Acclaimed Pitching Coach Dave Eiland Gives Big Boost To Blue Wahoos 2022 Talented Staff 

The pitching talent soon heading to Pensacola for the Blue Wahoos 2022 season will have a renown mentor helping guide the staff.

Native Floridian Dave Eiland, 55, whose 10-year pitching career in the Major Leagues was followed by acclaim as a pitching coach with two World Series champion teams, was announced March 7 as the new Blue Wahoos pitching coach.

“He’s a big hire for our organization,” said Blue Wahoos returning manager Kevin Randel. “He is going to be huge for me in Double-A.”

Eiland was among a six-member staff the Miami Marlins chose to join with Randel in Pensacola.

During the past 14 years, Eiland has worked with some of the greatest MLB pitchers of this generation. The group includes former New York Yankees stars Andy Pettite and CC Sabathia when Eiland was the Yankees pitching coach and the team won the 2005 World Series.

Eiland, who grew up in Dade City, near Tampa, then went to the Kansas City Royals, helping that team to its stunning 2015 World Series title. Most recently, Eiland was the pitching coach for the New York Mets for two seasons (2018), guiding a pitching staff that featured Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard.

“It’s been first time getting to know him,” said Randel, who has been conducting daily workouts with the Marlins’ minor league talent at the organization’s training facility in Jupiter. “We hung around a little bit. We don’t see each other around the fields too often, since we are off at different places.

“He’s obviously overqualified to be in Double-A; he’s got two World Series rings with the Yankees and the Royals,” Randel added. “So, he has won at the highest level and he’s done a great job everywhere he’s been. I look forward to having him on the staff.”

Prior to his coaching years, Eiland pitched for three MLB teams: the Yankees, San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays. He pitched collegiately with the Florida Gators and South Florida Bulls.

Randel has been in Jupiter since mid-February. Minor League spring training began March 1. The ongoing MLB labor dispute with the MLB Players Association and team owners, which has delayed Major League spring training and the start of the 2022 season, will have no effect on Minor League Baseball operations.

MLB has repeatedly said that all levels of Minor League Baseball will begin as scheduled in April. The Blue Wahoos will open their 2022 season on April 8 against the Biloxi Shuckers at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

Randel said he’s uncertain which pitchers in the organization will be slotted to begin in Pensacola, but he knows the depth of quality arms within the Marlins system.

Pitching has been a standout component with the Marlins organization. The Blue Wahoos winning record in 2021 was delivered by consistent starting pitching and bullpen performance.

The staff included Max Meyer, the Marlins’ No. 1 draft pick in 2020, who produced a steady succession of quality starts the entire year. Meyer is expected to begin the year in Triple-A with the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. Another starter, left-hander Jake Eder, a fourth-round pick in 2020 out of Vanderbilt, who had the lowest ERA in the MILB at one point in 2021 before sustaining a season-ending injury.

Another starter, Edward Cabrera, rose into making his MLB debut for the Marlins last season.

Two pitchers who could make it to Pensacola in 2022, righthander Eury Perez and lefthander Dax Fulton are rated among Miami’s top 10 overall prospects by MILB Pipeline.

“We are thick in starting pitching, which is always a good thing,” Randel said. “More is never enough. Whoever we break camp with, they are going to compete.”

Familiarity exists within other members of the Blue Wahoos new staff.

Hitting coach Scott Seabol and defensive coach Frank Moore have been friends with Randel since they were teammates in the minor leagues with the Marlins.

Seabol worked a year ago with three of the Marlins’ touted outfield prospects – Peyton Burdick, JJ Bleday and Griffin Conine.

“Scotty just got back into baseball a few years ago and I thought he did a great job for us,” Randel said.

He has a wealth of knowledge. He’s willing to work any time, any day, and that goes over well with a lot of these players.

“I’ve been around some coaches when (help) it’s on their time only. But he’s available whenever they want. Always willing to listen. Gives good feedback.”

Randel played with Moore in 2005 in the Marlins organization.

“Frankie is one of the best humans on earth,” Randel said. “We have known each other for so long. This will be actually the first time working together in a full season, so it will be pretty cool.”

Randel and trainer Melissa Hampton have gotten to know each other well during early-morning, cross-fit training workouts the past six weeks.

“She is one of the hardest working people I know. She is great to be around,” Randel said. “She is a ball of energy and that will be great.”