The Winter Meetings may have just kicked off, but the Pittsburgh Pirates may have already made their best move of the offseason with the hiring of Justin Meccage to be their assistant pitching coach.
The Pittsburgh Pirates gave Meccage the promotion on Dec. 1 as part of the organization’s front office shake up. One of the biggest fans of the move was manager Clint Hurdle.
“It was a great thought when it was presented to me, because I’ve liked Justin from the outside looking in for years,” Hurdle said. “He’s cutting edge. He’s a guy that’s grown up in a different era of baseball pitching, which will help as well.”
Meccage has been with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the past five seasons. He served as the pitching coach for the Bradenton Marauders from 2013-2014 before getting promoted to Altoona for the same role from 2015-2016. He served as the minor league pitching coordinator last season.
The Pirates added coaches Tom Prince and Joey Cora last offseason after both had served as managers in the Bucs’ farm system in an effort to help the club’s young position players feel more comfortable in the majors. Part of Meccage’s role will be to do the same for the pitchers.
“He’s had his eyes on the young pitchers in our organization for years,” Hurdle said. “He’s been one of the guys that’s got significant touches with four of the starters in our rotation right now, and some of the guys in our bullpen that we’re projecting on counting on next year.”
Familiarity breeds affection
Chad Kuhl, Tyler Glasnow, Steven Brault, Dovydas Neverauskas, Edgar Santana and Nick Kingham all factor into the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2018 pitching plans and have been coached by Meccage before.
Brault sent Meccage a text once he heard that he was added to the coaching staff. Brault told him he was excited about his promotion because he felt the club needed someone like him.
There are plenty of guys who are “a breath of fresh air.” Meccage is not one of them. Brault describes him as “a breath of fresh honesty.”
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]He’s had his eyes on the young pitchers in our organization for years[/perfectpullquote]“He’s a guy who’s going to tell you what you need to hear whether you’re going to like it or not,” Brault said. “And he’s a little fiery. He gets a little in people’s faces sometimes. Some people don’t like that. But I think he brings something that is sorely needed.”
“Sometimes, you just need somebody look at you in the face and go, ‘that’s wrong. You’re doing it wrong, and this is how you have to do it.’ And Mecc is not afraid of doing that to anybody. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t shy away from people.”
Brault remembers one particular instance in 2015 when he was pitching for the Altoona Curve when Meccage came out for a mound visit and really got in his face. When he headed back to the dugout, the only thing on Brault’s mind was, “Damn!”
Meccage pitched in low A and independent ball in 2002 and 2003, and Brault said he never lost that competitive spirit. He will be the “counterbalance” to Searage.
“Ray is super positive,” Brault said. “I mean, that’s just how he is. It’s his outlook, and it’s really nice, and it’s really fun to be around. And Mecc is pretty much the opposite.
“He’ll be fun when he can be.”
Two is the standard?
Jameson Taillon has never received one of those tongue lashings since the two never lined up on the same teams during his ascension to the majors.
“So I have a really good relationship with him,” Taillon joked.
Taillon was excited for the news because he thought it was weird that the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t have a second pitching coach already. He gave credit to Rojas for doing what he thought was a great job with the bullpen, but between mentoring the staff, keeping their mechanics in check and absorbing and trying to implement as much information as possible from the analytical department, Taillon said he thought Searage was overworked in 2017.
“With the way the game’s going, coaches are really important. Scouting’s important. We have hitting coaches that are roving around and coming up all the time…so I felt we could have used another pitching coach, honestly,” Taillon said.
The Pirates are very likely to stick with their homegrown pitchers to fill out their rotation for the foreseeable future. Hurdle has had his eye on Meccage for a long time, pegging him as a future pitching coach. Now he is getting his shot, and the young starters have a new voice who can help.
He may end up being one of the most important additions the Pirates make to their pitching staff this year.
“That wealth of knowledge, that experience, I think comfortable nature of coaching with the players we have at hand [will help],” Hurdle said. “[He’s] another set of eyes, and plus we can have Ray actually mentor him coming up.”
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