Mining the News (7/11/24)

American League

Angels

• Reid Detmers is trying to attack hitters differently and using a different slider grip.

They’re specifically working on Detmers throwing his fastball lower in the zone as a way to make his changeup up in the zone, as well as his other pitches, more deceptive and effective. Detmers said big leaguers were “sitting on fastballs up” and that needs to change.

He added that he’s reverted to his old slider grip. He’d switched to a conventional slider grip before the season but didn’t think it was as effective. The Angels don’t want to call him up until he’s comfortable with all the work he’s done.

• Also, Detmers doesn’t know if the team still believes in him.

The 24-year-old said he keeps in regular contact with Patrick Sandoval and Griffin Canning, his two closest friends on the Angels. He said pitching coach Barry Enright has checked in with him a couple of times and bench coach Ray Montgomery did once as well.
He hasn’t heard from Angels manager Ron Washington or GM Perry Minasian.

“Yes and no,” Detmers said when asked if he was surprised to not hear from those organizational leaders. “Would it be nice? Yeah. But I know they have a lot of stuff going on. I don’t really know.”

When asked if he felt the Angels still believed in his abilities and still had a plan for him, he paused for several seconds.

“I’d like to think so, but honestly I have no idea,” Detmers said. “I don’t know.

“I’m not too worried about it, to be honest with you. My job is to get outs. And whatever they want to do, that’s what they’re going to do.”

Minasian declined an interview request for this story.

Blue Jays

• Kevin Gausman has completely reworked his mechanics.

Tinkering is one thing, but visibly altering mechanics is something else entirely. This really can’t be overstated. Big changes are what Spring Training is for, but Gausman toyed with this change in a bullpen session two days prior to his start in Seattle, and he liked it. When he warmed up before the game, he liked it even more.

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The simple version is that this starts with Gausman’s setup. Gausman tried to be more “hunched over” on the mound, he said, and by hunching his back and dropping his posture a bit, this allowed him to lower his arm angle. One immediate result was better fastball control, and that pitch was clocked at 1.4 mph harder than his 2024 average, missing plenty of bats.

• The team sees Yariel Rodríguez as a starter and wants to keep him in that role.

Rodríguez arrived a mystery. He’d started for most of his life, but pitched out of the bullpen in Japan effectively. The Blue Jays have loved the option to do both — or even something in between — but when you find someone who can start big-league games, you punch the gas and don’t look back.

“That’s how we viewed him when we signed him, but you have to see how it plays out,” manager John Schneider said. “He’s got every single weapon to do that. Between pitches, stuff, his ability to hold runners, fielding his position, he’s definitely proving us right so far, I think.”

Guardians

• Gavin Williams is working on a new harder slider.

This year, [Gavin Williams] still has the fastball and curveball and he’s thrown two changeups in his two starts, but his slider has registered as a cutter on the league’s tracking devices.

That’s in part because he’s throwing the pitch much harder, but it’s a work in progress. In fact, because of a tweak to the grip, the pitch has looked different in the two starts he has made since returning from an elbow injury.

Williams’ slider in 2023: 84.9 mph

His cutter in his first start in 2024: 91.6 mph

His cutter in his second start in 2024: 88.3 mph

Pitching coach Carl Willis said the slider or cutter or Secondary Pitch No. 2 or whatever one wants to dub it had more depth and more horizontal movement on Monday, when he blanked the Tigers for 5 1/3 innings. Ultimately, they want it to resemble a slider more than a cutter, but they also want to protect his elbow, which Willis said is why the pitch might look different and why it remains a work in progress.

• Matthew Boyd’s fastball was sitting 91 mph to 93 mph in rehab starts.

The ones that were hit seemed like outs, but it was hard to tell considering there were no fielders on the diamond. But mostly, Boyd was missing bats. His heater sat at 91-93 mph, and his breaking pitches appeared to have good shape and movement – things he hasn’t felt in a long time.

