January 22, 2024, 5:39 p.m.
TORONTO – Having already made his major league debut as a player, Matt Haig is preparing for his next major league debut as a coach as he returns to the majors for the first time in eight years since his last game with the same team, the Toronto Blue Jays. .
The 38-year-old has had a lot of life between then and now. Japanese seasons. The next two years in the minor leagues were filled with detailed note-taking and introspection typical of athletes nearing the end of their playing days. His daughters Lydia and Julia and his wife Erica were born. Pro Scouting Fellowship with the Blue Jays. And he coached within the organization during the three years lost due to COVID-19 in 2020, which led to his recent promotion.
The many lessons learned along the way have been infused into his new job as assistant hitting coach, working with Don Mattingly in the newly created role of offensive coordinator, and returning hitting coach Guillermo Martinez. He will work with assistant Hunter Mense.
And just as he did when he broke out with the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 7, 2012, Haig is excited about his impending return to the majors in a new role.
“We’re both excited, but as a coach you’re trying to understand from a holistic perspective how you can bring value to the team,” Haig said by phone. “You’re doing it as a player, but it’s a different perspective of how I myself can contribute and where I fit into this field. As a coach, the feeling is, where do I really contribute to the whole thing?” We’re trying to see if we can do it.”
Making that happen will be the focus of the entire coaching staff, including three other newcomers: associate manager DeMarlo Hale, third base coach Carlos Febles and mental performance coach John Lannan. The Blue Jays haven’t finished recruiting from the offseason market yet, but the situation is far from resolved, but the club’s success this year could hinge on rebounding from key players who had down seasons in 2023. Very expensive.
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Haig only appeared in 43 big league games during his 11-year professional career, but played for both the 2014 wild-card Pirates and 2015 AL East champion Blue Jays. Those experiences helped him see the “light at the end of the tunnel” during his playing days, and instead of worrying about whether he could actually run to prove himself in the majors, he started preparing for whatever opportunity came his way. I started focusing on getting things in order.
Haig believes his best year was ’15, when he hit .338/.416/.469 in 136 games with Buffalo, a season that shaped his thinking. Ta. “What I learned about myself, how I move, the areas I can cover, the zones I can attack, I take into my coaching today,” he explains. “I learned how to be consistently successful at the plate.”
However, an injury prevented him from putting that knowledge to the test afterwards. He signed with the Hanshin Tigers in 2016, hoping to further his success on a bigger stage, but he played in only 65 games and posted an OPS of .783. In 2017, he was healthier than ever and played 136 games for Rochester, Minnesota’s Triple-A affiliate, but he knew his “body was breaking down.” In 2018, he appeared in 45 games in Washington and Seattle’s systems before joining a fellowship with the Blue Jays.
“At the time, I was very observant and trying to write things down and keep learning,” Haig says. “I was hyper-aware of everything. I was aware of what it took to prepare each day, paying attention to my teammates, how they were moving athletically, how their swings were. I’m more aware of what’s going on and what their plans are. It’s not like I wasn’t there before, but I’m more aware of it. Ultimately, that time is where I started to focus on some of the things that I try to emphasize now as a coach. That led to that.”
For example, one of the notes Haag remembers vividly is “motor movements from the back of the body, from a simpler position.” He carefully observed the different movement profiles of successful batters, as he did not have a “very athletic, controlled, steady movement” that he “had to compensate for to make it work.” , stored information.
Over time, he “became more focused on certain qualities and began to see a certain consistency in successful players.”
Digging so deeply into detail is “both a blessing and a curse,” Haig says. But I guess that’s just how my brain works. ”
Being aware of that and being able to share information in a way that doesn’t drag hitters down the rabbit hole is a trait that has served him well as a coach. The results were evident during his two years as hitting coach at Double-A New Hampshire and last year with the Bisons.
Ernie Clement, who had his best season at the plate in 2023 with an OPS of .944 in 72 games with Buffalo and an OPS of .885 in 30 games with the Blue Jays, considers himself one of the success stories, and last year. He said in August that his growth had been “amazing.” This is a will to Matt Haig. ”
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Not one to dig deep into data – “I’m a go-player, just trying to help the team win,” he says – Clement isn’t about making contact, he’s about making better contact and getting the ball. I knew I needed help with getting a better angle.
In addition to targeted tee-up and flip work, Hague suggested some specific exercises, which Clement agreed with, and eventually an improved swing path began to produce better results. .
“I don’t really like looking at numbers, but one day I looked up at them and saw them in places I’d never seen them before,” Clement recalls. “Matty was like, ‘Hey, you’re really starting to get the ball up. Your ground ball rate is going down and your line drive rate is going up.'” And I was like, ‘Hit the ball hard. , I was thinking, “I just want to hit it on the line.” …
“It’s never been fun to watch me take hits the last few years,” Clement added. “Hats off to him. He was great.”
His approach with Clement mirrors the way Hague approaches his hitters. He prefers to emphasize strengths rather than seeking major changes or adjustments to weaknesses. He shows players objective data and has the potential to connect it to video, so it’s not just a number on a page. He listens to feedback and decides next steps based on player reactions. He understands that hitters protect their swing and approach. As with his players, he emphasizes, “I don’t want to change the perspective of how they feel about themselves.”
“They’re very athletic and move in a lot of different ways, so we’re trying to help coach them,” Haig continues. “I know what it’s like to have your brain filled with so much information. Some guys can handle it. Some guys can’t. It’s like it clouds their brain. We don’t want to fill them up. We want to highlight their strengths and bring out more from them. They show us when they can be great, and they try to bridge that gap and maintain that period. , you’re trying to understand what was going on during that period, what was working well, and match that to where they were at that moment.”
In doing so, Haig earned a reinstatement contract with the Blue Jays, and the lessons from last time are being applied here and now.
