The New York Mets needed a dramatic win on the final day of the regular season just to reach the playoffs. They entered the ninth inning of a decisive Game 3 against the Milwaukee Brewers down 2-0 before scoring four runs to advance.
After dispatching the division-rival Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Divisional Series and taking Game 2 of the NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday, the team that started the season 24-35 now finds itself three wins away from the World Series. Fueling New York’s late-season surge was a pitching staff that ranked among the best in baseball.
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— x – New York Mets (@Mets) October 15, 2024
Under the guidance of 38-year-old pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, the Mets led MLB with a .230 opponent batting average, struck out the second-most batters (1,455), and posted the seventh-lowest team ERA (3.96).
Hefner was hired by the Mets ahead of the 2020 season after working as an advance scout for the Minnesota Twins and becoming the team’s assistant pitching coach in 2019. As a player, he was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the fifth round of the 2007 MLB Draft and made 36 starts in 50 total appearances — all with the Mets — in the big leagues between 2012 and 2013. Two Tommy John surgeries led to him announcing his retirement following the 2017 season, and he joined the Twins shortly thereafter.
A deep-rooted faith in God forms the foundation of Hefner’s coaching philosophy. He tries to strike the right balance between the self-belief needed to succeed in professional sports and the humility required to serve his players well.
“Sometimes I need to be quiet, and I need to listen,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2023. “I need to be humble and lift others up and let them talk because I don’t have all the answers. I fall short on this daily, and so, how can I reflect Christ that way?”
For Hefner, reflecting Christ means investing in deep relationships and thinking about the impact he can have in his position.
“Jesus was very relational,” he said on the podcast. “Everyone He came into contact with, He was very intentional with the words He said and then how that influenced the people in that relationship and then also the people around them.”
Forming those strong bonds has allowed Hefner to earn the trust of his players and invest in them as people, not just athletes.
“I trust him more than any coach I’ve ever trusted,” Mets reliever Reed Garrett told the New York Post about Hefner last month. “He is a genuine human being who cares about you as a person, not just a player. … He’s just a good individual who cares about us and wants us to be the best we can be.”
Like everyone, Hefner has both good and bad moments. He admitted on the podcast that it can be difficult to emulate Christ during mound visits when a pitcher is struggling.
“I think that God calls us to use our gifts to the best of our abilities, and we are sinful and broken and those things, so we can take that too far,” Hefner said.
Hefner’s last year of college was spent at Oral Roberts University, an evangelical school in his home state of Oklahoma. In 2020, he did an interview with the school’s athletics website and was asked for a Bible verse that provided encouragement to him.
“Romans 12:3 helps me stay grounded both personally and professionally,” he said. “Paul reminds us that self-awareness is something that we all struggle with sometimes. Either thinking too high or too low at times. So, I ask God to give me the wisdom to listen first and speak up only when necessary. Always looking to learn and not be the expert in the room.”
The Mets, who now have home-field advantage in the NLCS thanks to their Game 2 victory, host Game 3 on Wednesday night. First pitch is at 8:08 p.m. ET.
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