Gap to gap: How Blue Jays’ Mitch White found his velocity, why Jose Berrios is throwing a cutter
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Here’s an attention-grabbing early growth from Grapefruit League play:
That’s Mitch White, out of choices and dealing this spring to earn a spot on Toronto’s opening day roster, dotting a 98-mph fastball on the knees to Juan Soto on Sunday. And right here he’s later in his outing, driving one other 98-mph heater up-and-in to Josh VanMeter:
Those two pitches have been each tougher than White’s profession excessive in a big-league recreation — 97.5 mph — which he notched again in 2021. In all, he threw 5 pitches in his Grapefruit League debut that registered larger than the quickest pitch he threw within the majors final 12 months: 96.2.
Back on the mound Thursday in Dunedin, White sat at 96 and touched 98 once more — this time carrying that velocity into his second inning. Here he makes use of it to freeze Garrett Stubbs:
Safe to say within the time since we final noticed him in a Blue Jays uniform seven months in the past, it seems White has unlocked one thing on the mound.
“Yeah, he was doing that in Buffalo in the direction of the top of the 12 months,” says Blue Jays supervisor John Schneider. “Well, maybe not 98.”
There are some things at play right here. The main one is well being. White entered spring coaching final 12 months nonetheless carrying a shoulder harm that cropped up towards the top of 2022, subsequently battled elbow irritation all through camp, and spent the start of his season grinding by means of a irritating, start-and-stop rehab course of. It wasn’t till he was designated for task in late July that White took a step again from the strain of competitors to reset and contemplate his greatest path ahead.
After spending every week of DFA limbo away from baseball completely with family and friends in New York, White returned to triple-A Buffalo feeling refreshed, each bodily and mentally. He went to work with Bisons pitching coaches Tim Norton and Carson Phillips to hammer out some supply inefficiencies and shorten his arm motion, cueing himself to get his arm up earlier than he began shifting towards dwelling plate in an effort to switch drive extra linearly.
By the top of the 12 months, White’s fastball velocity ticked up over 95 mph — he averaged 93.9 mph within the majors final 12 months earlier than his DFA — and frequently touched 97. He completed the 12 months on a seven-start run that noticed him pitch to a 1.89 ERA with a 31.4 per cent strikeout charge throughout 33.1 innings.
He spent his low season in San Diego persevering with to strengthen his shoulder by means of twice-a-week classes with a bodily therapist. He additionally hung out working with eccentric personal pitching coach Dominick Johnson, whose yard bullpen has been a productive winter coaching floor for a number of Southern California based mostly MLBers together with Joe Musgrove, Mike Clevinger and Chris Devenski.
Reporting to Blue Jays camp this spring, White’s velocity crept up once more. He elevated the velocity on his cutter (typically labeled as a “bullet slider” by pitch trackers) as properly, which will probably be an vital, high-80s weapon this season towards left-handed hitting.
White’s purpose is to have satisfactory separation between that tougher cutter and a mid-80s slider (pitch trackers see it as a sweeper) that he’ll work away from right-handers. The two choices have at occasions blended into each other up to now. Add within the low-80s curveball White can drop in on the backside of the zone and he’ll have 4 weapons he can use to work north, south, east and west.
“He made a bit of a tweak in his delivery with his lower half that really unlocked some things for him. His breaking stuff is a lot sharper, too. A lot harder,” Schneider says. “Being wholesome and actually having his supply the place he needs to, if he can maintain that, that’d be superior for us.”
Of course, all the things begins with White’s fastball, which will definitely play at 98. The 29-year-old says his arm and mechanics at present really feel as sound as they’ve since 2017, when he was flirting with triple digits throughout his first spring coaching with the Dodgers.
A variety of accidents — a damaged toe, blister points, a herniated disc, persistent shoulder troubles — routinely undermined his progress within the seven subsequent seasons, and White might want to present the Blue Jays extra this spring than a pair promising outings to earn a spot on the membership’s opening day roster. But you possibly can hint his early spring exhibiting again to the tear White completed 2023 on at Buffalo. And all he’s executed since is proceed to construct.
