Where Are They Now: Matt Daley

Thousands upon thousands of boys grow up dreaming to play Major League Baseball. Very few are talented enough to even play at the collegiate level.

Truly passionate baseball fans will still try to find a way into the industry through a position as a journalist, a scout or if they are intelligent enough, a front office position.

Garden City alum Matt Daley is in the very, very small subsection of the baseball world that was both talented enough to play at the big league level while being intelligent enough to transition into a front office position for the New York Yankees.

If that sounds difficult to do, that’s because it is. Most organization are looking for highly-educated individuals with economic degrees or MBAs as opposed to a former player that simply has an eye for talent. Daley, who is currently the Director of Pro Scouting for the Yankees attended the prestigious Bucknell University and checks off all the boxes to work in a front office.

The Early Days

Matt was born in Flushing, Queens but moved to Garden City in his youth. He is the older of two boys, who was an athlete as well and played club ball at UVA.

Matt played basketball until his sophomore year, and he stated that he is a big believer in being a multi-sport athlete ” until you get to high school and realize what you are passionate about.”

At the age of 12, Matt’s family moved to Garden City – one of the powerhouse athletic programs on Long Island. The Little League team he was on won the district before losing in the next round.

“It was a special group of kids – it was the same group that later on won it all,” he said in regards to his Garden City high school team.

Garden City HS

Legendary Garden City coach Rich Smith was at the helm for 50 years for the Trojans. Their 2000 team that featured Matt was arguably the best in program history.

In regards to coach Smith, he said:

“He was a legend in Long Island sports; especially baseball. He’s a person that cares deeply about the students and players. Where he really excelled was in practice. He ran really good practices. It never felt like we were out prepared. He was running winter workouts before most programs were doing it. That’s where we excelled.”

Daley was a two-year varsity starter. He played JV-B as a freshman and JV-A as a sophomore, which is very unusual for a player that went on to pitch in the big leagues. He noted that the players ahead of him was an All-State SS/RHP so there wasn’t a need for him as an underclassmen.

“There was a lot of kids in my class that were on the team before me. It was a tough lineup to crack.”

During summer ball, Matt played for the Valley Stream Cadets. It was a group comprised of kids from Garden City and Valley Stream South. They mainly played tournaments together. That experience helped him prepare for the gauntlet of Nassau County baseball.

As a junior. Garden City was knocked out by Division in the playoffs.

The following year, they put everything together. They finished with a total record of 26-3 including capturing that elusive Nassau County Championship and kept it going winning the Long Island Championship against Hauppauge.

That run to the title was not an easy path as they beat, Division, Island Trees and Wantagh in the single-elimination tournament.

“It was really fulfilling to defeat Division. To that point, Coach Smith had never beat them before so we got the monkey off our backs. It meant a lot to the program.”

Daley noted how their division really prepared them for the playoffs as they had to face Wantagh and Lynbrook and they “really beat up on each other.”

The Long Island Championship was at Glen Cove High School and they won by the score of 4-2 over Hauppauge – who had won back-to-back Suffolk County Championships.

“It was a tight game, they were probably the best team we faced all year – including the New York State tournament.”

Daley regaled Coach Smith coming up to him before the game and said , “Smith how many you got?” And he told him “maybe five.”

He wound up going the distance and firing the complete game to send his team to the state tournament up in Utica – which was held at an old minor league stadium.

Garden City wound up cruising to the title with a 12-0 victory over Rondout Valley in the Finals after a 4-2 win over Williamsville South in the semifinals.

That remained their only championship until 2021 when the Trojans defeated Huntington in the Conference II Championship at Mitchel Field.

Bucknell

Back in those days, the college recruiting landscape was much different. Even though Daley was an exceptional athlete and student, the interest was tepid.

“It was more of me trying to sell myself to school and not the other way around,” said Daley. “I was interested in Johns Hopkins but I didn’t get in. I was interested in Patriot League teams; Lehigh, Lafayette and Bucknell.”

