Mets' foundation for pitching success a process five years in the making -- with many to thank

In examining the Mets’ rather startling pitching success under David Stearns, it’s instructive to go back some five years to a time when the team's baseball operations department was still in the dark ages analytically and owner Steve Cohen was just beginning to put his imprint on the organization. 

Zack Scott had been hired as assistant GM in December of 2020, shortly after Cohen had officially taken over as new owner, and was then promoted to acting GM in January of 2021 when Jared Porter was fired. 

Coming from the cutting-edge Boston Red Sox front office, Scott found an organization lacking in technology yet functioning well on the pitching side, thanks to some knowledgeable analysts and a "very impressive" pitching coach in Jeremy Hefner, then going into his second year in that position.

"They were really behind analytically," Scott recalled during a recent phone conversation. "It didn’t feel great, coming from Boston where they had so many analytical tools, and yet the Mets were in a decent place with pitching, mostly because of their communication process.

"They didn’t have (analytical) tools but they were getting good buy-in to what they were doing because of Jeremy. He has the rare combination of understanding the complexity on the data side, the ability to interact with analysts and speak their language, but also the ability to speak the players’ language. He could impart the information without shoving it down their throats and also has the even-keeled personality to deal with pushback and coach the human side of major league pitchers."

With that key piece of the puzzle in place, Scott went about upgrading the analytical side, with Cohen’s financial and emotional support. He hired Ben Zauzmer out of the Los Angeles Dodgers' high-tech front office to lead the baseball ops department into the modern age. 

"There was a lot to be done," Scott says. "They didn’t even have what was then a very popular tool, an analytical pitch-ranking system that takes all the tracking metrics and gives you a way to grade your pitchers’ stuff and command. We had to develop that. 

"We doubled the size of the analytics department in one year. Steve was very analytically-minded and it was clear what he wanted. We went from 13 to 26 people, including analysts, software developers, and data engineers. 

"One of the unique benefits we had then was being able to utilize the resources from Steve’s Point 72 (hedge fund) company. His head of data at Point 72 became the Mets’ head of data for a while. But it was going to take time. You just don’t snap your fingers and have the necessary advanced tools and the ability to implement them. 

"But the building blocks were in place, with Jeremy at the center of their communication. So it doesn’t surprise me that once they were getting caught up with the rest of the league, in terms of tools, that they could take a big step forward and have the kind of pitching success they’re having now."

Still, a lot has changed during that time. Scott was let go over a DWI arrest, though he was later acquitted in court of all charges, Billy Eppler was hired and operated as GM for two years, and then Cohen hired Stearns, the man he’d quietly sought for years, as president of baseball operations after waiting for him to be free of his contractual obligations with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

Scott is quick to give credit to Stearns for the Mets’ success last season and now in 2025, which is being driven primarily by excellent pitching that has outperformed expectations -- at least outside the organization -- despite the lack of name-brand starters. 

"The easy thing to do is go sign guys like Corbin Burnes and Max Fried as free agents," Scott said. "It takes some stones to say, no, this is the best way to do it. Being a bold decision-maker means doing things that aren’t popular. David has the ability to do what he thinks is best for the organization. But to do that you really have to believe in your process, and I think that’s where the Mets are now."

With that in mind, Scott and other baseball people I spoke to, including one currently in the Mets’ organization, all essentially make that larger point: that is, while it’s proper for Stearns to be praised publicly as the top decision-maker for the signings of the likes of Griffin Canning, Clay Holmes, and Sean Manaea, the spectacular results the Mets are getting are part of an organizational success story, one built on its advances in so many areas. 

"The guy in the big chair always gets too much credit and too much blame," was the way an executive from another MLB team put it. "It’s no secret around the league that the Mets have come a long way in a short time with some of their methodology, with competent people in key places. So Stearns should get credit but their process is the engine for what’s happening there."