“My body’s in a good place right now, I’m moving better. Mechanically, I’m feeling better with my lower half, my arm slot,” White says. “I definitely want to be competing from the get-go in terms of executing pitches — especially in situations with runners in scoring position. From here on out, that’s the plan.”
That’s the following step for White — staying on the assault. Thursday towards the Phillies, he labored forward of 5 of the 9 batters he confronted however allowed 4 to succeed in — three on walks. The Blue Jays imagine that with the calibre of stuff White is that includes this camp, there’s no purpose for him to draw back from the zone together with his fastball when he will get to 2 strikes.
“It’s electric stuff. He’s getting ahead and then picking a little bit and not putting hitters away,” Schneider says. “Overall, we’re really encouraged. He’s carrying over what he’s been doing in bullpens and lives. I thought his stuff was really, really good. He just ran some deep counts. … Two-strike sliders or curves were just a bit short. So, I think it’s about carrying the zone a little bit more. And putting guys away in three or four pitches. He has that kind of stuff right now.”
•••
Something else to control: Jose Berrios’ new cutter. He’s been quietly growing it over the winter and throwing it in bullpens this spring. His confidence within the pitch isn’t fairly the place it must be, which explains why he threw it solely twice in his first Grapefruit League outing Thursday. But the Blue Jays wish to see Berrios throwing it extra typically as he continues ramping up this spring.
“It’s feeling good,” Berrios says. “But [Thursday] we only threw two because when you start to compete, you’ve got that mindset as a competitor to go out there with my strengths. But it feels good. I threw one and got a groundball to second.”
Here’s the pitch Berrios is referring to:
Boring in like that on Bryson Stott’s arms is strictly how Berrios want to use the brand new providing. Previously, without having to fret a couple of pitch that breaks to Berrios’ glove aspect, left-handed hitters might hang around over the plate and hunt his four-seam fastball away. The hope is the cutter will neutralize that.
Berrios’ troubles towards left-handed hitting over the past two seasons are properly documented, and though he was higher general in 2023 than in 2022, lefties nonetheless ran an xSLG of .542 towards his four-seamer. Their barrel charge towards the pitch has been 16 per cent or larger in every of the final 4 seasons (for context, the league common barrel charge of left-handed hitters towards right-handed four-seamers final 12 months was 9.7 per cent).
That tells you left-handed hitters have been seeing Berrios’ four-seamer fairly properly. And the pitching change heard around the Blue Jays world in Game 2 of final 12 months’s wild-card sequence instructed you the way the membership feels about over-exposing Berrios to lefties in consequential conditions.
But if he can each front-hip two-seamers towards left-handed hitters and drive his cutter in on their arms, he’ll give himself a greater likelihood of maintaining them from hanging out over the plate searching for one thing flat.
“I think having another pitch going the other direction on those guys is big,” Schneider says. “Or even to righties when he’s behind or even in counts, trying to pitch to some weak contact.”
This will probably be a piece in progress to observe all through Blue Jays camp. Berrios finally must get to a spot with the pitch the place he’s snug sufficient to throw it greater than twice in a pre-season recreation. If he doesn’t assume it’s a very good weapon towards the Phillies on a February afternoon, he’s not going to wish to use it towards the Yankees come April.
“I know it’s going to be a good tool for me,” Berrios mentioned. “Four-seam, two-seam, and cutter glove-side against lefties is going to be a good weapon. If I keep practising and am able to throw it whenever in the at-bat, it’s going to be a big plus for me.”
Arden Zwelling is an on-field reporter for Blue Jays broadcasts on Sportsnet. Gap-to-gap is his common column for expanded Blue Jays and MLB notes, ideas and non sequiturs that don’t fairly match on TV.
