Keaton Winn is a rare big league pitcher, and not just because he’s the only one who grew up in Ollie, Iowa, with a population of 201 in the 2020 census. The 26-year-old San Francisco Giants right-hander’s primary pitch is a splitter, and by a significant margin. Through seven starts this season, Winn’s usage breakdown is 42.2% splitters, 23.3% four-seamers, 20.4% sinkers, and 14.1% sliders. No starter in baseball has thrown a higher percentage of splits this season.

With one notable exception, his atypical approach has yielded good results. Winn failed to get out of the first inning when he faced the Phillies in his most recent start, on May 4, but even with that turbulent outing — five runs in 2/3 frames — he has a respectable 4.41 ERA and a 3.97 FIP. In each of the three starts that preceded the debacle, he went six innings and allowed just one run. His next start is scheduled for this afternoon against the Rockies in Colorado, at 3:10 p.m. ET.

Winn’s mix was even more splitter heavy a year ago. He made his MLB debut last June and proceeded to throw his signature offering an eye-opening 55.1% of the time in 42 1/3 innings. It’s understandable that he would prioritize the pitch — last month, our prospect writers Eric Longenhagen and Travis Ice called Winn’s splitter “devastating… one of the nastier ones in pro ball” — even if such an approach is unprecedented among starters. San Francisco’s fifth-round pick in the 2017 draft out of Iowa Western Community College is anything but ordinary in the way he attacks hitters.

Winn discussed his splitter when the Giants played the Red Sox at Fenway Park earlier this month.

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David Laurila: Let’s start with your full repertoire. What was it at the time you signed your first professional contract, and what is it now?

Keaton Winn: “When I signed it was four-seam, curveball, slider, and I maybe threw like five sinkers. No changeup. Now it is four-seamer, sinker, splitter, slider.”

Laurila: You obviously throw a ton of splitters. Given how much you rely on it, would it be fair to say that you’re probably not in the big leagues right now had you never developed a splitter?

Winn: “Yeah. That’s definitely crossed my mind before. I mean, I think I ultimately could have competed to get a role, but having the splitter made it so much easier.”

Laurila: What’s the story behind it? Read the rest of this entry »

Kyle Harrison was pitching for the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels when he was first featured here at FanGraphs in August 2022. Then a fast-rising prospect in the San Francisco Giants system, the now-22-year-old southpaw had broken down the early evolution of his arsenal for me prior to a game at Portland, Maine’s Hadlock Field. Fast forward to this past week, and we were reacquainting at a far-more-fabled venue. Harrison was preparing to take the mound at Fenway Park for his 14th big-league start, his seventh this season.

As I’m wont to do in such scenarios, I asked the dark-horse rookie-of-the-year candidate what’s changed since our 20-months-ago conversation. Not surprisingly, he’s continued to evolve.

“I’ve added a cutter, although I haven’t thrown it as much as I’d like to,” Harrison told me. “Other than that, it’s the same pitches. The slider has been feeling great, and the changeup is something that’s really come along for me; it’s a pitch I’ve been relying on a lot. I really hadn’t thrown it that much in the minors — it felt like I didn’t really have the control for it — but then all of a sudden it clicked. Now I’ve got three weapons, plus the cutter.”

Including his Thursday effort in Boston, Harrison has thrown his new cutter — Baseball Savant categorizes it as a slider — just six times all season. Which brings us to his other breaking ball. When we’d talked in Portland, the lefty called the pitch a sweepy slider. Savant categorizes it as a slurve.

What is it? Read the rest of this entry »

Wilyer Abreu has been one of the top rookies in baseball this season. Along with playing above-average defense in right field, the 24-year-old Boston Red Sox outfielder has logged a 155 wRC+ while slashing .316/.396/.519 over 91 plate appearances. His 1.1 WAR ranks second among rookie position players, behind Baltimore’s Colton Cowser. Granted, less than a month’s worth of games is hardly enough time to know if he’ll keep this up, but Abreu’s strong start is encouraging nonetheless.

