{"id":921604,"date":"2026-07-08T20:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/921604\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:20:24","slug":"former-mets-pitching-coach-ex-mlber-phil-regan-dead-at-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/921604\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Mets pitching coach, ex-MLBer Phil Regan dead at 89"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Longtime MLB pitcher and pitching coach Phil Regan died Wednesday, his attorney, Matt Blit, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/2074915804500414614?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">told ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He was 89.<\/p>\n<p>Regan spent 13 seasons in the big leagues with the Tigers, Dodgers, Cubs and White Sox, debuting in 1960 and retiring after the 1972 season before moving into a lengthy coaching career.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4862119;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39925042\" width=\"877\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-1220657340.jpg\" alt=\"Pitching coach Phil Regan #58 of the New York Mets in action against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field on September 06, 2019 in New York City. \" class=\"wp-image-39925042\"  \/>Pitching coach Phil Regan #58 of the New York Mets in action against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field on September 06, 2019 in New York City.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>He made his first and only All-Star team in 1966 with the Dodgers, when he became a force out of the bullpen for Los Angeles, logging 21 saves while going 14-1 with a 1.62 ERA across 65 appearances.<\/p>\n<p>After his playing days, Regan managed the Orioles for one season in 1995 and served as a pitching coach for several organizations, including the Mariners, Cubs, Indians and Mets.<\/p>\n<p>Regan\u2019s final major league coaching stop came with the Mets in 2019, when he was <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2019\/06\/20\/meet-phil-regan-the-mets-new-82-year-old-pitching-coach\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">named interim pitching coach at 82 after the franchise fired Dave Eiland<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"25844977\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/phil-regan-3.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Regan throws batting practice with the New York Mets players in April 2017.\" class=\"wp-image-25844977\"  \/>Phil Regan throws batting practice with the New York Mets players in April 2017. AP<\/p>\n<p>Before taking over the big league staff, Regan worked in the Mets\u2019 minor league system, including as an assistant minor league pitching coordinator and as pitching coach for Single-A Port St. Lucie from 2009-15.<\/p>\n<p>He played a key role in the development of the Mets\u2019 young crop of arms during that period, including Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler.<\/p>\n<p>Regan finished his playing career with a 96-81 record, 3.84 ERA and 92 saves across 551 appearances.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>He earned the nickname \u201cThe Vulture\u201d for his penchant for his habit of stealing wins while coming into the game late as a reliever. <\/p>\n<p>In 2023, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/02\/21\/phil-regan-ex-mets-pitching-coach-suing-for-age-discrimination\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Regan sued the Mets<\/a>, alleging age discrimination and wrongful termination after he was not retained following the 2019 season.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit claimed former general manager Brodie Van Wagenen told Regan he would not return because he was \u201ctoo old.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime MLB pitcher and pitching coach Phil Regan died Wednesday, his attorney, Matt Blit, told ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":921605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1266,405,403,1305,5226,5225,5228,5227,11656,593,372016,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-921604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-obits","tag-obituaries","tag-phil-regan","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116886218107353379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}