For simplistic purposes, based on observations of various baseball people, the focus here is on two components to that engine: 

1) Hefner

2) The ballyhooed Pitching Lab. 

Let’s go back to Hefner momentarily. It’s not just Scott who sings his praises. Former Mets star pitcher Al Leiter was involved in the hiring of Hefner in December of 2019, when he was working as an advisor under then-GM Brodie Van Wagenen, and he too thinks the Mets’ pitching coach is a huge factor in the staff’s success. 

"It was an easy hire," Leiter said recently by phone. "Hef is very knowledgeable, very much in tune with the analytics, but the key is being able to take that to your pitchers and have their trust. 

"He has street cred as a former major leaguer, which to me is very important. A lot of the pitching coaches now are information guys who didn’t pitch in the big leagues, which is fine, but if you want your pitchers to really trust you in tough times, especially when you’re trying to make changes, it helps that you’ve done it at the highest level and understand how hard it is. To me, Jeremy is a snapshot of the ideal pitching coach."

As for the Pitching Lab, the mere mention of it draws chuckles from baseball people around the league.

"You guys have turned that pitching lab into a place where miracles happen," a rival exec said with a laugh, speaking generally of the New York media. "I give the Mets all the credit in the world for the success they’re having, but let’s not make that into some mystical place. 

"By now just about everybody has something like that in place, with all the necessary technology, so I don't think they're doing things that others are not. I just think they're people making good decisions to get the most out of what the information and technology provides." 

Leiter, now an analyst for MLB Network, concurs. And partly because he has a son, Jack, pitching in the big leagues for the Texas Rangers, he’s very informed on what teams do in those labs. 

"It’s technology that takes in all the data on every pitch and deciphers the good and the bad," Leiter said. "With video and high-speed cameras and pitch-tracking monitors and biomechanical cameras, it breaks down every little thing in how you deliver the ball, how it comes off your fingers, and why it works or doesn’t work. 

"They have pitch designers now who look at the information and come up with ways to pair pitches effectively, how often you should be throwing your slider, which pitches best complement your fastball. All that stuff. 

"You can sit and look at it for hours but it still goes back to whether you can implement it: 'What are the skills and drills that I have to do to make it work for me?' To me that’s the special sauce."

Scott adds that a big benefit of the lab is in the way the technology provides information beyond what even the best pitching coach can see for himself. 

"If you’re looking to change a pitcher’s effective spin rate," said Scott, "or the spin axis, that’s not something that can be seen by the naked eye.

"But it always comes back to feel: how did that feel to the pitcher? It has to feel right to him. That’s the relationship part of it, which, again is why Jeremy is such an important part of the process.”

Whatever the ingredients that go into the Mets’ pitching success, everyone I spoke to made the point that common sense says the starting rotation, in particular, likely can’t continue to pitch at this high of a level, leading the majors with an ERA of 2.24 going into Friday's action. 

"You have to pump the brakes a little," said Leiter. "I wouldn’t say it’s fluky but individually they’re mostly pitching way above the back of their baseball cards.

"Although I will say that if you’re limiting your starters to five and six innings, which they’ve done a lot, you’re going to put up better numbers. I remember all the times I told Bobby Valentine, 'I’m good, I’m good' and then went out and gave up a two-run home run in the seventh or eighth inning, so, yeah, that matters. But then you have to ask if the bullpen can handle that type of workload over an entire season."

Scott, meanwhile, said he believes the Mets’ success is largely for real, but admitted, "If you’re sitting in their front office, you kind of know there is bound to be some regression to the mean."

To that point, one MLB scout said, "As good as they’ve been, I believe the Mets are going to need more pitching. They could have help coming from a couple of big arms in their farm system. If not I’m sure they’ll be looking to add at the trade deadline."

How that plays out remains to be seen. But what seems clear by now, in Year 2 of this Stearns-led regime, is that by upgrading the inner workings of the organization so dramatically during the Cohen era, the Mets have a foundation for pitching success that is paying off now and should for years to come.