Even though Spring Training is long behind us, we have no reason to stop looking into pitchers throwing new pitches. In fact, this is when the fun begins. Many pitchers will test new pitches in the spring but abandon them when the regular season starts. It can often be more informative to see which pitchers have drastically changed their pitch mix or pitch shape after a few starts in the regular season.
With that in mind, we will continue with the premise of the series I had called Pitchers with New Pitches (and Should We Care) by breaking down notable changes in a pitcher’s pitch mix (hence “Mixing” it up). We’ll look at pitchers throwing a new pitch, have eliminated a pitch, changed their pitch mix meaningfully, or are showcasing a different shape/velocity on a pitch.
I’ll continue my analysis with the simple premise that not every new pitch should be greeted with praise. A new pitch, like a shiny new toy, might be exciting on its own, but it also needs to complement what a pitcher already has and fill a meaningful void in his current pitch mix. We want to check and see if he has any splits issues. We want to see what his best pitch(es) is and see if this new pitch would complement that. Then we want to see what this new pitch type is generally used for (control, called strikes, etc.) and see if that is something this pitcher needs help with. We can also now see the pitch in action to look at the shape and command and see if it’s actually any good. Once we’ve done all that, we can decide if the pitch is a good addition or not.
If you missed any of the previous editions of this series, you can click this link here to be taken to the tracker, which I’ll update as the season goes on. It also includes links to the original articles so you can read them in full if you’d like.
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Yu Darvish - San Diego Padres (Slider)
It’s been a tale of two seasons for Darvish who had a 4.18 ERA and 1.27 WHIP through his first five starts (23.2 innings) while striking out 22 and walking 10. He then landed on the IL with a neck issue and, since coming back from the IL, has been electric, with 24 straight scoreless innings over four starts, a 0.54 WHIP, and 24 strikeouts to just three walks.
So what was happening with Darvish before the IL stint? Well, his command not being there was one of the key issues. Aside from one start against the Cardinals where he posted a 72% strike rate, he had strike rates of 67% or below in four starts and was 63% or below in three of them. His arsenal also began to grade out poorly by Pitcher Lists’ PLV metric in the two starts heading into his IL stint which supported the idea that his pitches weren’t as crisp as we’re used to seeing and his command of them was subpar.
Just being healthy has been a bit boost for Darvish, whose arsenal is now grading out incredibly well. He’s also posted strike rates of 71% or higher in four of the five starts since he’s come off the injured list and is getting tons more swings and misses. In fact, he had a swinging strike rate (SwStr%) above 11% just once in his first six starts. He hasn’t dipped below 13% in any of his last four outings.
A big piece of that is likely that Darvish has leaned into the slider more.
As you can see from the chart by Brooks Baseball above, Darvish has upped his slider usage by 10% in May, while almost completely removing the splitter and cutting back on the curveball usage.
That’s a change that’s supported by almost all metrics. His slider grades out as his second-best pitch, according to PLV, with a 5.42 mark where 5.24 is the league average. Darvish is throwing his slider a touch harder in May, which has led to more vertical drop and a slight boost in SwStr%. The pitch has a 15.3% SwStr% on the season but, perhaps more importantly, has given up just a 20% Ideal Contact Rate (ICR) which is 90th percentile in baseball. Darvish also pounds the strike zone with the slider, posting a 59% zone rate, which is well above the 41% league average on a slider.
Relying on the slider more has helped him get ahead in the counts and also get more weak contact early in counts. That has enabled him to use his four-seam fastball more in two-strike counts, using it 30% of the time with two strikes in May as opposed to 22% of the time before going on the IL. The four-seam SwStr% jumped from 5% pre-injury to 12.1% in May thanks in part to its change in usage.
