Spring training is here and with it, our first glimpses of starting pitchers flexing their refined selves for the year ahead. In many cases, pitchers are ramping up their velocity and hoping to replicate their success of old without fixing what isn’t broken, though we see a vast number of players citing something fresh. A different training regimen, some extra velocity, a mechanical tweak, and the oh-so-fun “I’m throwing a new pitch.”
Keeping track of these new pitches can be vital at this time of year. In the past, we’ve seen Freddy Peralta and Tyler Glasnow display new sliders that turned them into staff aces, Pablo López featured a new sweeper before his success in Minnesota, and Clarke Schmidt leaned into his cutter, helping us grasp his potential as a stable arm for the Yankees.
However, it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Dozens of pitchers are reportedly working on new pitches akin to how my uncle has been working on his novel for the past twenty years – it doesn’t mean they will help or become legitimate additions to their arsenal.
Today we’re going to help get to the bottom of many reported “new” pitches and determine if they are worth our attention. Alongside this article, three of my good friends in the industry have also taken the time to scrutinize new pitches:
I’ll be taking on Grayson Rodriguez, Christopher Sánchez, and Jared Jones
Grayson Rodriguez’s New Sweeper
New pitches are all about fixing a problem. It can be finding a pitch for strikes, keeping batters off their heaters, generating strikeouts, or uncovering a weapon to defeat opposite handed batters.
Grayson’s problem is simple, in my humble opinion. His four-seamer grades out as elite on paper with fantastic velocity, extension, and HAVAA, while his ability to control the pitch should make it a dominant offering he can rely upon. However, both LHB and RHB have crushed it. It’s not the heater’s fault, but rather his lack of strong complement inside his mix. With a mid-80s slider + changeup and a slower curve, the high 90s fastball is on its own velocity band. There is no sinker or cutter to deceive batters when sitting hard.
When reports came out that Rodriguez was throwing a new pitch, I was excited. I sat up in my chair ready to read about a sinker or cutter (he barely touched his 90 mph cutter last year, abandoning it quickly in the season) that would be a great addition to exploit his elite extension.
It’s a sweeper. Sigh. This whole section is to tell you that I don’t believe Rodriguez adding a sweeper does a whole lot to fix his largest problem. Rodriguez’s changeup, curve, and slider all do a fine job of earning whiffs to RHB and while the sweeper could be better than any of them in two-strike rates, I see this as a small gain in an already promising area instead of addressing the major problem. In addition, the sweeper will likely be RHB-exclusive (sweepers are worse against opposite-handed batters), making its impact smaller.
Sadly, I think we can move on from this one for the time being.
Cristopher Sánchez’s New Cutter
I’m thrilled about this one. Sanchez refined his approach against LHB last season by amplifying his sinker usage inside, creating far less hard contact off the pitch than his previous approach aiming for called strikes away, while the slider did its job down-and-away. That left one issue: RHB. Despite boasting an elite changeup, the pitch needs to be set up effectively with a strike-earning pitch and Sanchez’s sinker was pummeled by RHB last year. His command with the sinker was questionable, looking mostly like “Here’s a sinker over the plate, please don’t hit it,” instead of nailing the edges.
The typical answer for finding a pitch to earn strikes against opposite-handed batters? A cutter. We didn’t have data for his first start of the spring on Tuesday, however it did seem as if he threw a few cutters inside to RHB and they did exactly what you wanted them to do – keep batters off the outside changeup and sinker over the plate, while inducing weak contact.
I’m a huge believer in this pitch and I’m excited to monitor it with more starts in the spring. If Sánchez throws it as much as he does sinkers to RHB (if not more!), then we could see his massive 9.0 hits-per-nine fall dramatically. Get excited.
Jared Jones’ New Sinker
We’ve seen pitchers succeed in the majors with just two pitches, predominantly a four-seamer/slider mix (deGrom, Strider, Greene, Archer, Urquidy, etc.). However, two requirements must be met in order to excel: 1) Both four-seamer and slider must earn whiffs. 2) Both four-seamer and slider must be thrown for strikes in any count. The latter can be tough at times for Jones, and there are times batters can key in on his heater, allowing for more damage in play than his absurd four-seamer should return.
Featuring a sinker to RHB would be a welcome addition to his arsenal. It doesn’t have to be the largest horizontal ride or vertical drop, though it should come with the mentality of being exclusively featured on the inside third of the plate (and off). This opens up the four-seamer to skirt above bats more often when elevated as the sinker would add the slightest hesitation to the pitch’s direction.
In addition, Jones’ efficiency would improve. Sinkers inside to RHB are mostly featured early in at-bats as they can covert outs quickly against batters anticipating a four-seamer or a pitch landing further out over the plate. This may come at the cost of a few strikeouts, though its impact on whiff rate on his four-seamer may offset this, while the length of starts should increase.
I’m excited to watch Jones feature the pitch this spring. By the end of March, let’s hope Jones is nailing the pitch inside and featuring it at least 15% of the time to RHB. However, we should ignore this if the pitch can’t be wrangled and lands too often over the middle of the plate, or if Jones elects to turn to the sinker against RHB only a handful of times a game.
Featured Image adapted by Kurt Wasemiller (@kurt_player02 on Instagram & Threads)
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