Mets hope pitching shakeup pays fast dividends

June 22nd, 2019

CHICAGO -- The Mets are hoping their latest coaching shakeup will lead the pitching staff to better success both now and after the All-Star break.

The team’s starters currently rank 15th in MLB with a 4.37 ERA and 28th in MLB with a 5.20 bullpen ERA.

Manager Mickey Callaway said after Thursday’s coaching announcement that the team’s day-to-day process on the pitching side would become a little more “in-depth” and elaborated on what that means for New York’s staff going forward.

“We’ve always used data. I think we just have an extra guy now,” Callaway said. “We have that liaison that can go in between to just further delve into specifics for each player.”

The Mets’ newest additions of interim pitching coach Phil Regan, bullpen coach Ricky Bones and the newly created role of pitching strategist Jeremy Accardo will add to the team’s collaborative approach.

While the 82-year-old Regan has been a pitching coordinator in the Mets’ system for the last few years and watched members of the team’s staff grow, he is confident that he has a lot to offer the club and that the game he has been a part of for the past 60 years hasn’t passed him by.

“You have to adjust to things. New things, the computers, the analytics, the high-speed cameras where you can stop and show [pitchers] the rotation and whether you’re at 180 degrees or you’re off,” Regan said. “You never stop learning with the technology today and you got to keep up with it. If you don’t, the other teams are going to do it and you’re going to be left behind.”

“I think there are all kinds of ways to do this,” Callaway said. “All three guys will have their right to implement information as they see fit and I think it will be a good marriage there.”

Regan has already started to implement a few changes, starting with All-Star closer . Following Friday’s 5-4 victory over the Cubs, Diaz said he felt good after a slight adjustment from his new pitching coach. Diaz closed the game for his 16th save of the season.

“I’ve been watching video with Phil and he noticed some things I was doing wrong,” Diaz said through interpreter Alan Suriel.

“We have worked with him in the bullpen the last couple of days. We’ve tried to get him a straighter line toward the plate where he would be falling off and pushing the ball up a little bit,” Regan said. “He took to it and came off the mound and said, ‘It worked.’ Pitching is all the little things.”