What if a Pronator — Not a Supinator — Threw a Kick-Change?

In early April, Davy Andrews penned an article that ran here at FanGraphs and began with the following: “You may have noticed that this is the Year of the Kick-Change.” My colleague went on to explain the pitch, which by now most people reading this are well familiar with. Our own coverage of the popular offering also includes an interview with Davis Martin and Matt Bowman from last September, and a feature from this spring on Hayden Birdsong, who throws a kick-change, and his teammate Landen Roupp, who does not. The pitch is thrown exclusively (at least to my knowledge) by supinators such as Martin, who explained that spiking his middle finger on a seam allows him to “kick the axis of the ball into that three o’clock axis [and] get that saucer-type spin to get the depth that a guy who could pronate a changeup would get to.”

Thinking about the pitch recently, a question came to mind: What would happen if a natural pronator tried to throw a kick-change?

In search of an answer, I queried three major league pitching coaches, as well as Tread Athletics’ Leif Strom, who in addition to having hands-on knowledge of the kick-change is credited with coining the term. Their responses varied. Moreover, they meandered a bit — but in a good way — as they offered insight into the science of throwing a baseball from a mound.

Here is what they had to say.

The following answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

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Desi Druschel, New York Mets

“There are a couple of ways to look at the kick-change. Most people interpret it as, ‘the spike kicks the axis,’ but I’m not necessarily convinced. Another thought is that [the middle finger] is just out of the way, and the ring finger kind of swipes below it. You’re kicking the axis, for sure, but I don’t know if it’s always kicking it how people might think. That would be on the one where there is more supination.

“I like thinking in extremes, and when you think extremes and pronation, you think Devin Williams. In essence, you’re getting rid of these fingers — they’re not involved — and it’s kind of the same thing with the kick-change. We’re just artificially doing that, but from a supinated position.

“As to your specific question… I’m spitballing here, because you asked me something that I don’t actually know. It’s like, ‘Well, why hasn’t anyone tried it?’ I mean, there are far fewer people that actually pronate through a changeup than we think. It was always, ‘Hey, a changeup, you pronate.’ I mean, Devin Williams does that. Ron Marinaccio does that. But there actually aren’t as many pitchers who pronate a changeup as we’ve thought. We have that from Edgertronic now.

“I haven’t really got on that bandwagon of supinators [versus] pronators, basically bucketing people. There are a lot of different ways that you can make the ball come off your hand, the kick-change being an example. Pronation and supination probably lead you down the road of certain types of pitches, but I think we can be way more creative than that.

“There is cut action, and there is cut in your release. I typically call it cut release — supinated release — and you’re reducing the Magnus Effect with that. There is still Magnus Effect though, because it’s not a pure gyro spin. But a pronated kick-change… I mean, I can’t think of anyone that has tried that. I haven’t seen it. But your question has me thinking.”

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Drew French, Baltimore Orioles

“Cade Povich is my first experience with a kick-change, although he’s only kind of a supinator by trade. With him it was honestly more the locations of where his prior changeup finished — it was more location-dependent performance — and we thought the kick-change might kill vert. If we could kick the axis and kill some spin, with him throwing it on similar lines, it might push it down to better locations. That was the thought process. The fact that he’s a supinator… Clay Holmes has maybe popularized this pitch even more than some of the prior guys who have been throwing it, like Birdsong in San Francisco. He’s got a really good one that we got to see last year.

“There is such a high degree of volatility to him catching it right, to produce the shape, the movement, the spin that you want, and also to kind of get the train on the tracks, so to speak, to end up in a really competitive area to force swings. But again, it’s been more of a volatile-command pitch because of the inconsistency of movement. The lack of spin and where the seam might end up presenting itself can push it to get glove side, and it can push it down, and it can push it arm side.

