Former pitching instructor Phil Regan suing Mets, ex-GM Brodie Van Wagenen
Phil Regan, an assistant minor league pitching coordinator, throws batting practice with Mets players before a game against the Marlins on April 7, 2017, at Citi FIeld. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Former longtime Mets pitching instructor Phil Regan is suing the team and former general manager Brodie Van Wagenen for age discrimination and wrongful termination, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Regan was the interim pitching coach for the major-league team for part of the 2019 season. He alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday in New York Supreme Court in Queens that after the season Van Wagenen "specifically informed Mr. Regan that he wasn't being retained because of his age."
“Phil came into an underperforming pitching staff and immediately righted the ship,” his lawyer, Matthew J. Blit, said in a statement to AP. “He helped lower the team ERA and brought the staff back to where it was supposed to be. Instead of rewarding him for his masterful performance he was tossed aside because of his age."
Aside from his '19 stay in the majors, Regan, who turns 86 in April, worked for the Mets in a variety of minor-league roles from 2009-22. When Van Wagenen's Mets fired pitching coach Dave Eiland in June 2019, they elevated Regan to fill in through the end of the season. He had been working as the assistant pitching coordinator in the minors.
The Mets hired Jeremy Hefner — still their pitching coach — in December 2019.
Regan pitched in the majors from 1960-72 for the Tigers, Cubs, Dodgers and White Sox.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
