The St. Lucie Mets announced their coaching staff for the 2021 season Monday morning. Former major league infielder Reid Brignac was named manager of New York’s Low-A affiliate and is joined by pitching coach Jerome Williams, hitting coach Tommy Joseph and bench coach Jay Pecci.
Austin Dayton and Kory Wan will also join the St. Lucie staff as the team’s trainer and performance coaches, respectively.
Brignac, Williams and Pecci were originally named to last season’s staff of the Mets’ former Low-A affiliate, the Columbia Fireflies, before the season was canceled due to COVID-19.
This will be Brignac’s first season as a coach since retiring from professional baseball in 2018. During his 14-year playing career, he played for six different MLB franchises and various other MiLB and independent league teams.
“I can’t wait to get started as manager of the St. Lucie Mets,” Brignac said in a press release. “Our team will play with passion, hustle and sportsmanship. It has been a rough year for everyone and we are all excited to get back to playing baseball. Let’s go Mets!”
Williams also has some history in the majors under his belt with 11 years on the mound with eight different MLB franchises. This will be Williams’ third season with the Mets organization.
Joseph is coming right out of his professional baseball career after retiring last season from the Constellation Energy League. The former first baseman played in the majors with the Phillies in 2014 and 2015 and has played in multiple other leagues as well.
Pecci returns to the Mets organization for his third season. This will be a promotion for Pecci as he previously served as the bench coach for the GCL Mets in 2019. Although he never cracked the majors, Pecci played seven seasons with the Oakland, Seattle and San Francisco organizations.
This will be Dayton’s fourth season with the Mets organization and his first in St. Lucie. He was previously a trainer at the Mets academy in the Dominican Republic in 2018 and with the GCL Mets in 2019.
Wan returns to St. Lucie for the first time since 2016 after serving as the performance coach in Binghamton for three seasons.
St. Lucie is set for a May 4 season opener against the Jupiter Hammerheads at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