He similarly impressed last year in a 28-game cameo. Debuting in late August, Abreu went 24-for-76 (.316) with two home runs, the exact same numbers he had this April. There’s juice in his bat. Eric Longenhagen wrote last summer that Abreu “has above-average raw power,” and the youngster’s production has backed up that prose. By the time of his call-up, Abreu had gone yard 22 times, with a 135 wRC+, at Triple-A Worcester.

His path to the big leagues included more than your typical climb up the minor league ladder. The Red Sox acquired Abreu from the Houston Astros, along with Enmanuel Valdez, in the trade for Christian Vázquez on August 1, 2022 — but that’s also only part of the story. The Maracaibo, Venezuela native had intended to sign with Boston in 2016, but the Red Sox were locked out of the international amateur market in 2016-17 as punishment for violating international-signing regulations. Abreu subsequently signed with the Astros in 2017; he waited an extra year to sign because he was told he’d get a better offer if he did.

He’s evolved as a hitter since inking his first professional contract. Read the rest of this entry »

When I interviewed Marco Gonzales in spring training 2018, the now 32-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates southpaw was with the Seattle Mariners and about to establish himself as a solid big league starter. We discussed his return to health — he’d undergone Tommy John surgery two years prior — as well as his repertoire. We also touched on his approach on the mound, a subject we’d earlier addressed in a 2014 conversation when he was a St. Louis Cardinals pitching prospect. At the time, Gonzales was your prototypical crafty lefty, and he’s remained just that throughout his career.

The former Mariners’ player rep for the MLBPA has a lot of opinions on the game he’s played professionally since 2013, when the Cardinals drafted him 19th overall out of Gonzaga University. Not surprisingly, the increase in arm injuries is of particular interest, as is the pitch clock.

Gonzales, who has since landed on the 15-day injured list with a left forearm muscle strain, sat down to discuss those topics at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park earlier this month.

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David Laurila: We talked back in 2018 when you were with the Mariners. Are you the same pitcher now that you were then?

Marco Gonzales: “No. You’re never the same pitcher you were, even if you think you are. You might have a similar identity — you always have an identity as a player — but you change physically, emotionally, mentally. Your maturity on the mound changes. Your thought process changes, and in turn, that changes what you can do on the mound.

“The pitches I throw haven’t added or subtracted, but how I think about them, how they move, and how I’ve used them has changed a lot. Year to year, week to week, there are changes. That’s part of baseball. For whatever reason, sometimes a pitch doesn’t come out the same way it usually does and you have to use it differently, or maybe manipulate it more.” Read the rest of this entry »

Jared Jones had made just one big-league appearance when my colleague Ben Clemens wrote on April 2 that we should all get irresponsibly excited about the rookie right-hander. Little has happened to change that opinion. When Jones takes the mound this afternoon for the sixth time in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform, he will do so with a 2.79 ERA, a 3.19 FIP, and 34.8% strikeout rate. Moreover, his fastball has averaged 97.3 mph, occasionally reaching triple digits.

Following his second start, I caught up to the flame-throwing 22-year-old at PNC Park to get a first-hand account of his arsenal and development path. Among the things I learned is that he was especially raw when the Pirates drafted him 44th-overall in 2020 out of La Mirada (CA) High School.

“I didn’t know how to pitch when I signed,” Jones told me. “I just threw fastballs, and throwing hard in high school is a lot different than throwing hard in pro ball. Guys in pro ball can hit the hard fastball, especially if you don’t have anything else.”

Jones did have secondary pitches prior to getting drafted, originally a curveball “that wasn’t very good,” and then a slider that went from “just okay” as a young prep to “pretty good” by the time he’d graduated. Even so, he was admittedly more thrower than pitcher — someone whose elite arm strength allowed him to “just throw fastballs by guys.”

