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FAYETTEVILLE — There are a few teams in sports who demand your attention if they express an interest in hiring you. The New York Yankees fall into that category.
That’s why, with the urging of head coach Dave Van Horn, Arkansas pitching coach Matt Hobbs interviewed for the same position with the 27-time World Series champion Yankees on Wednesday.
Professional teams have contacted Hobbs “numerous times” the last several years, even when he was still at Wake Forest, before joining the Razorbacks last offseason.
His name popping up as a potential professional pitching coach is not surprising considering his technology- and analytics-based philosophy, which has produced solid results at the college level. It particularly makes sense for the Yankees to pursue him because they hired Sam Briend of Driveline Baseball - which utilizes sabermetrics - as their director of pitching development in June.
The interview was more for the experience, though, as Van Horn said it’d take “life-changing” money for him to leave Arkansas.
“He really doesn’t have a desire to leave Arkansas,” Van Horn said. “For Matt to leave the University of Arkansas, they would have to really, really take care of him financially, probably to the point that most Major League teams wouldn’t do that.”
Van Horn didn’t define “life-changing” money with an exact dollar amount, but Hobbs signed a three-year deal worth about $600,000 last November, according to a copy of the employment agreement obtained by HawgBeat via a public records request.
His annual salary of $220,000 increased by $10,000 on July 1 and will increase by that same amount again next July 1. The Razorbacks’ trip to the College World Series also earned him a bonus equal to two months salary, which was about $36,667.
As of Friday afternoon, the Yankees have not filled their vacancy, but Van Horn is confident Hobbs will be in Fayetteville for the 2020 season and beyond.
“I feel Matt Hobbs is going to be our pitching coach for a long time,” Van Horn said. “If (MLB teams) want to pay you a million dollars a year, they can; they can give you whatever, but as of right now I feel we’re going to have Matt Hobbs here for a long time.”
Hobbs isn’t the only college pitching coach the Yankees have brought in, as Michigan’s Chris Fetter was interviewed Tuesday.
This is a recent trend that actually began with Arkansas’ Wes Johnson being hired by the Minnesota Twins last offseason, becoming the first pitching coach to make the immediate jump from college to the big leagues.
Van Horn said teams have started at least bringing in college coaches to listen to their presentations and pick their brains, essentially in an effort to gather information.
“They are trying to learn from college baseball coaches,” Van Horn said. “Hats off to our colleges for being ahead of the game a little bit.”
The professional level isn’t for everyone, though. Van Horn said some organizations don’t let the pitching coaches do much, instead relying more on the analytics staff on when to pitch who and how much.
That’s not the case for Johnson, who was at Arkansas for two years before making the jump. He was a key figure in helping the Twins improve from 78 to 101 wins and capture the AL Central division title.
Minnesota significantly improved its ERA (4.50 to 4.18) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.40 to 3.24), ranking eighth and fifth, respectively, in those categories across all of MLB.
“Here you are hands-on, your pitching coaches are coaching and you are working so that when you leave there at night, you really contributed,” Van Horn said. “I think Wes coaching the big leagues probably has opened some eyes and they know he’s a good coach and awesome to be around and college coaches know what they’re doing.”
