Former Mets pitching coach Phil Regan is suing the organization for age discrimination, according to TMZ.
Regan, 85, took over the role after Dave Eiland was fired during the 2019 season, but was not brought back for the 2020 campaign, which Regan said had to do with his age, despite claiming that the Mets staff, led by Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler, and Noah Syndergaard, improved once he took the job from Eiland.
In the lawsuit filed, Regan claims that former Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen told Regan that he was “too old,” and would only be brought back “if we don’t find the young pitching coach we are looking for.” But New York went on to hire Jeremy Hefner, 33, who is still the team’s pitching coach.
Hefner hasn’t returned to the major league coaching ranks ever since.
“Phil is the first to crack jokes about his age," Regan’s attorney Matthew Blit said in a statement to TMZ. “However there is nothing funny about a person being told that they are being passed over because their employer wants someone younger. That's discrimination, plain and simple.”
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