“Guys have to be comfortable with the depth of what that spike is. You have guys who throw sliders with just a baby spike and their pads down, and you have guys who throw curveballs where [the pointer finger] knuckle is in there really tight. So, that’s something that we’re always taking inventory on. I also think that Holmes, and some of these guys with higher release heights, might have an easier time with it in terms of consistency of release. That’s compared to your traditional three-quarters guy, which is more where Cade falls.

“Generally, getting that middle finger out of the way is important. If you look at the high-speed video, you can see how it ends up kind of flattening, and then kicking the ball sideways. It’s out of the way, but it does influence how the ball spins. No question about it.

“[A kick-change] is already a little bit tough to command, especially when you’re generally in that sub-1,000 rpm range, so if you did try to pronate it, I’m thinking that the middle finger actually might have a little bit more influence on it, as you’re trying to get inside the ball. Ultimately, I don’t know that this pitch necessarily works for somebody who is a pronator. That said, I feel like less and less guys are leaning into pronation for arm-side movement stuff now that we know a little bit more. We’re a little bit smarter about ball physics.

“In the past, guys have gotten in trouble because of ball manipulation. That’s something that we’re generally trying to avoid now, because of the variability of the timing. You want to get inside a changeup, but what if you get inside of it here versus here? Well, that’s going to be two feet of ball flight that hitters might see. It might start to move earlier out of the hand, versus leaning into a supinated bias where you’re getting the seam aligned, and the ball flight aligned, to where you can just throw the ball naturally. Effectively, the axis is going to shift mid-flight and create deception, later movement, and maybe a higher quality of pitch.”

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Barry Enright, Los Angeles Angels

“There a few different ways of going about it. Kicking the axis back into place is one of them. The other piece of it, at times, is getting middle-finger strength away from the baseball. By taking that middle finger off, you’re promoting the ball coming off your ring finger. So, as much as you’re kicking the ball into good axis, as a guy who doesn’t pronate well… but even the pronators. If a pronator were to take middle-finger strength off the ball… when the middle finger starts to dominate the baseball, you tend to get more backspin, whereas you’re going to want more cut, or sidespin, to get the ball to sink or run. So, it can be good for anybody if you’re using it in the right way.

“I had a guy with the Diamondbacks, Blake Walston, who threw the kick-change. Here we’ve had a few guys tinker with it. Some feel comfortable, and some don’t. Ian Anderson was working through it. Brock Burke. Shaun Anderson throws one. I’ve probably always wanted Tyler Anderson to even try to improve his best pitch, but he has such a good changeup that you’re not going to screw with it. Griffin Canning ended up doing it over in New York. I think it can work for most people, but it’s still going to be a feel pitch for a lot of guys.

“There are different options for guys who don’t pronate. You’ve got a seam-shift one-seamer split type of action changeup. You’ve got the one that [José] Soriano throws; he throws off the one seam, but splits his finger a little more, so it’s not like a true-acting split — it’s like a one-seam-acting split. There are so many options for so many guys that it really just plays into feel. Kick-change is the new hot term that’s out there, but it comes down to each guy and their feel. Again, there are a lot of options, both for pronators and supinators. But yes, a pronator could realistically throw a kick-change.”

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Leif Strom, Tread Athletics

“You would have to consider the spectrum of pronation/supination and where the athlete in question falls on that. If they are an individual who is somewhat neutral but doesn’t possess innate talent for either pronation or supination, then a kick-change can be a way for them to cut out some force behind the midline of the ball and enact some more gyro from the ring finger leading to seam effects they would otherwise struggle to replicate.

“If someone who truly gets to the front of the baseball with their change — think Devin Williams — tries a kick-change, they will most likely see a regression in effective movement and velocity. This is mostly attributed to the positive impact the middle finger can have in creating useful efficient spin for heavily pronated pitches in that archetype of player.

“In a natural supinator, the efficiency is cut by the ring finger and the ball works itself around the middle finger as if it is a spindle. Once release from the hand is initiated, the middle finger extends and the kick of the ball’s axis can be observed. You get a coupling of seam effects and unique spin axis that leads to massive vertical action at velocities that were unheard of in the past.”