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There’s no way to know what the Guardians will do before the Trade Deadline on July 30. They know starting pitching is at the top of their list of needs. But with a thin market, maybe that’s not possible. But no matter what, they have a little extra depth in Boyd, who can hopefully return to action in August.

In 2022 it sat at 92.1 mph and at 91.4 mph last season.

Mariners

• Luis Castillo is reworking his slider.

Both he and Seattle’s coaching staff believe it was the overhaul of his slider, which featured a new grip and a 3.3 mph dip in velocity from his season average of 86.2 mph, that made the difference.

“It gives me three different varieties of speed to play with the batter,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos, when pairing with his two fastballs and changeup.

Castillo tweaked the slider after a consultation with Mariners coaches Pete Woodworth and Trent Blank, and he said the early returns in the bullpen pregame were middling. That’s what made its effectiveness in-game all the more impressive.

Red Sox

• Rafael Devers has been dealing with a sore shoulder all season.

Devers has been dealing with a sore left shoulder for much of the season, an ailment he first felt on a swing at the end of spring training. Devers never went on the injured list but missed 11 games in April dealing with the shoulder issue while also coping with knee soreness. Since April 24, however, he’s missed just one game.

Despite the sore shoulder, Devers is having one of his best seasons at the plate. He’s batting .293 with a .971 OPS and 21 homers in 77 games.

“He’s been grinding through a few things, especially his left shoulder,” manager Alex Cora said Tuesday. “As a group, we believe that this is a good time for him to get some rest and then take care of it, so he’s not going to participate (in the All-Star Game).”

Royals

• Kris Bubic will throw out of the bullpen for now.

Bubic began his rehab assignment at the beginning of May and built up to five innings as a starter by the end of June, but it was then that he transitioned to the bullpen to prepare for that role with Kansas City, making four appearances in relief for Omaha (6 1/3 innings). With the rotation in a good spot and no need for a starter right now, the Royals felt Bubic could help in the bullpen, which has struggled lately. Bubic will be available to come in for short stints or give the Royals length if needed.

“Whether it’s getting one out or going multiple innings, whatever the team needs, especially at this point in the season when you’re starting to hit the dog days a little bit,” Bubic said. “If I can provide some innings or a spark or whatever, I’m all for it. I’m excited for it.”

His pitch velocities are up over 2 mph across the board.

Tigers

• Before going on the IL, Austin Meadows made a mechanical tweak to help hit rising fastballs.

“A little mechanical adjustment” seemed to do the trick, as Meadows told Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press that keeping his hands up allowed him to keep a more level swing, since “it’s hard to hit a rising fastball when your swing is uphill.” While Meadows continued to have trouble with breaking balls in Toledo, being able to catch up with high velocity could help Meadows produce at something closer to average offense in the majors, which might be all he needs to stick as a regular center fielder given his top-tier glovework.

White Sox

• Yoán Moncada will DH for a while and not return until the end of July.

Moncada DH’d and finished 1-for-4 with an RBI and a walk during his first rehab game for the Arizona Complex League White Sox on July 9.

“If everything goes right, we’re looking at him probably at the end of, close to the end of July, right around there,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “But he’s going to start DH’ing first and we’ll see how it goes.”

Moncada was running to first on a grounder on April 9 when he doubled over in pain and had to be helped off the field. He was placed on the IL the next day.

Yankees

• Gleyber Torres has been playing through a groin issue for “several weeks”.

Torres has been playing through a groin issue for several weeks, which prompted him to exit a June 20 game against the Orioles and affected him during a June 25 game against the Mets. He was not in the lineup on Saturday vs. Boston.

“It’s similar to what he had a couple of weeks ago. It doesn’t seem too significant, but he was feeling it in that groin area,” said manager Aaron Boone, who said that Torres could return to the lineup on Sunday.

National League

Braves

• Marcell Ozuna changed his swing to hit more homers but has returned to his original one.

A few hours before the game, Ozuna explained to The Athletic what he had done, and why, recently changing his approach in a failed attempt to hit more homers.

