Meteoric rise for 27-year-old hitting coach in Yankees organization

BRIDGEWATER – Jake Hirst will not be outworked.

It’s hard to “out-anything” the Somerset Patriots hitting coach these days, as the Davenport, Iowa native brings an approach, level of knowledge and feel for his players that’s far beyond his years.

But, more than anything, Jake Hirst will not be outworked. Before most of his hitters are likely even out of bed, the energetic former college outfielder is already breaking down film of the previous night’s game looking for any possible advantage he can, part of a lengthy and tedious day that exceeds the expectations of even a modern hitting coach.

“I try to prepare better than anybody else, or prepare more than I have to,” Hirst said. “If it’s coming to the cages early and making sure that I have the machines set up that are representative of what they’re going to see for that night or doing a deep dive on the pitcher and giving those guys the best opportunity to succeed.”

And have they ever been successful as a group.

Through Thursday night, Hirst’s hitters had established a new franchise record with 179 home runs, a number that leads the Double-A Eastern League, as does a .442 slugging percentage and .776 OPS. While those numbers speak for themselves – and speak loudly – there may be no better endorsement than that of his most well-known student, just-promoted Anthony Volpe, who flourished under Hirst’s tutelage both last season in High-A Hudson Valley and this year with the Patriots before reportedly being summoned to Triple-A Scranton on Friday.

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“It’s been amazing,” Volpe said. “I had him last year, and regardless of the results, whether it was last year when I was having a lot of success or this year when I was having a lot of success, or both years now, struggling, he’s the same guy … a lot of being a hitting coach is just being one of the guys and just having a good relationship with every individual player. I think that’s probably one of the best things he does – he obviously treats it as a team – but he really knows everyone’s individual routine and individual approach, and tailors stuff to that. Especially as the season has went on and we’ve had more and more data to kind of gameplan for and get ready for the games, I think he’s been great.”

Elijah Dunham, one of the organization’s top outfield prospects who has already established career highs in numerous offensive categories, echoed similar sentiments.

“I had Jake last year, Jake’s a great guy to have in the clubhouse and the cages,” Dunham said. “It’s easy to talk to him, he’s just like one of the guys He’s not like an intimidating coach or a lazy coach, he’s in there every day working with us. He knows a lot about how the body moves and how the body should work, so really diving into my posture and how I can excel with that, he’s been great to work with in that way. It’s just like having another teammate there. He keeps us accountable with things we’ve got to do, just like every other one of the guys would do.”

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While some of that can be attributed to how relatable Hirst, at just 27 years old, is to a group of hitters that only blow out a few less candles on the birthday cake than he does, it all seems to come back to his insatiable work ethic that’s led to a meteoric rise through the New York Yankees organization.

“He’s young, but I think what the guys love about him is how hard he works,” said Somerset manager Dan Fiorito. “He’s so disciplined with his work every single day. We as a staff, and all the players know exactly what we’re going to get from him. The gameplanning that he puts in, to breaking down the pitchers every single night and getting with the hitters in our meetings, it’s just countless hours that goes unnoticed, but we’re seeing the results and the players, several are obviously having career years. He’s somebody that we as an organization value a lot, and someone who I love having on our staff here.”

Not bad for a guy who was never sure this was the path he was going to take in the first place.

Hirst played four seasons at Central College (Iowa), but at the time, didn’t see it as an avenue to either play or coach professionally. After initially wanting to pursue a career in physical therapy, he eventually settled on looking to become a strength coach and earned his CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) certification by his senior year.

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Getting into coaching baseball, which he initially did at Augustana College (Illinois) for two years, wasn’t always on the radar. A chance meeting with current Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson accelerated that path exponentially.

“I think a lot of it kind of ties into my sports science background and getting my undergrad in exercise science and leaning into whether it was strength coaching for baseball or then inevitably kind of switching and pivoting to coaching hitting,” he said. “Originally, it was coaching outfielders when I was in college. It was while I was getting my masters, I went to a hitting conference, and Dillon gave a talk on vision perception, and it was kind of like an overview of it, but at the time, I was getting my masters in exercise physiology, and there was an overlap in some of the stuff we were going over in class and how he was talking about hitting that I hadn’t really thought of before or heard people talk about. I reached out to him after one of his talks, one thing kind of led to another, and a side conversation at a conference led to an informal interview, which led to a formal interview and led to me working for the Yankees.”

A die-hard Red Sox fan growing up, Hirst jokes that when he told his father that he’d been offered a job by the Yankees, his response was, “Well, are you going to take it? “

He did. Taken it and run with it, really. Starting in the Gulf Coast League in 2019, Hirst has moved quickly, heading to full-season ball with Hudson Valley last year before earning a promotion to Somerset prior to this season.

“It kind of blows me away that I’ve kind of fast-tracked my career in a sense,” Hirst said. “But a lot of it is a lot of the trust that Dillon (Lawson) and (Yankees hitting coordinator) Joe (Migliaccio) and (Yankees farm director) Kevin Reese and the rest of the front office has instilled in me and the opportunities that they’ve given me. I think there’s a level that I’ve earned the opportunities, but it’s also easy to let that get to your head and take your foot off the gas and coast.

“One of the things that I don’t take for granted is their respect and their trust in me. I let it fuel me. If they send me somewhere, and I’m not prepared for it, I’m going to my damndest to make sure I adjust as quickly as possible so maybe it’s a tough day or two versus a tough month or tough couple months. Being adaptable and making the adjustments as quickly as possible wherever I’m thrown at.”

There are only a few rungs left on the ladder to climb, however.

With time on his side, and certainly no shortage of options given he’s considered one of the rising young stars in the coaching world, Hirst isn’t necessarily in a hurry to get there.

But, one day, he’d unquestionably like to get to the top.

“Right now, ultimately, my goal is to get to the big leagues and see what that’s like,” Hirst said.

“I think right now, given the opportunity and given the age that I’m at, I think my goal is to ultimately get there and decide if that’s ultimately what I want to do, or if I want to go back to college. I don’t know, I coached college for a year and a half, but I never really got ‘that’ experience. … I try to coach where my feet are at, coach the players that are in my cage, and really just build relationships with the guys that I’m around and let the rest take care of itself. If I’m able to impact these guys careers at any point, then I think ultimately that’s the goal. If I’m able to do that consistently with enough guys, then I guess the rest just kind of takes care of itself."

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Yankees: Anthony Volpe has high praise for hitting coach Jake Hirst