Velocity came naturally to the now-6-foot-1, 180-pound righty. It also came early. “I was in my sophomore year of high school when I hit 97 [mph] for the first time,” explained Jones. “I’ve been a hard thrower for a long time.” Read the rest of this entry »

Justin Slaten is well on his way to becoming a Rule 5 success story. Selected by the Mets out of the Rangers organization this past December and subsequently swapped to the Red Sox on the same day, the 26-year-old right-hander has come out of the Boston bullpen eight times and relinquished a single run in 14 1/3 innings. Moreover, he’s been stingy with baserunners, allowing just six hits and a pair of free passes. Four weeks into the season, he’s been the team’s top reliever.

His lone low moment to date came in his major league debut. Pitching in Seattle in the third game of the season, Slaten surrendered a 10th-inning walk-off single to Julio Rodríguez on his fifth big league pitch. Since that time, he’s been borderline flawless — opposing hitters have gone a paltry 5-for-45 against his power arsenal, with a Mike Trout triple accounting for the only extra-base knock. He’s punched out 11 batters.

Slaten’s mix — 38.5% cutters, 35.2% sweepers, 24.0% four-seamers, 2.2% curveballs — has been more varied than he expected it to be when he broke camp. Other than that, he’s mostly the same hurler who attracted Rule 5 interest by overpowering hitters while pitching with the Rangers’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates last year.

“My only approach coming in was to throw everything in the zone, trying to get the best results,” Slaten told me before a recent game. “The only thing that has changed a little bit is the pitches that have been called. I’m probably throwing a higher percentage of breaking balls than I have in my entire life. But nothing has changed about the way I throw them, or try to execute.” Read the rest of this entry »

Kyle Hendricks has long been lauded as a cerebral pitcher, and for good reason. Nicknamed “The Professor,” the 34-year-old Chicago Cubs right-hander not only has an economics degree from Dartmouth College, he relies far more on guile than gas. The antithesis of your prototypical power arm, Hendricks subsists with a heater that sits in the second percentile for velocity. Moreover, he’s no spin monster in terms of breaking stuff. As he’ll readily admit, his four-pitch arsenal is sans a plus breaking ball.

His 2024 season is off to a slow start. Over five turbulent outings, Hendricks has surrendered 37 hits, including a league-worst eight round-trippers, seven walks and 28 runs across just 21 innings. Adjustments are in order, but that’s nothing new for the righty. An ability to adjust accordingly has gone a long way toward his career ledger, which coming into this year included an 84 ERA- and a 3.80 FIP, as well as stingy walk and home run rates. When push comes to shove, Hendricks has proven more than capable of outsmarting big league hitters.

Hendricks discussed his evolution as a pitcher and his overall M.O. on the mound during spring training.

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David Laurila: How have analytics impacted your evolution as a pitcher?

Kyle Hendricks: “Analytics have changed a lot throughout my career, and I’ve had to learn a lot about them. I still don’t know a whole lot, to be honest with you. We have such a good support group behind me on the pitching side, and I rely heavily on them. I’ll go through all my work, throw my bullpens, etcetera, and they’re breaking down all the data, what everything looks like. So, the most it’s probably helped me with is consistency — consistency of pitch shapes, and action on my pitches.

“From there, I’ve always been a guy searching for a better curveball and how to spin a ball better. It definitely can help, just looking at the shape of my curveball, the spin overall, the spin efficiency. Things like that. Those have helped me put a good visual to what I’m searching for in a breaking ball.”

Laurila: It’s interesting to hear you say that you don’t know a lot. Zack Wheeler recently told me that [Phillies pitching coach] Caleb Cotham was his pitching nerd. Read the rest of this entry »

When I interviewed him 12 months ago, Logan O’Hoppe told me that he keeps two journals. One is for baseball. The other is for life. As the then-rookie catcher explained, “It’s tough to stay in a consistent headspace day to day,” and writing down his thoughts helps keep him centered.