When he went to their camp and met the coach, he knew it was the perfect fit.

“I fell in love with their campus when I met coach Gene Depew. He told me, ‘you’re not a main recruit but will be a preferred walk-on. And I made the most of it.”

He certainly did, as Bucknell won two Patriot League Championships in 2001 and 2003. In 2001, their regional was in Coral Gables and in 2003 their regional was in Texas. Tough draws, but great experiences nevertheless.

During his junior year, Daley studied abroad in Australia. In addition to being on the other side of the world, he also had to rehab as he had undergone Tommy John surgery as a sophomore.

He noted that he basically had to rehab on his own through pickup level games, but he welcomed the challenge.

“If you give me something to do, I will follow it to a T.”

In regards to balancing his workload in the classroom and baseball, he noted that it’s not for everyone.

“It’s not easy,” he said. “I don’t know how other schools do it, but teachers didn’t give you a break just because you were an athlete. I still had to do everything. Coach Depew stressed that school comes first. He would say ‘excel in the classroom before you step on the field.’ That made it easier.”

Pro Ball

Daley went undrafted but signed as an amateur free agent on June 11, 2004. Over the course of the next five seasons, Daley grinder his way through the minor league ranks in the organization until he got the call up and made his Major League debut on April 25, 2009 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He really found his groove midway through the season when he compiled an impressive 14.2 inning scoreless streak which spanned six weeks.

Unfortunately, he suffered another injury in 2021, tearing his rotator cuff, which cost him the entire 2012 season.

He was able to sign a minor league contract which the hometown New York Yankees and ultimately worked his way back to the big leagues, making his season debut on September 6, 2013.

Twenty days later, September 26, he was the pitcher who replaced Mariano Rivera in the final appearance of his prolific Hall of Fame career.

After pitching sparingly during the 2014 season, the Yankees released him on September 2, 2014.

Scouting

“When it was time for me to get released Brian Cashman called me and basically said, ‘hey we are releasing you. Do you want to keep playing?’ I told him yes but he basically said if that changes and you have interest we have something for you. As the offseason unfolded, I realized my playing days were over. I spoke with Billy Eppler about a scouting job and I decided to do it – I signed a 1-year deal, and here it is 10 years later and I’m still scouting.”

He started up right away as a pro scout. He did that for 3 years and was responsible for scouting the Mets, Pirates and Blue Jays. He moved into an office in 2018 as the Assistant Director of Pro Scouting along with Dan Giese, who eventually decided to get out of baseball and went back to the police force in San Diego.

Daley was appointed as the Director of Pro Scouting.

In regards to what the most rewarding part of the job is, Daley said:

“There’s nothing that will ever replace the feeling of stepping on the mound and challenging the other team and being in the clubhouse with your teammates but this is the closest you can get to that. I get to work with many people in the Front Office. Our scouting department is over 20 people throughout the country. All have a common goal of evaluation players for acquisitions purposes with the goal of making the Yankees better.”

Looking back on his career, specifically the Mariano Rivera day and he said, “every so often he comes into Yankee Stadium. Such a fantastic person. It was such a privilege to share a clubhouse and bullpen with him. I remember the first year he came back he goes up to me and said, ‘that’s my closer!’ Who else gets to say that?”

Baseball has shifted drastically to having members of the front office with Ivy League backgrounds. In regards to that he said, “there’s probably more people with my background 20 or 30 years ago. It’s a mix of everything now which is how it’s supposed to be. People with different backgrounds, diversity and ability to view the game through different lens.”

He went onto to add, “the game is always changing, and it always has. It’s never been the same for long periods of time. always been a copy cat league – everyone copies it until someone else goes out on a limb and changes. The more I learn the more I realize the less I know about it. The goal is to try to be better than the other teams. That is our challenge, but also what makes it extremely fun.”