VERDICT: MEANINGFULLY IMPACTFUL. Yes, part of Darvish’s improvement has just been connected to health, but any time a pitcher is throwing his best pitch more often, it’s something that we like to see. It has also taken some of the pressure off of his other pitches, which are fine but likely didn’t need to be used as frequently as he was using them. By relying more on the slider, four-seam, and sinker, he’s able to mix in the other pitches in advantageous counts, which is making them, and him, more successful.
José Soriano - Los Angeles Angels (Fastball usage)
Soriano started the season in the bullpen but was given a chance to start after an early injury to Chase Silseth. While he flashed plus stuff in his first four starts, the overall stats left a lot to be desired. He pitched to a 4.86 ERA and 1.44 WHIP with 20 strikeouts and 11 walks in 16.2 innings. He has been compared to guys like Edward Cabrera, who have intriguing raw stuff but can never seem to find the strike zone regularly.
In four starts in May, Soriano has put up some much better numbers with a 1.90 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 20 strikeouts, and eight walks across 23 2/3 innings. While the strikeout rate has fallen, so has the walk rate and the hard-hit rates. So what’s at the heart of this change and is it sustainable?
As you can see from Alex Chamberlain’s Pitch Leaderboard, Soriano has changed the way he attacks hitters with his fastballs.
In April, Soriano threw the four-seam 26% of the time, including 48.5% of the time to right-handed hitters. He also threw the sinker 27.4% of the time, including 72% of the time to right-handed hitters. In May, he has dialed back the fastball usage to just 11.8%, while the sinker has gone up to 44.2% with 31.4% usage to right-handed hitters. He’s also using the sinker far more with two strikes and not throwing the four-seam much at all with two strikes.
A glance at his player page on Pitcher List supports these moves. The fastball grades out as his worst pitch with a 4.85 PLV grade while his sinker has a 5.27 mark. His four-seam fastball also has just a 6% SwStr% and 12% Putaway rate, which measures how often a pitch thrown in a two-strike count becomes a strikeout. Both of those metrics are well below average.
Perhaps most importantly, Soriano seems to have trouble controlling his four-seam fastball with a below-average 51% zone rate and 60% strike rate. He doesn’t get it up in the zone and he throws the pitch middle-middle 11% of the time. That makes the four-seam a pitch that he can’t really command that also doesn’t miss bats, so Soriano using the four-seam fastball less overall and in two-strike counts is something we can support.
The four-seam doesn’t give up a lot of hard contact, but neither does the sinker, which has just a 29% ICR. He gets above-average zone rates on the sinker and below-average SwStr% but even lefties aren’t hitting the sinker overly hard with a 40% ICR that is better than league average.
If Soriano can get ahead with the sinker and prevent hard contact then the rest of his arsenal can pick up the pieces. His curveball is his best pitch and posts solid SwStr% to both righties and lefties. He also has a solid splitter that he throws often to lefties and posts a 17% SwStr% and a really solid 46% zone rate for a splitter. The pitch also works well off of his sinker, so the fact that Soriano has leaned more on the sinker is potentially allowing the splitter to play up more in May.
To righties, Soriano also has a slider that misses lots of bats but has been inconsistent because he struggles with its command and keeps it up in the zone too much. However, the pitch has some potential if he can keep it low and near the strike zone more often.
VERDICT: MARGINALLY IMPACTFUL. The change to a more sinker-focused approach has raised Soriano’s floor. It has given him better command and set up his secondaries for success. All of that is important to his uptick in performance, but for us to think that he has legitimate staying power, we need to see improved command of his secondary pitches and another step forward for that slider.
Robert Gasser - Milwaukee Brewers (Cutter)
In his first MLB start on May 10th against the Cardinals, Gasser showed off a solid four-pitch mix that led to a 35% CSW. He showcased a deadly sweeper that we knew from scouting reports would carry his arsenal, but he seemed to lack a go-to pitch against righties. It didn’t matter much because the Cardinals have been dreadful against four-seam fastballs this season, but I went back over scouting reports to confirm that Gasser did indeed throw a cutter I remembered having read about. Yet, in that start, he didn’t throw a single one.
