Paul Articulates – Get to know Reid Brignac

Recently I had the privilege of being part of a media day interview with Binghamton Rumble Ponies’ Manager Reid Brignac.  Reid is starting his third year as manager of the Mets’ AA franchise.  He has made a name for himself in this role with a great playoff run last year that brought the team into the Eastern League championship series.  Reid was also selected to manage the team in the inaugural Spring Breakout Game against the Washington Nationals’ top prospects.  He has already had five former players move up to the majors, and we expect that there will be several more.

The following questions were posed by a variety of writers and news crews with Reid’s answers documented below.  Once again I offer my thanks to Jacob Wilkins and the Binghamton Rumble Ponies for making Reid available for the interview.

Question: How do you deal with balancing all the big name prospects?

Brignac: We have to take it one day at a time, have our staff attack their development needs to get them ready for the major leagues.  Obviously everyone’s time table is different but it is our responsibility to make sure they get the work that they need to be prepared.

Question: I am sure it would be nice to be in 80 degree weather in Florida, but how does it feel to be back in Binghamton again?

Brignac: We’re excited to get the season started. There is a lot of momentum from last year.  We had a really good run and we are going to have some familiar faces on the team again so we hope to get off to a good start and have a great season again.

Question: Where does the team stand at this stage in comparison to the team you had last year?

Brignac: The team changed so much last year.  We had some guys that contributed early go up to AAA, and then in the middle of the year we added Gilbert, Acuna, and Jeremiah Jackson – they paid dividends in the second half.  We had some pitchers that have moved up so we probably won’t see them this year but we have added exiting new pitchers like Joander Suarez and Tyler Stuart this year, Cameron Foster and some other new faces as well that we are excited about.

Question: How do you balance the urgency to win with addressing the development needs of the players?

Brignac: A lot of our practice is for the development side of their games.  We work on the skills that will make them better, but when the game starts, we challenge them to go out and compete in the games.  We want them to just go out in the games and play without worrying about their mechanics too much so they can be free and easy and play good fundamentally sound team baseball.  We are all pulling for each other and we want this team to win ballgames.

Question: During spring training you were able to meet some of the new staff at the major league level.  How were the conversations with Carlos Mendoza?

Brignac: Mendy was great.  I’m really excited for his future.  There is no doubt in my mind he is going to get things turned around up there.  He is doing a great job building relationships with the players and that is the first thing you need to do as a new manager.  He is invested in our minor league system as well.  He wants to have success and he will do everything in his power to do so.

Question: As a follow-up to that, how does the culture and the message from the regime at the top level trickle down to the players at this level?

Brignac: The whole mindset is we are getting better every day.  Mendoza was great with the players, and that is a big part of who we are as an organization and our emphasis is on getting our guys ready as soon as possible to play for the major league team.

Question: How proud are you to see your former players doing so well at the major league level?

Brignac:  It is the most satisfying thing as a minor league manager to see your players succeed at the higher level. That is why we do this job and take time away from our families to develop these guys for that future.  It is very humbling and prideful thing for us as coaches to see them succeed.

Question: Reid, congratulations on being selected to manage the prospects team at the Spring Breakout game this year.  How was that experience?

Brignac: It was great.  The Nationals had some great young prospects and so did we.  It was exciting for the fans and for the organization to put that many talented players on one team to go out and play a game.  It was fun! 

Question: What does your team have to do to win this year?

Brignac: We win if we are together; if we pull for each other; if we have each others’ backs. We need to take care of the baseball and we need to pitch well.  That is the big thing because if you are in it late, you have chances to win ballgames.  Pitching and defense are first and foremost and obviously some timely hitting would be great too.  We have a combination of speed and power, we have people that can draw walks and get on base, so we expect to have a lot of congestion on the bases on a nightly basis and we look forward to seeing some guys come up with clutch hits and our pitchers dominate the strike zone.