Newly named pitching coach Jeremy Hefner was drafted by the New York Mets on two separate occasions during the 2004 and 2005 MLB June Amateur Drafts (46th & 48th rounds), the right hander would not sign till he was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 5th round of the 2006 draft.

The Perkins, Oklahoma native would eventually make his way to the Mets organization after the Pittsburgh Pirates placed Hefner on waivers prior to the 2012 season (December 12, 2011). He would make his Major League debut early on during that 2012 campaign on April 23rd against the San Francisco Giants with 3 scoreless innings.

The righty would finish 2012 going 4-7 with an ERA of 5.09 while striking out 62 batters in 93.2 innings pitched. He pitched in 26 games, exactly half of which were starts. In 2013, Hefner required his first Tommy John surgery after posting a 4.34 and a 4-8 win/loss record after pitching in 24 games and tossing 130.2 innings while striking out 99.

He managed to injure himself again and require his second Tommy John surgery in 2014 subsequently Hefner was released after that same season in early November. While he would eventually sign with the St. Louis Cardinals, he would never see Major League action again after pitching for the Mets.

Hefner finished his career going 8-15 with an ERA of 4.65 with 161 strikeouts in 224.1 innings pitched throughout 50 games, 36 of which were starts.

After hanging up the cleats and calling it quits in 2016, Hefner joined the Minnesota Twins the following season as an advance scout. Hefner held that position within the organization for two years, assisting to establish game strategies for pitchers, while also using his experience as a recently retired player to best boil down the statistical data from the team’s analytics department for the players and coaching staff. The Twins eventually made Hefner their assistant pitching coach for the 2019 campaign, and that marks his sole year of experience on a Major League coaching staff.

With the drama surrounding current New York Mets manager Carlos Beltrán, I suspect that Jeremy Hefner’s job as Pitching Coach is likely safe for at least the start of the 2020 campaign. However, it’ll be interesting to see how long of a leash he’ll get if the pitching staff gets off to a rough start.

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