Then, in his second start against the Pirates, the cutter showed up with 17% usage, getting just one whiff and a 7% CSW but also pounding the zone at a 64% rate. So now that we know the cutter actually is part of his MLB arsenal, we should look into how it might benefit him.
Gasser added the cutter after being drafted in 2021. “In college, I didn’t even have it,” he said. “When I first got to pro ball, I wanted to throw a harder slider, and that was the pitch I gravitated toward. Over my first year and then into this year, it’s developed into a true cutter, which has been beneficial because it can keep guys off balance and I can have something that’s not going both directions horizontally. It’s kind of a bullet straight at the guy.”
In the minors, the cutter was Gasser’s second-most utilized fastball and was seen by many scouts as a pitch “that has proved critical in his development.” Given that he relies so heavily on his sweeper, which will always perform better against left-handed hitters than right-handed hitters, the cutter is important for Gasser to perform against hitters from both sides of the plate.
While we’re only looking at a one start sample size, it appears that the cutter is not a swing-and-miss pitch.
As we covered above, Gasser got just one whiff on the cutter in his first start and no called strikes. In fact, the pitch graded out below average in Pitcher List’s PLV metric as well. However, he had an above-average zone rate and strike rate with it, which appears to be its primary purpose. Gasser threw 43% of his cutters middle (belt-high) in that start, which is well above league average, but posted a 33% ICR, which is good.
A lot of that soft contact allowed likely stems from the fact that Gasser throws all three of his fastballs to righties and throws them all between 90-93 mph. The cutter has little horizontal movement by eight inches of drop, while the sinker averaged over 16 inches of horizontal break during his time in the minors. Considering his fastball is relatively flat with a little bit of cut, that gives him three distinct movement profiles in the same velocity band.
His ability to command that deep of an arsenal and mix and match three versions of a fastball will likely give him a safe floor against right-handed lineups due to his ability to keep hitters off balance. However, it may cap his strikeout upside as none of those pitches are currently missing bats to righties. Yet, there is a little bit of hope in that regard as well.
So far, the four-seam has just a 9% SwStr% to righties, but he’s also throwing it up in the zone just 41% of the time, which is well below the league average. While Gasser doesn’t have great Induced Vertical Break (iVB) with just 15 inches, when you factor in his above-average extension and his release height, he has a Height Adjusted Vertical Approach Angle of 1.5, which is elite. That means his fastball is exceptionally flat and will drop less than the average fastball. That’s a big part of the reason PLV gives it an above-average grade.
However, Gasser has been throwing that four-seamer in the middle of the plate far too often to righties.
I love that he’s keeping it inside as well, but those types of flat fastballs perform better at the top of the zone because hitters expect gravity to create natural drop on a high fastball so they’ll over to protect the top of the strike zone, but a flat fastball will appear to “rise” and stay above the strike zone the whole way. It’s a change I’d like to see him make.
EDITOR’S NOTE: On Tuesday night, after this was submitted, Gasser threw just three cutters while allowing four runs to the Marlins. His sweeper was still dominant, and he posted a 30% CSW while allowing an average exit velocity of just 84 mph. It’s still confusing why Gasser isn’t throwing his cutter more to righties, and the lack of strikeouts is concerning, but he still shows plus command and is not allowing hard contact, which are two clear positives.
VERDICT: MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL. The cutter is nice to see because it’s proof of the deep arsenal Gasser has and it solidifies him as a high floor pitcher. However, the upside will come with changes to the rest of his pitch mix. If Gasser is able to use his cutter to get ahead of righties and keep them honest on the inside part of the plate, then I think an elevated four-seam can help him to miss more bats. Pair that with a sweeper that is solid to hitters of both handedness, and I think you have a starting pitcher who can be rostered in all leagues, but there are some approach changes we’d like to see happen.