Hawkeyes transition from Robin Lund to new pitching coach Sean McGrath

Robin Lund spent four seasons on the Iowa coaching staff and helped coach Trenton Wallace and Adam Mazur to back-to-back Big Ten Pitcher of the Year awards. Ty Langenberg is poised to be in the conversation this year and has spent the last two years being developed by Lund. Last years pitching staff was, statistically, amongst the best in the country. The Detroit Tigers swooped in this past fall and hired Robin as the assistant pitching coach and the Hawkeyes had to look for a new guy to lead the pitching staff.

Enter Sean McGrath. He has nine seasons of coaching experience, including six in the college ranks with Iona, UMass Lowell and Elon, while he most recently spent three seasons in the Seattle Mariners organization. McGrath mentioned that having college and major league experience is important.

“Super helpful. I was around a lot of really smart, taleneted baseball people with the Mariners. (Director of Player Development) Andy McKay became my mentor from about 20,000 feet away. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time together, but he really taught me the importance of managing the truth and telling the truth. How to serve as a professional reminder for guys to become the best version of themselves.”

McGrath spent last season as pitching coach for the Double-A Arkansas Travelers. He coached a pitching staff that finished first in the Texas League in WHIP, second in ERA and fourth in strikeouts. Travelers righthander Taylor Dollard was named Texas League Pitcher of the Year after posting a 16-2 record and 2.25 ERA.

“He brings so much to the table not only with his knowledge of all the stuff that we’re doing on the tech side and metric side, but experience as a baseball guy for a long time and to be in an organization like the Mariners, which is one of the best organizations in baseball.”

“I would say, (the transition) has been about as good as it could be, but anytime you lose a coach it’s difficult and especially one that had the impact on our program that Rob did,” said Rick Heller. “While Robin was still here, they were able to work together. Robin did a good job of getting Sean acclimated to all the stuff we are doing.”

On top of his major league experience, McGrath has made three stops at mid-major schools. He started at Iona College, where helped develop Mariano Rivera into the 2015 MAAC Pitcher of the Year and a fourth round draft pick. From there, he went to UMass Lowell, where two pitchers on his staff earned All-America East honors in 2017. His last stop before the Seattle Mariners was with Elon. The Phoenix pitching staff broke a school record for most strikeouts in a season with 575 in 2018. That staff led the Colonial Athletic Conference in strikeouts and finished second in ERA.

“There was a little bit of an overlap (with Robin and Sean). I was able to learn more about Sean, while having the comfort of Robin there with us,” said Ty Langenberg. “He settled in very quickly. Took a couple of weeks to take a step back and evaluate all of us, but once he opened his mouth and started to give some advice, it was very sound advice. He’s been a great coach and friend so far.”

The Hawkeyes pitching staff has been able to work with Coach McGrath since November and he had high praise for them when talking about them during media day yesterday.

“As Michael Jordan would say, ‘the ceiling is the roof’. A ton of talent, a ton of raw stuff on the staff,” said McGrath.

Maybe the most interesting comment of the day was when he said that several pitchers on the staff have the talent to pitch for a Double-A team right now.