The seeds of becoming a baseball manager were planted for new West Virginia Power skipper Wyatt Toregas when he was coming to a crossroads in his career as a baseball player.
"The first time it came into my mind was when I really started becoming a horrible player," he said with a laugh. The 34-year old has shown he can be a pretty good manager, so much that the Pittsburgh Pirates organization moved him up from managing its short-season affiliate, the West Virginia Black Bears, to its Class A crew at Appalachian Power Park. It's a next step he's excited to make, and an opportunity to stick around and contribute to a sport he loves.
Injuries had taken their toll on the former 24th-round pick of the Cleveland Indians, and his playing career - which included 22 games in Major League Baseball with the Indians and Pirates - was coming to a close. At that point, something his old hitting coach at Class AA Akron, Lee May Jr., said climbed back into his mind.
"He said, 'You know, you're gonna make a really good manager someday,'" Toregas said. "And I said, 'Really? I hadn't thought about it.'"
He started thinking about it a lot more at the end of his playing days and, after a stint as the first base coach of the Class AAA Indianapolis Indians, the Pirates organization named him the first manager of the Black Bears, which share a stadium with West Virginia University in Morgantown. It was there that he showed early signs of a knack for his new job.
After some early struggles, that inaugural Black Bears team won the New York-Penn League, entering the playoffs as a wild card, beating Williamsport in the semis and Staten Island in the championship series.
That season gave him the confidence that he could be a baseball manager. The next season, where the Black Bears finished 38-38, showed him there's always something new to learn.
"The second year was like, 'OK, I can't do the same thing every year,'" he said. "Each team is different. I was able to figure last year's team out, but it took a little while. Now I realize it takes a level of work and preparation. You have to put time into each player and you can't shortcut anything."
Toregas describes his management style as a combination of aggressiveness and adaptability.
"I like to take advantage of whatever's available," he said. "But at the same time, I like to push the envelope. I like to apply pressure to the other team and either force them to make great plays or mess up."
He also has an eye for the statistical side of the game. The numbers, he said, tell you a lot about what's going on and can help a team, even in the lower levels of baseball, prepare to win. He appreciates the Pirates system's willingness to share knowledge up and down the ladder, including from all the way up at the top rung with Pirates manager Clint Hurdle.
"He is the most accessible person I've ever seen with a high level of importance within a system," Toregas said. "He has a lot on his plate and he talks to me once a week. He calls me up to see what's going on, to teach things or to just see how things are going. I think the knowledge is being passed around in our system very, very well, and that's reaching to the players."
Toregas' excitement about his new job doesn't just come from what the future may hold, molding young players in one of MLB's stronger farm systems. It also comes from his past. The Reston, Virginia, native was a catcher at Virginia Tech before embarking on his pro career, but he has plenty of family from West Virginia, from towns like Clarksburg and Capon Bridge. Those Mountain State roots have him hoping to get his players out into the community, so they can become a part of it.
"I have big West Virginia ties," he said. "I like being close to family. It means more being in this state."
Contact Derek Redd at 304-348-1712 or derek.redd@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @derekredd.