John Baker brings new-age approach to Pirates as director of coaching and player development

John Baker has built a value system based on being a continuous learner, so upon retiring from the major leagues five years ago, he attended an analytics conference in Boston to build an awareness and understanding of data.

What left a lasting impression on Baker was one of the guest speakers.

Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington was on the slate, despite recently resigning as Boston Red Sox GM only two years after winning a World Series.

“I was like, ‘Oh man, I bet he doesn’t show up and honor that commitment.’ Well, he did,” Baker said. “And in honoring that commitment and being kind of like vulnerable, open and sharing his experience with a roomful of people really kind of blew me away. Just as like a behavioral example of what it means to be accountable.”

When Baker showed interest in interviewing with the Pittsburgh Pirates for their farm director opening, Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein gave a glowing recommendation of Cherington from their days of working together with the Red Sox. Once again, Baker was surprised by the open candor and vulnerability.

“A lot of times in baseball, those things are met with resistance by the organization that you currently work for, but the things that Theo had to say about Ben just further cemented my desire to pursue this job,” Baker said.

“Hearing the things that he had to say about Ben Cherington, understanding the constraints in Pittsburgh and that we’re going to have to develop from the inside to build a contender, it’s all the right (guide) rails to be forced to do some innovation and creativity. I like to chase challenges, and this seemed like the appropriate challenge with the appropriate people, and I really feel like we can do some cool things.”

As the Pirates director of coaching and player development — a new title that puts a shared emphasis on putting both players and coaches on a major league trajectory — Baker takes over the minor league system as the club attempts to build a winner from within. The Pirates were ranked No. 16 in baseball by MLB.com in September, and one of their top-100 prospects, third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, already made it to the majors.

After seven seasons as a backup catcher with the Miami Marlins, San Diego Padres and Cubs — where he became a local folk hero for pitching a scoreless 16th inning and then drawing a walk and scoring the winning run in a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Wrigley Field on July 29, 2014 (now celebrated as John Baker Day) — Baker spent the past five years working in baseball operations for the Cubs, first as an assistant and then as mental skills coordinator.

“We are excited to add John to our baseball operations leadership team,” Cherington said. “John’s experience as a player, his training and experience as a mental skills coach for a highly successful franchise, and his continued learning in the areas of skill acquisition and human performance, give him valuable perspective on the entire player improvement and performance process. John will work closely with our minor league staff and players to help lead our player-development program.”

Baker, 39, is working to finish a master’s degree in performance psychology, and he combines an old-school baseball mind with a new-age philosophy. A self-described “Alpha millenial” who was part of the “Moneyball” draft class because of his .516 on-base percentage as a junior at Cal Berkeley, Baker talks about bringing an innovative approach to bring back the small-ball basics of pitching, putting the ball in play and relying on great defense instead of strikeouts and home runs.

“As someone who grew up watching baseball in the ’80s, I don’t love the things that I see,” Baker said. “I don’t love going to the game, and I was just with a team that that was the perspective that we took: We’ll strike you out, and we’ll hit it over the fence. Although that can be exciting, that’s not the game of baseball that I necessarily love the most.

“So I’m looking forward to bringing back some of the style of play that we may have seen in the past, counter to the three-true-outcome game, but doing it in a modern way that’s supported by data and not just a get-off-my-lawn reversion back to what feels good because we did it when we were a kid. It has to work. That’s the only rule.”

Baker believes bridging the gap between scouting and player development is a priority, noting the minor league coaches have the “most touchpoints with our biggest assets: players.” That is why his focus of development is not on just players but also the coaches.

“For a long time, I feel like baseball has often preyed upon minor league coaches, just getting them in for their love of the game and kind of keeping them in that position,” Baker said. “That is something that I absolutely intend to change in this role. I want to help our coaches develop a career trajectory so that they can see themselves going on to bigger and better things, but I want to arm them with the skills necessary to be supportive of our players.

“If we are going to be a winning playoff team, which is the vision of this organization, nobody in professional sports is going to show up and tell you, ‘I hope we just do a little bit better than last year.’ No, that’s not the goal. As athletes and organizations, we always have unrealistic expectations. We have to, because the reality of getting to the major leagues in the first place is the fulfillment of that unrealistic expectation. I want to build players that know who they are and can compete with what they have.”