Saint Mary's baseball added a former professional catcher to its coaching staff on Monday, Sept. 14.
Head coach Eric Valenzuela named Nick Meyer as the Gaels' catching coach ahead of the 2027 season, the program announced. Meyer, a Southern California native, brings six years of professional playing experience to Moraga, including time at the Triple-A level in the New York Mets organization.
"Nick is an absolute gamer," Valenzuela said in the announcement. "His professional journey and college success will contribute right away to our program and our catchers."
Meyer played three seasons at Cal Poly from 2016 to 2018, hitting .298 with 176 career hits. He posted a .343 average as a junior and earned 2018 Big West Defensive Player of the Year honors along with All-Big West First Team selection. The Mets drafted him in the sixth round that summer.
He reached Triple-A by 2021. Meyer started in Low-A with the Brooklyn Cyclones after the draft and climbed steadily, arriving at the Syracuse Mets, the club's Triple-A affiliate, for the start of that season. Over the 2021 and 2022 seasons he appeared in 134 games between Double-A and Triple-A, batting .260.
His playing career ended after a 2024 Spring Training invite with the Tampa Bay Rays. Meyer pivoted to coaching in 2025, returning to Cal Poly as a student assistant.
The hire strengthens a staff that guided Saint Mary's to consecutive West Coast Conference tournament titles in 2025 and 2026. The Gaels made program history at the 2026 NCAA Los Angeles Regional, becoming the first four-seed to beat the No. 1 overall seed twice since the tournament expanded in 1999. Saint Mary's defeated top-seeded UCLA twice in three days before falling to Cal Poly 5–2 in the regional final. It was the program's third NCAA Regional appearance in its history.
Meyer said he is eager to join the Gaels and looks forward to working with a coaching staff he called "highly regarded across our sport." He added that he cannot wait to help develop the program in Moraga.
