton Thunder Ballpark. From 1994 to 2020, it was a Minor League Baseball team of the D ...

of the

Class AA Double-A (officially Class AA) is the second-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States since 1946, below only Triple-A. There are currently 30 teams classified at the Double-A level, one for each team in Major League B ...

Eastern League in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, Slater was the Yankees' roving hitting instructor. Slater coached the Tampa Yankees of the

Class A-Advanced High-A, officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing, is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A and D ...

Florida State League The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following ...

in 2015 and 2016, and returned to Trenton in 2017. After the 2017 season, the

hired Slater as their assistant hitting coach. On May 3, 2021, Slater was fired by the Mets after the team had a .241 average through 22 games.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Tom 1968 births Living people Minor league baseball coaches Major League Baseball hitting coaches VMI Keydets baseball players VMI Keydets baseball coaches Auburn Tigers baseball coaches New York Mets coaches St. Christopher's School (Richmond, Virginia) alumni Staten Island Yankees coaches Baseball players from Richmond, Virginia