Dan Meyer Named Double-A South Manager of the Year
Published 3:34 pm Wednesday, October 6, 2021
PEARL – Minor League Baseball™ (MiLB™) today announced the league All-Star teams for the three leagues that make up the Double-A classification. Mississippi Braves manager Dan Meyer was named the Double-A South Manager of the Year after leading the club to its first league championship in 13 years.
Meyer, 40, took over as team manager, on top of his pitching coach duties on June 9, leading the club to a 51-29 record and league-best 3.55 ERA over the final 80 games of the season.
“It’s an honor for sure, but I was blessed enough to be at the right place at the right time with an amazing group of guys,” said Meyer. “This (award) couldn’t have happened without the entire (coaching) staff playing key roles and stepping up during key moments throughout the year.”
Meyer’s pitching staff finished sixth in all of minor league baseball with a 3.58 team ERA. The starting rotation held a 3.62 ERA, which was fifth in the minors, and the bullpen had a 3.56 ERA, ranking ninth. M-Braves hurlers served up just 74 home runs, the fewest in Double-A baseball and third-fewest in all minor league baseball.
Meyer, the ninth manager in team history, joins only Phillip Wellman (2008) as the only M-Braves skippers to earn the league manager of the year award. Wellman led the M-Braves to the Southern League Championship in 2008.
2021 was Meyer’s seventh in the Atlanta Braves organization as a coach and first in Mississippi. The Woodbury, NJ native was a former first-round pick of the Braves in 2002 who played parts of five seasons with the Braves, Oakland Athletics, and Florida Marlins as a left-handed reliever. Meyer made his major league debut for the Braves in 2004. The Braves won the division that year, and Meyer was the youngest pitcher on a staff whose age averaged 30.1 years old.
Meyer has played a vital role in developing many current Atlanta Braves pitchers, including Ian Anderson, Mike Soroka, Spencer Strider, Touki Toussaint, Max Fried, and others. The New Jersey native became a coach with the Danville Braves in 2014 and was promoted to Minor League Pitching Rehab Coordinator by the Braves before the 2015 season. He served as pitching coach for the Rome Braves from 2016-2018 and Florida Fire Frogs in 2019. He was scheduled to return to Florida in 2020 before the season was canceled due to Covid-19.
The 2021 Double-A South Champions were also led by hitting coach Einar Diaz, bench coach Nestor Perez, defensive coach Devon Travis. video and information intern Ryan Taylor, strength coach Ryan Meehan and athletic trainer Dan Leja. All were in their first seasons with the M-Braves.
The Mississippi Braves claimed the 2021 Double-A South Championship by beating the Montgomery Biscuits 3-2 in the best-of-five series. The league title was the second in team history.