Back in the 90’s when the Atlanta Braves had a historically dominant rotation that included Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz, pitching coach Leo Mazzone was hailed as a genius. When he went to the Baltimore Orioles, not so much.
Rick Peterson was also lauded for his work with an A’s rotation comprised of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito. With the Mets, he was a scapegoat. He was fired in June of 2008 and replaced by Dan Warthen who begins his ninth season as pitching coach of the Mets in 2016.
Now that the Mets have Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Noah Syndergaard, Warthen has finally gained some notoriety. We now hear about the “Warthen Slider.” As is usually the case, when you are blessed with a trio of young ace caliber pitchers, some fame is going to come your way as a pitching coach. They point to certain things you may have said or done, a tweak perhaps, or maybe just some sage advice that helped make some great pitchers great. Warthen, who has survived two GMs and two managers, is no different. But how good is he really? Perhaps this season, we are about to find out.
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This past offseason the Mets traded left-hander Jon Niese to the Pirates in exchange for second baseman Neil Walker. He was once so highly regarded that the team saw fit to give him a five year contract extension that also included two additional team options. Overall, Niese was somewhat disappointing. He’s had shoulder problems. He was 61-61 with a 3.91 ERA and a 1.361 WHIP. I believe it’s fair to say the Mets expected more and didn’t receive it. Now, Niese is a Pittsburgh Pirate where he is now joined with well-regarded pitching coach Ray Searage.
Searage is fast developing a reputation as a pitching guru. Unlike most pitching coaches, it’s not because of who he has, but what he does with what he has. Here’s an example of some of his success stories:
- 2012 Twins/White Sox 6-12, 5.34 ERA, 1.468 WHIP
- 2013-2015 Pirates 35-25, 3.26 ERA, 1.241 WHIP
- 2011 Yankees, 11-11, 5.15 ERA, 1.434 WHIP
- 2012-2013 Pirates, 26-21, 3.41 ERA, 1.228 WHIP
- 2014 Phillies, 8-18, 4.59 ERA, 1.409 WHIP
- 2015 Pirates, 9-7, 3.18 ERA, 1.360 WHIP
- 2015 Mariners, 4-6, 4.64 ERA, 1.408 WHIP
- 2015 Pirates, 7-2, 1.85 ERA, 1.026 WHIP
As noted above, Searage’s next project is Niese. He’s coming off of what might be perhaps the worst year of his career where he went 9-10 with a 4.13 ERA and a 1.398 WHIP. Searage has his work cut out for him, especially with a head strong pitcher like Niese. For his part, Niese says he is seeing an opportunity for improvement with a superior Pirates defense. Is the Pirates defense Searage’s equivalent to Warthen’s slider? Who knows?
At the end of the day, it’s a results based business, and Searage has done something with his pitchers to coax better results than they’ve had elsewhere. If that continues, Niese is about to have the best year of what has so far been a very disappointing career. It’ll be another pitcher that Searage has been able to reach that other pitching coaches couldn’t.
If that’s true, it doesn’t make Warthen a bad pitching coach. Rather, it shows that like those who have come before him, sometimes a pitching coach’s perceived skill and reputation is more closely tied to the skills and talent possessed by his pitching staff.