One year later, he’s not only taking his game to a new level — O’Hoppe has a 137 wRC+ over 70 plate appearances — he’s also upping his journal input. I learned as much when I asked the LA backstop if he ever writes about the ballparks he visits. Moreover, I learned those visits are atypical of most major leaguers’.

“I’ve got three different ones now,” O’Hoppe explained when the Angels played at Fenway Park earlier this month. “One is for the game-planning stuff with the pitcher, and another is for hitting; those are obviously all baseball. With the third one, yes, I write a lot about the ballparks. It keeps my perspective in line. Early on last year, when I was really new to [the big leagues], I tended to think that this was the end all be all, and that the results were everything. I’m trying to realign my perspective and understand the results for what they are. I feel like it’s really helped me to come to different ballparks like this one, and sit alone in stadiums that I was at growing up.”

Adam Wainwright did something similar toward the end of his career, visiting various locales in ballparks, such as press boxes and concourses, prior to games. O’Hoppe is doing something similar, only on the front end of his career. Read the rest of this entry »

Life in the minor leagues differs greatly from life in the majors, often leaving those who climb the affiliated ladder with a multitude of stories. While some of those experiences are amusing in hindsight, many of them also underscore why minor leaguers fought so hard to unionize in an effort to improve their pay and working conditions. From torturous bus rides to cheap motels and ballpark mishaps, life before players make the big leagues can leave you laughing – and shaking your head. Here is a collection of a few such stories, courtesy of nine people in the game well versed in life on the farm.

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Liam Hendriks, Boston Red Sox pitcher:

“The minor leagues are character building. You go through the adversity to get to the [big leagues], and the juice is worth the squeeze. It’s been a minute since I’ve been down there, but the minors are just a grind. You wake up early in the morning to travel to the next town, then you stay in shitty hotels. You learn to find the silver linings in everything.

“One story I’ll always remember is Chris Colabello getting called up. He had spent [seven] years in indie ball, got signed as a 27-year-old to Double-A with the Twins, and I was with him in Triple-A in 2013. We were on the bus — I think it was Lehigh Valley to Rochester — playing cards in back. I don’t remember what game we were playing, but I had the best hand I’ve ever had in my life. One of the other guys had one of the best hands of his life. The manager, Gene Glynn, comes walking down. He says, ‘Hey Chris, got a minute?’ Tells him he’s getting called up. Twenty-eight years old, all those years grinding in indie ball, and he’s getting his first call-up. Calls his old man, was crying on the phone. Read the rest of this entry »

The first thing Jerry Narron remembers about Major League Baseball is going to games three, four and five of the 1960 World Series with his parents. Four years old at the time, he saw the New York Yankees face the Pittsburgh Pirates, the latter of which had his father’s brother, Sam Narron, on their coaching staff. To say it was the first of many diamond memories would be an understatement. Now 68 years old, Jerry Narron is in his 50th season of professional baseball.

The journey, which began as a Yankees farmhand in 1974, includes eight seasons as a big-league backstop and parts of five more as a big-league manager, none of which culminated in his team reaching a World Series. That there was an excruciating near-miss in his playing days, and another when he was on a Gene Mauch coaching staff, register as low points in a career well-lived. More on that in a moment.

His uncle got to experience a pair of Fall Classics during his own playing career. A backup catcher for the Cardinals in 1942 and 1943, Sam Narron was on the winning side of a World Series when St. Louis beat the Yankees in the first of those seasons, and on the losing end to the same club the following year. He didn’t see action in the 1942 Series, but he did get a ring — according to his nephew, the last one ever presented by Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Moreover, it was the last of Branch Rickey’s 20-plus seasons with the Cardinals.

The first World Series opportunity Jerry just missed out on was in 1986 when he was catching for the Angels, the team he currently coaches for. The second came as a coach with the Red Sox in 2003. Read the rest of this entry »