TAMPA, Fla. — When pitching coach Oscar Marin and Josh Fleming talked this offseason concerning the lefty probably signing with the Pirates, each events needed to speak concerning the cutter. It was as soon as Fleming’s second-most-used pitch, however he shelved it in the course of the 2022 season and didn’t contact it in any respect in ‘23. A floor ball specialist, Fleming needed to carry that pitch again.
It seems that Fleming wasn’t the one one who had the cutter on the thoughts for the Pirates this offseason. In a time when sweepers and additional pitch motion are the craze amongst most pitchers, many members of Pittsburgh’s potential rotation are reemphasizing their cutters or buying and selling in slider motion for velocity.
Final season, Pirates pitchers threw the slider 22.3 % of the time, the fifth most in baseball. That quantity remains to be excessive this spring — 19.1 % in ballparks with monitoring information — however the cutter fee has additionally jumped as much as 8.5 %, the third-highest fee in baseball.
Highlighting the cutter wasn’t essentially a method coming into the offseason. However Pittsburgh’s two beginning pitcher additions — Martín Pérez and Marco Gonzales — had been trying to bounce again after down 2023 campaigns, and each zeroed in on the cutter as one of many principal instruments to get them again on monitor.
Final 12 months, Mitch Keller threw his cutter 24.2 % of the time, simply two proportion factors decrease than his most-used pitch, the four-seamer. He has continued to throw it typically this spring, signaling that the highest three of the Pirates’ rotation are going to throw loads of minimize fastballs.
Even some common sliders have been tweaked this winter. Quinn Priester has seen his slider go from a median of about 85 mph to roughly 88 mph in outings this spring, buying and selling in some motion for extra velocity.
“It’s not shifting as a lot, it’s simply later,” Priester mentioned, explaining his thought course of. “As a result of I’m throwing tougher, that break’s occurring later, and it’s only a higher pitch.”
What could possibly be the benefit of this alteration? Speaking with gamers, there are two trains of thought.
One is to get extra floor balls and weak contact. That’s the place Priester’s mindset is. The slider he’s throwing now could be nearer to its authentic 2021 type when he first unveiled the pitch. It’s slightly firmer with extra gyro spin.
And when you will have Nationwide League Gold Glove Award winner Ke’Bryan Hayes at third base, loads of these floor balls will flip into outs.
“For those who get them to see fastball and throw off their timing [with a cutter], even when it’s 4 mph, it’s going to overlook that barrel, get beneath it,” Priester mentioned. “It’s going to be a simple out for us.”
The opposite mindset is to pair it with the sinker, like what Keller and Colin Holderman did final season. Final 12 months, the 2 had been the one Pirates who had at the least 50 sequences of both cutter to sinker or sinker to cutter. In these at-bats that ended with a type of sequences, each pitchers had a run worth of -2, which is within the pitcher’s favor, in response to Baseball Savant’s information. Holderman held hitters to a .167 common going from sinker to cutter, whereas Keller’s batting common towards was .205 going cutter to sinker.
“With the velo, it’s laborious to guess which fastball’s coming,” Holderman mentioned. “I actually like it. It’s the perfect addition I may have requested for.”
Keller and catcher Jason Delay seek advice from it as X-ing the zone. The sinker and cutter come out of the hand in the identical spot with related velocities, however then their flight paths seemingly cross as a result of they tunnel off one another. The sinker bites down, whereas the cutter goes extra horizontal.
“If you’re working two sides of the plate, I believe these two pitches actually complement one another properly,” Fleming mentioned. “You’ve seen it from Mitch, Pérez and Marco; it actually makes our secondary stuff play significantly better.”
Speaking with the cutter throwers on workers, consistency was introduced up typically. It’s why Pérez deserted his slider for the cutter in 2019: He may execute it extra typically.
That execution goes to in the end decide if a extra cutter-heavy strategy can work.
“That’s what’s giving us the success that we’re searching for,” Pérez mentioned. “I believe while you belief a pitch, you’re going to make use of it. It’s been working for me, for Marco, for everyone throwing the cutter. For those who really feel good and also you belief one hundred pc in your stuff, it can work.”
