The Toronto Blue Jays’ Matt Hague is earning a reputation as one of the best young hitting coaches in the game. Promoted to the big league staff this year after a pair of seasons spent working at Double-A, followed by a year in Triple-A, the 38-year-old former first baseman is one of the team’s two assistant hitting coaches. (Hunter Mense, who was featured in our Talks Hitting series in July 2022, is the other, while Guillermo Martinez is the lead hitting coach and Don Mattingly serves as the team’s offensive coordinator.)
Hague’s playing career included several strong seasons in the minors, but only a smattering of opportunities in the majors. The Bellevue, Washington native logged just 91 big league plate appearances, 74 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and 17 with the Blue Jays. And while what he experienced over 11 professional campaigns influences the approach he brings to his current role, what he’s learned since is every bit as important. Like most coaches who excel at their jobs, Hague is not only an effective communicator, he embraces modern training methods.
Hague sat down to talk hitting when the Blue Jays visited Fenway Park in late June.
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David Laurila: You last played professionally in 2018. What do you know now that you didn’t know then?
Matt Hague: “Oh, man. That’s a really good question. I think the how. As a coach you’re kind of forced to unfold things that you thought as a player, but didn’t necessarily go really deep into, or didn’t have the chance to go as deep into. The importance of certain things shift on what you want to emphasize. That’s because you’re looking out for a whole group, even though it’s an individual plan, or an individual mover — a certain trait that an individual person needs to develop and continue to get better at.
“There are a lot of different pathways on how to bring out certain stuff, and the more you evolve as a coach, your perspective shifts. You try to find understandings on the mentality side, the game-planning side, the technical part of it. So yeah, I think it’s that you’re just forced to find out more. You’re forced to have a broader perspective than you had as a player.”
Laurila: How much harder is hitting now compared to when you last played? It wasn’t all that long ago.
Hague: “No, but I would say that it’s exponentially harder. The way teams are pitch designing, pitch shaping… it’s not like a one-trick pony, north, south. Teams are blending pitch shapes. Teams are really paying attention to pitch usage. Hitters have to make a lot of harder, different choices.
“I went to Japan in 2016, and when I came back a year later, it was really hard for me to hit true carry, high-vert fastballs, or up-shoot fastballs. I feel like that changed drastically just in one year, from ’16 to when I got back here to the States in ’17. It seemed like teams were really specializing that way. You’d feel it in the box and not really know how the pitcher created it.”
Laurila: Elevated fastballs are obviously still a thing, but it also seems like sinkers are coming back into vogue.
Hague: “Yes, I would say they’re going both worlds now; they’re blending both worlds. If a guy traditionally is up-and-down, high-carry/hard-down or slider, they’re mixing in 15-20% two-seam usage. What that does to a hitter is make you think east-west, or it really forces you to commit to certain areas or eliminate certain zones. And they’ll mix in an off-speed pitch. It has a little bit of horizontal to it, or a little bit of slurve-ish action.
“Another thing is that a lot of guys now are starting to go sides of the rubber. Righties are going a lot more first base side, like a big crossfire move. They’re creating an angle on the two-seam and on their sliders.”
Laurila: Is there a way for hitters to counteract the advantages pitchers have been gaining?
Hague: “Yes. Some of it is specialized training, and you can see a little smoke where the fire is. Certain teams are really eliminating certain zones. I don’t want to say which ones, but it’s very apparent what they’re doing. They’re forcing pitchers… so, like the high-vert guys who usually command it up in the zone; teams are eliminating the bottom. So then you see pitchers adapt to carry at the bottom as well as at the top. It’s like a cat-and-mouse game. On the hitter side, it’s forcing hitters to really stay committed. They have to buy time off fastballs and really hone down on zones.
“That’s something that has always been done in baseball, but I think the way pitchers — the way teams — are designing pitch shapes and usage, it’s really forcing hitters to be committed in certain areas and eliminating certain areas.”
Laurila: Training-wise, are you a believer in hitters preparing against specific pitchers — I’m thinking Trajekt — as opposed to training against, say, velocity in general?
