Phil Regan may be 82 years old, but there is a reason the Mets are sticking with him as their new pitching coach.
Regan has already appears to be imparting some of his wisdom on closer Edwin Diaz.
Diaz recorded the save in Friday's 5-4 win over the Cubs by pitching a perfect ninth inning while striking out the final two batters. Afterwards, Regan said he had been working with Diaz a little bit in the bullpen and helped him make an adjustment.
"We tried to get him on a straighter line toward the plate where he wouldn't be falling off and maybe pushing the ball up a little bit," he said. "He took to it. He came off the mound and said it worked."
Regan had been working with Mets minor league pitchers in the lower levels of their farm system when he was summoned to the majors on Thursday following the firing of pitching coach Dave Eiland.
"He came off the mound and said it worked"
- SNY (@SNYtv) June 21, 2019
New Mets pitching Phil Regan had Edwin Diaz make an adjustment and it paid off pic.twitter.com/C3KlN5jZjn
He has been a coach at either the college or professional level since 1973, so he's seen it all.
"Pitching is all about the little things. It's never a major adjustment," he said. "Maybe you're not turning your shoulder enough, maybe you're hitting on your heel, maybe you're overstriding. It's a lot of little things. Once you get your fundamentals down, you really don't have to worry about where you throw the ball because you could say 'I'm going to throw a slider down and away' and if your mechanics are good, the ball will go there automatically. ... But if you do one little thing wrong, you begin to struggle on the mound and have problems."