Kingsway graduate Dan Meyer earns Triple-A pitching coach job

Dan Meyer has enjoyed a lengthy professional baseball career as a player and the same is occurring for the former Kingsway star in the professional coaching ranks.

Meyer is the new Triple-A pitching coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates. This came after last season having immediate success as an interim manager for the Atlanta Braves Double-A Mississippi Braves.

Meyer began last season as the pitching coach for the Double-A Braves, but on June 9 was named interim manager as well after the team made a change. He continued to do both jobs through the rest of the season.
As a manager, he compiled a 51-29 record and a league-best 3.55 ERA in the final 80 games of the season.

Meyer helped guide the Braves to the league championship and was then named the Double-A South Manager of the Year.

The Mississippi Braves earned the 2021 Double-A South Championship by beating the Montgomery Biscuits 3-2 in the best-of-five series.

Now Meyer will take a new journey with a new organization. He has been named the pitching coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates Triple-A Indianapolis club.

It continues a successful career in professional baseball for the 40-year-old Meyer.

“It is an exciting opportunity,” Meyer said in a phone interview from the Pirates Major League camp in Bradenton, Florida.

After starring at Kingsway, Meyer attended James Madison University, where he eventually became the 34th overall draft choice in the 2002 MLB draft of the Atlanta Braves.

He would go on to pitch in the Major Leagues for Atlanta, Oakland and the Florida (now Miami) Marlins. Meyer appeared in 103 MLB games, all but seven in relief.

His final season in the Majors was 2010 and he pitched in 2011 in Triple-A for the same Indianapolis team he will now be serving as a pitching coach.

Meyer pitched part of the 2012 season for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, a minor league that isn’t affiliated with MLB.

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He was with the Baltimore Orioles during the 2013 exhibition season but didn’t earn a spot on the regular-season roster.

In 2015 Meyer began his coaching career with the Braves organization, starting as a minor league rehab pitching coordinator.

He continued to work his way up the ladder, to his job last season with the Mississippi Braves.

Now he will be working with a Pirates franchise that has some impressive young arms in its minor league system, including Bishop Eustace graduate Anthony Solometo, who was the first player chosen in the second round of last year’s draft (37th overall) and signed for a $2.7 million bonus, according to Baseball America.

“The Pirates remind me a lot of where the Braves were four years ago,” Meyer said.

Meyer said, as a first-time manager last year, there was so much to absorb.

“I learned a lot and knowledge on the managing side, it is valuable and you can’t put a price tag on that,” he said.

Meyer says there are many people to thank for his success in baseball, but he wanted to especially cite the late Bill Stonis, who passed away in October. Stonis, a former high school coach, also coached Meyer in Junior American Legion.

“He basically taught me how to pitch,” Meyer said. “He gave me most of the fundamentals I work off now. Everybody had a little piece and I think he had a major influence.”

Meyer won’t rule out returning one day to managing, but he is focused on being the best possible pitching coach.

“Maybe in the future, it is an option,” he said of managing. “It is always helpful to have that experience, but for now, I would like to stay on the pitching side. It’s an exciting opportunity and I am looking forward to it.”

Image Courtesy of Dan Meyer

Author: Marc Narducci