Matt Blake

Matt Blake

• School College of the Holy Cross
• High School Concord (NH) High School

• Born in Concord, NH USA

Biographical Information

Matt Blake was appointed pitching coach of the New York Yankees in 2020, succeeding Larry Rothschild.

Blake very much fit the profile of a number of recent coaching appointments in the major leagues, as his playing experience consisted only of four seasons with the varsity team when he was studying psychology and philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross. Blake never played professionally, but got into coaching via multiple channels. At the high school level, he was the pitching coach for the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Warriors from 2009-2015. Blake also worked for a private coaching firm, Cressey Sports Performance, based in West Palm Beach, FL from 2009-2016. Blake was particularly busy in 2015 when he added coaching pitchers for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox of the Cape Cod League to his resume. Lastly, in 2010 began forging ties to professional baseball by working as an associate scout for the New York Yankees, a role he continued through 2015.

The Cleveland Indians hired Blake in 2016 as their Minor League Lower Level Pitching Coordinator. Cleveland promoted him in 2017 to Assistant Director of Player Development where he stayed through the 2019 season. Blake was very much into analytics and was credited with helping the rise of a number of young hurlers within the organization, such as Trevor Bauer, Mike Clevinger, Shane Bieber, and Adam Plutko.

His success with these hurlers did not go unnoticed, and in 2020 the Yankees hired Blake to be their pitching coach. Blake continued as the Yankees pitching coach through the 2025 season.

Further Reading

• Bryan Hoch: "Yankees name Matt Blake pitching coach", mlb.com, November 14, 2019. [1]