Photo by Ed Delany, MMO
The New York Mets announced a series of coaching moves today with Dave Eiland being fired and replaced by Phil Regan being the most notable followed by Ricky Bones reclaiming his bullpen coach title after the team fired Chuck Hernandez.
However, the Mets later announced that they were also adding a new position to their coaching staff known as “pitching strategist” and did not expand on it, in terms of what it entails, any further than announcing that Jeremy Accardo would be the one taking the job.
Regan, 82, has previously been a pitching coach for both the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs while also being named manager of the Baltimore Orioles briefly in 1995.
In addition to that, the Mets’ main reasoning for hiring him might have to do with the fact that he was the St. Lucie Mets’ pitching coach from 2009-2015, meaning he worked with a large majority of the pitching staff at one point or another, with the only outlier being Jason Vargas.
Bones, 50, is returning to the position he was in as recently as last season, serving as the team’s bullpen coach from 2012-2018 and was serving as the St. Lucie Mets’ pitching coach this season prior to Thursday.
Accardo, 37, is a former MLB pitcher who most recently served as the Mets’ minor league pitching coordinator. He was initially hired by the organization in 2017 and served as the GCL Mets pitching coach and later served as the Las Vegas 51’s bullpen coach in 2018.
Accardo’s seven-year-old daughter was recently diagnosed with cancer. Many in the Mets’ minor league affiliates have rallied behind this and Syracuse Mets’ reliever Ryan O’Rourke has started a t-shirt campaign for her and the Accardo family.
