Tylor Megill has seen the lab, but won’t become a specimen until this offseason.
Open for business since early June, the Mets’ 360-degree pitching lab in Port St. Lucie, Fla., is among owner Steve Cohen’s latest forays into improving the organizational infrastructure.
The lab is staffed by pitching development personnel, biomechanics experts and analysts with backgrounds in various disciplines.
One estimate put the number of teams using such labs around 10, so the Mets are hardly pioneers in this regard. But Cohen’s wealth — he’s MLB’s richest owner — could give the Mets an advantage in the amount of resources devoted to the lab.
Megill, who has used a pitching lab in the Los Angeles area in the offseason, said the goal is to become more efficient with movements.
“What percentage of your body is being used where?” Megill said. “Before it was more like, ‘You’re pushing more on your toe or the heel of your foot. What’s more efficient for your body?’”
Mets general manager Billy Eppler won’t say how many pitchers (or which ones) have been analyzed at the new lab, but indicated it’s a significant number.
“We’re running our players through there and gathering thumbprints of them, so we can optimize our ability to coach and instruct and take an evidence-based approach to our player instruction,” Eppler said.
Eppler said he pitched the lab idea to Cohen upon arriving as GM before the 2022 season. Cohen has spoken openly about the Mets’ need to match and surpass other organizations in incorporating new technologies. Last season, the Mets invested in a pitching machine that could replicate the delivery of any pitcher the team was preparing to face.
It’s too early to determine whether the pitching lab has helped, according to Eppler.
“You generally need to build an inventory, and that will kind of help guide the diagnosis and the prescription,” Eppler said. “So the more inventory and players that pass through, the more absolutes you can get a hold of and put a player in the best position or help optimize a player at that time.”
Among the goals of the lab is to build a database that can be consulted as players’ careers progress.
“There’s a couple of different practices behind it,” Eppler said. “Some at the more macro level to identify aspects of deliveries and swings that can serve as checkpoints, and then there’s also at the player-specific level for the comparison, kind of having the value of comparative data from different timestamps in a player’s trajectory. It’s serving both purposes and will get better over time.”
During his press conference last month at Citi Field to address the Mets’ disappointing season, Cohen cited the pitching lab as a tool he’s hoping improves the organization.
“We haven’t developed any pitching, which is actually pretty shocking,” Cohen said. “We’re certainly capable of doing it. We may not have had the right infrastructure in place [in the past].”
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Buck stops here?
Buck Showalter’s shortest managerial stint was the three seasons he spent with the Diamondbacks from 1998-2000 before he was fired.
Could it be two-and-done for Showalter with the Mets? That decision figures to hinge upon who, if anybody, Cohen hires as a president of baseball operations and whether the owner will let that hire decide Showalter’s fate.
Showalter, 67, is under contract for next season, and Cohen repeatedly has said he doesn’t blame the manager for the team’s performance this year.
Showalter has proceeded as if he will be back next year. Either way, changes to the coaching staff should be expected.
Brandon Nimmo plays the shift
As strange as it has looked with Brandon Nimmo playing left field — he moved to the position over the past week to help maintain his health while experiencing sore left quadriceps — it’s likely a precursor to the not-too-distant future.
Nimmo, 30, last winter received a new eight-year deal, and the likelihood at the time was he would spend at least half that contract removed from center field, which became his primary position in 2019.
Nimmo remains solid as a center fielder — he’s averaging one out above average at the position, according to Statcast, which ranks in MLB’s 78th percentile.
But the metrics suggest he’s below average in arm strength and getting jumps on balls.
Drew Gilbert, the center field prospect the Mets landed in the Justin Verlander trade, probably won’t be a major league consideration until 2025.
Nimmo will get at least another season in center, and the Mets can only hope they will face a decision on the position shortly thereafter.
It’s always funny in St. Louis
As this season started, you would have looked at the Mets’ four-game series that opened on Thursday in St. Louis as a possible playoff preview.
Instead, it’s the last-place Cardinals against a Mets team that spent a few hours in the NL East basement on Sunday and began play Thursday only one game ahead of the cellar-dwelling Nationals.
But maybe something will occur that adds intrigue to the Mets’ weekend at Busch Stadium. In their past two visits to St. Louis, there was no shortage of drama.
In 2021, with the offense slumping, interim general manager Zack Scott fired hitting coach Chili Davis following a loss in St. Louis in early May.
Last season, benches emptied after Yoan Lopez threw up-and-in to Nolan Arenado. It came after the Mets had been plunked six times during the three-game series. During the on-field skirmish, Pete Alonso was tackled from behind by Cardinals first base coach Stubby Clapp.
In my 14 seasons on the beat for The Post, the most memorable Mets-Cardinals game in St. Louis was the 20-inning affair on April 17, 2010 — my first road trip with the team. The game, won 2-1 by the Mets, was scoreless for the first 18 innings. Mike Pelfrey, then a member of the starting rotation, got the final three outs for the save.
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