Former Mets pitcher Jeremy Hefner will interview for the Mets vacant pitching coach position on Monday, it was reported by The Athletic's Marc Carig late Saturday night.

Hefner will meet with team officials at the general manager's meetings in Scottsdale Arizona, looking to become the second former Mets player to join the staff this offseason, with the team hiring Carlos Beltran to be their new manager earlier this month.

The 33-year-old was the assistant pitching coach for the Twins this past season after having joined the team back in 2017 as an advanced scout.

Hefner has been viewed "as a 'conduit,' a recently retired player who is capable of blending practical experience with a deep knowledge of data-driven techniques," Carig reported.

"Hef is among the first wave of players who finished their careers and are really comfortable with this data," Twins baseball operations director Daniel Adler told The Athletic's Dan Hayes last season. "Those guys are going to be better ambassadors for this stuff than we can ever be. There's always going to be something helpful about a person who played to make our research better and communicating to others who may be more skeptical."

Under Hefner, the Twins pitching staff went from the eighth-most WAR in the American League in 2018 (slightly better than the 50th percentile) to number two in 2019.
- Jacob Resnick (@Jacob_Resnick) November 10, 2019

Hefner only played two seasons of major league ball--both with the Mets--before two Tommy John surgeries ended his career early. He went 8-15 with a 4.59 ERA and 150 strikeouts during his plate appearances with the Mets, and is even still young enough to pitch.

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