How Jaime Vieira is using scientific approach to help Blue Jays hitters

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Jaime Vieira is right where she wants to be, leaning up against the batting cages on the Blue Jays’ back fields, watching as the organization’s top prospects litter the outfield and parking lots with balls. What she’s looking for, though, goes beyond the loud contact and launch angles.

Vieira’s expertise lives in the “how” and “why” of it all, blending her coaching experience with her background in kinesiology and biomechanics to work with young hitters on their swings. Vieira’s expertise in one of baseball’s hottest new corners of development has already added to the Blue Jays’ hitting philosophy, and the native of Georgetown, Ontario, is making history as the first woman hired to a coaching role in the 46-year history of the Blue Jays.

“I have been blessed with a bunch of supporters,” Vieira said. “A lot of the players and coaches here have come up to me, given me kind words and really welcomed me to the organization. If I can show other women that they can be on field as well, then I’ve done my job.”

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Late last week, she got a message from assistant general manager Joe Sheehan with a link. It was a post on Reddit from Gosuke Katoh, a 27-year-old infielder who’d signed a Minor League deal with the Blue Jays this past offseason after eight pro seasons, mostly with the Yankees then with the Padres in ’21. In the post, Katoh reflected on what he called “a slow change in the attitude towards women in baseball over my eight-year career” and how he’d been impressed by his early days with the Blue Jays.

“The first thing I noticed when I walked into the spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla., for the first time was the multitude of women that the Blue Jays employed,” Katoh wrote. “Not only did the Blue Jays employ lots of women, but these women also held positions of power. Their job titles ranged from hitting coach to strength coach, and biomedical engineer — all positions historically held by men in the MLB.”

Katoh went on to acknowledge that these changes have not been met with the openness or inclusiveness they deserve, praising his new organization for not just accepting diversity, but actively prioritizing it. It was emotional for Vieira to read, and she drew appreciation from other women in the Blue Jays' organization.

“It’s one thing to hear from your former colleagues or different women, but to hear from a player who I’d just met two weeks ago talk about how important it is, it meant a lot,” Vieira said. “Even seeing the women’s changing room, it went from four of us when I had a stall in November to now, with all 10 stalls full of women who are working on-field with players.”

Vieira, who first got into coaching with the University of Guelph-Humber at the college level, first entered the Blue Jays’ organization in 2019 as a member of Jays Care, first as a programs coordinator then programs specialist, working with youth baseball initiatives. She then landed an internship with baseball operations in a research and development role in ’21, working with amateur scouting staff to prepare for the MLB Draft.

On top of Vieira’s undergraduate degree in kinesiology from the University of Guelph-Humber, she completed her masters of science degree at York University. Her thesis was titled: “The impact of a Dynamic Trunk Axial Twisting Task to Fatigue on Musculoskeletal Responses.” Try saying that five times fast.

In the simplest terms, “biomechanics” in baseball relates to how a player’s body works together to swing a bat or throw a ball. If a hitter is having a problem with their hands dropping too low, for example, it’s not as simple as just picking up their hands. There could be any number of solutions, many of which have to do with other pieces of the body. That’s the scope Vieira views hitting through.

“When coaches look at a part of the swing, like the moment of contact, and see that something is off, I try to take it to the next step and ask if their hips are tight,” Vieira explained. “Are they poor rotators? Do they not move as well? I take that kinematic and biomechanic perspective to try to put the pieces together on why he might not be in the ideal position at contact, then work backwards.”

Watching Toronto’s top prospects in Dunedin this past week, Vieira looks to the hips first. She likes to see a hitter who generates power from their lower body before anything else, creating a stronger foundation for everything above it. Communicating this effectively, though, can be half the challenge.

“My experience in school and the front office, then coaching youth and in college, I have the ability to knowledge transfer and try my best to get the information to them in the way they need to receive it,” Vieira said. “Everyone takes in information and learns differently, so I try to take pride in making sure that the hitter has the information in the way they need it.”

For some players, that means writing or visuals. Some might need to see the hard data or video breakdowns while others benefit more from live reps, repeating the new motions and feeling the results off their bat 100 times. Vieira’s expertise also allows her to customize approaches for different body types. A 6-foot-5 outfielder with a wiry frame and a stocky, 5-foot-9 catcher may have bodies capable of completely different rotations, postures or movements. To wedge each into the same cookie-cutter swing would drag down both hitters, so these individualized plans are designed to maximize each body’s biomechanics profile.

Vieira will spend the Minor League season either with an affiliate club or working out of the club’s player development complex with hitters, which is still to be announced, but her role is already helping to enhance a coaching staff that is now in the early stages of becoming more diverse and representative.