He didn’t make excuses but said he realized a couple of days ago how counterproductive it was, not just to swing for the fences but also to change the pregame regimen he’d used during an extraordinary hitting surge of nearly 200 games going back to the beginning of May 2023.

Ozuna said he didn’t do it just for selfish reasons, merely to see if he could hit 30 homers before the break. Other key hitters in the Braves lineup were injured or had struggled for much of the season, and Atlanta was falling further behind the Phillies. So, he thought he could make a difference by hitting homers even more frequently than he had since early last season. (Hey, he admits he didn’t really think this through.)

Cardinals

• Here is a huge word salad to say there are not enough spots for everyone once Lars Nootbaar and Tommy Edman come off the IL.

After missing over a month with a right oblique strain, Nootbaar was activated ahead of Monday’s game and went 1-for-4. Marmol’s preferred defensive outfield features Brendan Donovan in left field, Michael Siani in center and Nootbaar in right. Marmol considers Burleson a mainstay in the lineup (and rightfully so), which points to Burleson seeing most of his reps as the designated hitter. Of course, on days when Contreras needs a breather behind the plate, Burleson can switch to right field and Donovan can swap to second base, which gives Nolan Gorman a rest day while Contreras serves as the DH.

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Marmol indicated after Monday’s win he’d prefer not to platoon his lineup.

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There’s no telling how long of a rehab assignment Edman will need. A return right after the All-Star break would be ideal, but given the amount of time he’s missed, the Cardinals won’t set a firm timeline. When that does happen, St. Louis will use him as a super-utility option where he’ll play center field against left-handed starters and roam the corner outfield and middle infield spots against right-handers.

• Since coming off the IL, Willson Contreras uses a heavier bat to help hit fastballs but feels his timing is off.

Back to using a 34-inch bat that is an inch longer than normal and somewhat heavier, Contreras was able to adjust to the high fastball he wasn’t anticipating and swatted the baseball 395 feet for a game-sealing home run.

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“To be honest, I’m still missing some fastballs I shouldn’t be missing and that’s what tells me that my timing is still not at its best,” said Contreras, who had late, game-tying home runs earlier in the week against Pittsburgh and Washington. “When you make good contact in this ballpark, you have the opportunity to hit the ball over the fence.

His bat speed has been slower since coming off the IL.

Diamondbacks

• Ketel Marte has been dealing with a back issue for a while.

Ketel Marte had lower back tightness. Torey Lovullo said it’s been lingering for a while. Marte is day-to-day, Lovullo said.

— Jesse Friedman (@JesseNFriedman) July 6, 2024

Padres

• Once the infield is healthy, Donovan Solano might see more time on the bench.

Machado and Arraez have played through some bumps and bruises recently and could probably use sporadic rest days. Bogaerts, meanwhile, can be eased back into action. Shildt noted that Bogaerts could DH some, but he’ll mostly continue to play second base, which would push Cronenworth back to first.

If everyone’s healthy and available for an important game against a right-handed starter? Reading between the lines, Solano is probably the odd man out, relegated to his previous spot on the bench. But he’d presumably still get an at-bat or two on a nightly basis — and he’s already proven his value as a bench bat. He’s hitting .385 with a .914 OPS as a sub this season.

Don’t be surprised if Solano (vs LHP) and Jake Cronenworth (vs RHP) end up in a first base platoon.

Phillies

• Ranger Suárez doesn’t think he’s tired but his manager does.

Suárez said he doesn’t have dead arm. He said he isn’t tired, although his velocity is down a tick.

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“I think there’s probably a little bit of fatigue, sure,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I think there is with all our guys. But I don’t think it’s a concern. None of the numbers that we measure are really jumping out at us.”

Pirates

• Luis L. Ortiz is now doing the necessary preparation for his starts.

While his results in the Majors last year weren’t great (4.78 ERA in 18 outings, 15 starts, and a midseason demotion), that drop to the bullpen was also partly because he wasn’t putting in enough preparation for his starts last year. That’s not uncommon for young pitchers, and the door was certainly always open for him to start again, but it was a hint that he had to grow as a player.