For nearly every young baseball player, the dream is the same: make it to the major leagues.

Mountain Brook High School graduate Joey Keating ('17) reached the big leagues—but not with a bat in his hands. Instead, he built a career through analytics, innovation and a passion for understanding the game at its deepest level.

Today, Keating serves as Senior Analyst supporting Amateur & International Scouting for the New York Mets, helping evaluate players and shape one of the 30 Major League Baseball organizations. His path, however, wasn't one he envisioned while growing up in Mountain Brook.

"When I was in high school, I didn't know what kind of career I wanted to pursue," Keating said. "It wasn't until after my freshman year at Michigan that I even thought about working in baseball, and at that time, I didn't know anybody in the game."

After arriving at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, Keating began networking with alumni working throughout professional baseball while searching for opportunities to combine his love of the sport with his analytical mindset.

That opportunity came when Michigan Baseball was searching for someone to help improve its player development and scouting processes using analytics.

"I applied for a job posting and ended up working for the baseball team from 2018 to 2021," Keating said. "The opportunity allowed me to work with and learn from some really smart baseball people, including two coaches who have since become major league coaches."

The timing couldn't have been better.

Keating helped Michigan reach the championship series of the 2019 College World Series while learning firsthand how data could influence player development and game strategy.

"I bleed maize and blue, so working for Michigan and trying to give them a competitive advantage over other schools was very special to me," he said.

That experience opened another important door.

The work he produced at Michigan, along with the relationships he built through networking, earned him a summer internship with the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) in Player Development following his sophomore year.

"Cleveland has one of the best reputations in the industry when it comes to player development, so it was an opportunity I jumped all over," Keating said. "I spent the summer working with their rookie ball team in Arizona, and the experience solidified my desire to continue pursuing a career in baseball."

When graduation approached, Keating wasn't certain where his professional career would begin.

"The Mets weren't really on my radar until pretty late in the job search process," he said. "They underwent an ownership change during my senior year at Michigan. The new leadership sold me on an opportunity to work in Baseball Analytics in a role that would directly impact the major league team."

Keating began working remotely from Ann Arbor while finishing his degree before relocating to New York immediately after graduation.

Over the next five seasons, he became one of the key analytical voices supporting the Mets.

As a member of the Major League Strategy department, Keating served as the bridge between the organization's analytics department and the players and coaches inside the clubhouse.

His work included lineup recommendations, bullpen usage, defensive positioning, offensive game planning and helping players understand the growing role of analytics in today's game. The role demanded advanced statistical analysis and coding, but perhaps more importantly, it required translating complex information into language players and coaches could immediately apply on the field.

"I was essentially with the team 24/7 for eight months out of the year, traveling all over the country throughout the season," Keating said.

One of his primary responsibilities became offensive game planning.

"When I started in 2021, I learned what modern offensive game planning looked like and what some of the best teams in the industry were doing to prepare their hitters each night."

Working one-on-one with hitters, he analyzed opposing pitchers, identified tendencies and helped develop customized approaches for every series and every game.

The technical side of the job was rewarding, but Keating says the people inside the clubhouse left the biggest impression.

"Working with the players gave me a tremendous amount of perspective and respect for what they were being asked to do every day," he said. "They showed me what being a professional looked like—how they prepared, took care of themselves, treated people and handled the grind of a 162-game season."

Former Mets manager Carlos Mendoza became an important mentor.

"I learned countless things from him about both baseball and leadership," Keating said. "He was the same guy every day regardless of how the team was playing or how loud the outside noise got. He impressed me not only with how he thought about the game, but how he treated the people around him."

Earlier this year, Keating transitioned into a new challenge as Senior Analyst supporting Amateur & International Scouting.

Rather than preparing for tonight's game, his focus has shifted toward tomorrow's players.

He now works closely with the scouting department to improve how the organization evaluates amateur and international talent, combining analytical models with traditional scouting to better assign player value throughout the draft process.

The role also places him at the forefront of one of baseball's fastest-changing frontiers: artificial intelligence.

"Being in the analytics department, part of the job is staying on top of advances in fields like machine learning to make sure our methodologies stay on the cutting edge," Keating said. "The advancements in Ai have been no different. We're constantly evaluating how these technologies can increase productivity, help us leverage different data sources and ultimately change the way we think about baseball."

Despite living in New York and working alongside some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball, Keating says Mountain Brook remains home.

"I feel very proud to be from Mountain Brook, Alabama," he said. "I definitely miss the people and the community. I take a lot of pride in being able to represent our town and state when meeting people from all over the world."

Mountain Brook baseball head coach Lee Gann remembers Keating's contributions on and off the field and his path to the pros is no surprise to Gann.

"Joey was exactly the kind of player coaches love to have in the dugout. He wasn't just a hard-working, everyday starter who gave everything to the baseball program—he was an exceptionally smart, cerebral player who really knew the game well.  Everything he did here was with incredible preparation, discipline and determination."

For the former Spartan infielder, the journey from Mountain Brook to the major leagues has looked different than the childhood dream he once imagined.

Instead of playing under the bright lights, he's helping shape what happens beneath them.