“The guys that I was watching as a kid? Dillon Gee and Jon Niese were my guys.”
With their 13th-round selection in the 2023 MLB Draft, the Mets selected reliever Ben Simon, a right-handed pitcher from Elon University. Simon, just 21, spent three years at Elon in the Coastal Athletic Association, one of the strongest baseball conferences in the country.
After Simon closed out his first six appearances with the Mets (two in the Florida Complex League and four with St. Lucie), he took the time to sit down with Metsmerized and Mets Minors to discuss his college career, his background in applied mathematics, how growing up a Mets fan has impacted his young professional career, and so much more.
Ben Simon, Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized
Getting Started at Elon
Simon’s freshman year at Elon in 2021 was college baseball’s first year back from the COVID-19 pandemic that shortened the 2020 season. One of the main challenges, he said, was how “off and on” life could be while trying to combat the impacts of COVID both as a team and as individuals.
However, Simon believes that his initial experiences on campus as an athlete helped him grow “more during that time than any other time in my life.”
During Simon’s tenure at Elon, college sports took on a new life. The transfer portal exploded, NIL (name, image, and likeness deals) became the largest factor of enrollment in college sports, and eligibility became almost impossible to track.
As for mid-major schools such as Elon, Simon notes the difference in how the portal is used versus the commonly referred to Power 5 schools. He states that “you’re either getting a guy who was at a Power 5 school but didn’t play and is moving ‘backward’ to a mid-major, or you get the Division-II, Division-III, or JUCO guy who is stepping up into the program. There is a stark difference between those two.”
Simon was drafted during his junior year but feels as though his draft process was different than most. “Even getting recruited was different,” he said. “Nobody knew me at all. I wasn’t a huge baseball guy… I played a ton of basketball in high school. For me, it was kind of just that I threw hard one day and it was, ‘That’s it, you’re a baseball player now.’ It kind of just came out of nowhere, and luckily Elon found me”.
Simon said he knew he had the makeup to be drafted but never told himself that he was for sure going to be drafted. “It never felt real until it was real, you know?”
Finding Analytics in College & With the Mets
Simon was an applied mathematics major at Elon and wanted to find a way to use his studies in his baseball career.
“Before the draft process came to fruition,” Simon added, “I looked into joining a research and development department or analytics department for a sports team.”
Simon gave props to the Mets’ coaches and staff at their facility in Port St. Lucie, saying, “I, right now, can’t help myself the way that the guys at the Mets do,” but his goal is to be able to help himself with data and information the way the Mets already have.
Simon only had positive things to say about the new pitching lab the Mets launched in Port St. Lucie last year, saying they’re great at understanding that “some guys like that stuff and some guys hate it.
“They have a good understanding that if guys don’t want to use it, they’re not going to force someone to change what they are doing based on the numbers.”
Simon said he was able to throw in the Mets’ new pitching lab after being drafted, calling it a “very unique” experience. “The organization is giving us all of the tools,” he added. “It’s up to us to implement what they have into our routines and plans.”
Simon finds himself understanding both sides of the analytics debate. He’s a two-sport player who does not engulf himself in the data, and also an applied mathematics student. He says that he believes there is room in sports for both. He acknowledges that most of the teams who have been successful in recent years have used analytics throughout their organizations, “but when you’re in the game and playing it every day,” he added, “sometimes there’s the sense that the analytics can hinder you if you’re trying to do too much or be someone you’re not.”
Simon… Grew Up a Met Fan??
From here, the interview with Simon took a turn that was never expected. Simon grew up in New Jersey and followed Mets baseball as a kid. “I liked baseball, but I didn’t fall in love with baseball until that 2015 World Series run.
“It made me love baseball.”
Simon goes on to name Jon Niese and Dillon Gee as two pitchers that he watched a lot as a kid. Yes, that Dillon Gee and that Jon Niese.
“I loved watching those guys pitch, and those teams before 2015 were Johan-centric obviously, and they had a ton of great pitchers on them, but Jon Niese was one of my favorite pitchers growing up, and Dillon Gee as well. Those teams were always on in this household, every night in the summer.”
“I loved Ike Davis–the random players are the ones I always gravitated to the random players, I loved watching them play.”
He remembers the 2015 team clinching in Cincinnati. He watched the Harvey game in a friend’s basement. “Those memories are very, very fond for me.” He wants to give other kids that feeling of falling in love with baseball.
Since getting drafted by the Mets, he’s flip-flopped that he’s now on the team he watched during the summer. “Going down to St. Lucie, seeing all the Mets memorabilia, all the pictures, it was really cool. I had never been to St. Lucie.”
“That was a moment where I was just in awe of everything that was going on.”
Simon Looking Forward
Simon said his first goal of the offseason was to finish his degree at Elon during the fall semester. He says it’s different having baseball be “your job”, but he’s still throwing, hitting the gym, and joked that he is”cooking a lot more of my own meals.” But overall, after a hectic 2023, “I’m excited to get some time at home before heading back down to St. Lucie and getting back after it next year.”
He finished by saying that he understands that “there is a process to everything. Many of my goals are taken day by day, just showing up and being the best player I can be, being an energy guy when I’m not pitching.” He just wants to show up and be the best pitcher he can be.