Hague: “Yeah. Massively. Especially given swing paths. You can’t take the same swing off of a high-vert four-seam as a turbo downhill fastball. Without a doubt. You have to gear your swing path. And depending on how slow the offspeed is, how much time do you need to buy off the fastball? How much do you have to extend your move, or hold certain positions longer?
“You want to be game planning towards that, and then, hopefully through environment training over time, it becomes a very in-sync system to where you can have those talks with players, understanding what they’re working on today versus the guy they’ll be facing. And then you’ve got the whole puzzle of the relievers. It’s also understanding what the pitchers’ strengths are, what they tend to do. Are they throwing away from hitters’ damage zones or are they just sticking to their own strengths?”
Laurila: And I assume your hitters work with a Trajekt machine?
Hague: “Oh yeah. I think we have three of them in the organization. I know we have one at the complex, in Florida, and have one or two more on the way.”
Laurila: Blue Jays fans will be disappointed if I don’t ask you about the team’s offensive struggles this season. Most importantly, how can what hasn’t been working be fixed?
Hague: “That’s a tricky question. I think we’re making a lot of progress with some things. We are assessing things that we can get better at, and we are learning from our past mistakes and training to get better. We’re working. The boys are working. They know what’s at stake.
“I think they’re learning about themselves, even on the fly. They’re finding ways to gear swing paths, to think about things like different zones to eliminate to get more barrels on the ball. We’ve shown glimpses of it, especially compared to early in the season. It’s a work in progress. You want to avoid the cliche of it being a long season, but at the same time, we can still make a run of this thing. There are guys who have been underperforming, but we have to stay focused on the positives. We have a lot of guys who can hit, and I expect that they will hit.”
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Earlier “Talks Hitting” interviews can found through these links: Jo Adell, Jeff Albert, Greg Allen, Nolan Arenado, Aaron Bates, Jacob Berry, Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, Justice Bigbie, Cavan Biggio, Charlie Blackmon, JJ Bleday, Bobby Bradley, Will Brennan, Jay Bruce, Triston Casas, Matt Chapman, Michael Chavis, Garrett Cooper, Gavin Cross, Jacob Cruz, Nelson Cruz, Paul DeJong, Josh Donaldson, Brendan Donovan, Donnie Ecker, Rick Eckstein, Drew Ferguson, Justin Foscue, Michael Fransoso, Ryan Fuller, Joey Gallo, Paul Goldschmidt, Devlin Granberg, Andy Haines, Mitch Haniger, Robert Hassell III, Austin Hays, Nico Hoerner, Jackson Holliday, Spencer Horwitz, Rhys Hoskins, Eric Hosmer, Jacob Hurtubise, Tim Hyers, Connor Joe, Jace Jung, Josh Jung, Jimmy Kerr, Heston Kjerstad, Steven Kwan, Trevor Larnach, Doug Latta, Royce Lewis, Evan Longoria, Michael Lorenzen, Gavin Lux, Dave Magadan, Trey Mancini, Edgar Martinez, Don Mattingly, Marcelo Mayer, Hunter Mense, Owen Miller, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, Daniel Murphy, Lars Nootbaar, Logan O’Hoppe, Vinnie Pasquantino, Graham Pauley, Luke Raley, Julio Rodríguez, Brent Rooker, Drew Saylor, Nolan Schanuel, Marcus Semien, Giancarlo Stanton, Spencer Steer, Trevor Story, Fernando Tatis Jr., Spencer Torkelson, Mark Trumbo, Brice Turang, Justin Turner, Trea Turner, Josh VanMeter, Robert Van Scoyoc, Chris Valaika, Zac Veen, Alex Verdugo, Mark Vientos, Matt Vierling, Luke Voit, Anthony Volpe, Joey Votto, Christian Walker, Jared Walsh, Jordan Westburg, Jesse Winker, Bobby Witt Jr. Mike Yastrzemski, Nick Yorke, Kevin Youkilis.
