The Mets have hired a director of high performance to help stave off injuries

by Brian Erni January 12, 2018

Hey, have you heard? Mets players get injured a lot! Well, it finally looks like they're taking steps to try to, ya know...not have that happen.

According to the New York Times' James Wagner, Jim Cavallini will be the team’s first-ever director of high performance, according to several people familiar with the move.

Wagner says Cavallini is a former fitness expert at EXOS — a private company that works with elite athletes and the military and uses advanced medical analytics.

"Among other measures, [Cavallini] is expected to bring the Mets in line with several other teams and leagues by using biometrics — the gathering of a range of data from players’ bodies — and training technology to improve players’ health and performance

"[...] Cavallini will work with David Altchek, the Mets’ medical director, and the team’s traveling training staff. He will try new techniques and oversee everything from sleep to conditioning, focusing on shortfalls in medical and training procedures."

Injuries happen. They're part of baseball. But over the last decade, the Mets have seemed that the culture around player health and condition was just flat out backwards. I've spoken to one person with knowledge of the team's day-to-day training techniques who told me that it was an antiquated way to prepare players. So thankfully, this move couldn't come soon enough. Frankly, it's probably a few years too late.

The Mets have a lot of players coming off injuries that absolutely need to be healthy if the team is going to contend for a playoff berth. Noah Syndergaard, Yoenis Cespdes, et al, will all have to stay on the field to make this thing happen. Let's hope Cavallini and the new way of doing things in Queens is up to the task.