Mike's Mets - Small Things

 

By Mike Steffanos

Hiring Eric Jagers is a smart move that could pay big dividends in the future.

Shortly after extending closer Edwin Díaz to a record-breaking deal, the New York Mets hired Eric Jagers as their director of pitching development. The 27-year-old Jagers will oversee the development of all the Mets' minor league pitchers. While the Díaz signing will justifiably garner much more attention from both the media and Mets fans, Jagers will be taking over a job that will be crucial for the club's hopes of taking some of the talented arms in their minor league system and turning them into cheap, controllable major league contributors.

If owner Steve Cohen's vision of a sustainable winner is to come to pass, a great deal of credit will be due to the efforts of Jagers and the coaches working with him. It seems like a lot of responsibility to hand over to a 27-year-old whose own career in the game ended in college thanks to thoracic outlet syndrome. But, despite his youth, Eric Jagers is exactly the sort of young, smart, and talented individual who progressive clubs are employing to take all of the advanced technology available these days and translate it into development successes for these organizations.

With the Wilpons out of the picture, Steve Cohen's Mets are investing heavily in cutting-edge tech that progressive clubs have been using to turbocharge their player development for years. This is important but, as I pointed out in my last post, the best technology available is useless without the right people in place. While it's important that they understand how to implement all of that expensive equipment, it's crucial to be able to translate all of the data output in a way that makes sense to the players that you're trying to help. In the New York Post article about Jagers' hiring, Mike Puma quoted GM Billy Eppler on what the club saw in their new director of pitching development:

"What we're trying to do — regardless of this hire or any hire — is really serve the players," Eppler said. "You just want to be able to answer every question, so if a player has questions you want to have them talk to somebody from a technical expertise and maybe from a psychological expertise. If we can really have that diversity of thought we should be able to serve the players for what they need."

Bobby Nightengale had a great piece about Eric Jagers in the Cincinnati Enquirer in January 2021, when Jagers had been hired to be the Reds' assistant pitching coach. Nightengale documented how Jagers had utilized Driveline to transform himself from a soft-tossing lefty into someone who could throw 95-mph fastballs. Unfortunately, injuries derailed Jagers' collegiate career. Jagers wound up interning at Driveline and then got into coaching. He quickly became one of the most sought-after young coaches in baseball, which led to a job with the Reds.

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