Is Luis Severino Back? Grayson Rodriguez Returns.
Grayson Rodriguez, Luis Severino, Quinn Priester
Orioles Grayson Rodriguez returned from a long stint at Triple-A. While his velocity was the most notable factor during the outing, looking at the entire outing, his velo was up <.5 mph. He did throw his 8 hardest pitches of the season, all in the first inning (likely adrenaline with the recall + the Dodgers?). His fastball actually had 1.5-2” less vertical break (ride) as well. So there’s a slight downtick in Stuff+ here from 122 to 118. What’s helping maintain the stuff score despite a notable drop in carry is a slightly lower release height (1-2”) and added extension (1-2”).
It also seems like he’s ditched his cutter, cutting the usage from 14% in his April-May MLB starts to just 1% yesterday. Perhaps the most encouraging part of this outing to me is the slider improvement. The pitch averaged 81 mph with 2” vertical break and 13” sweep. Yesterday’s slider had more lift (4” vertical break), a comparable amount of sweep (11”) and more velocity (83mph). FanGraphs Stuff+ here ticked up from 121 to 143. The caution here is just that he only threw 8 of them, so I’ll be monitoring it in his next outing. 🤙
Yankees Luis Severino finally feels like he’s regaining his 2022 cutter. The lack of separation between his slider and cutter this season was really the only thing that stood out to me from his tough 9-start stretch. In yesterday’s outing, he was throwing his cutter 2 mph harder, with 4” more vertical break and 2” less cut. FanGraphs Stuff+ actually ticked down here, from 123 to 104, but given that the whiff rate jumped back above 40%, the contact quality was finally good on the pitch, and it looked more like his 2022 shape, I’m confidently throwing away the Stuff+ drop. If there was ever a time to declare him back with some objective evidence as to why, this is that moment. Let’s see if the cutter shape sticks. He gets the Royals this weekend, which is a cookie matchup to fully declare himself back. 📈
Pirates Quinn Priester made his debut yesterday. Mix looks deep, but early Stuff+ doesn’t look too strong. Driveline Baseball has the sinker as a 73 (his righty fastball) and slider as a 112 (primary pitch to righties). To lefties, he appears to be a kitchen sink guy. Sinker is his primary fastball, which is a bit taboo, changeup is really similar in both shape and velocity to the sinker (92 Stuff+), curveball is his main breaker (81 Stuff+), then he also mixes in a blended four-seam / cutter (55 Stuff+).
The slider looks good to me and I think he can lean on it to right-handed hitters, it’s hard with <5” sweep but a lot of drop for the velocity. His left-handed hitter approach will be interesting to monitor, given he doesn’t really have a plus weapon there, so the approach seems to be “mix everything together.” Pirates seem to have a lot of multi-fastball guys where neither is plus so they lean on their good slider. 😕