{"id":483116,"date":"2026-02-18T13:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483116\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:53:13","slug":"new-spring-pitches-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483116\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW Spring Pitches You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been tracking on social media which pitchers are adding new pitches, changing their mechanics, or reviving old pitches. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve missed some, but let\u2019s talk through the most notable tweaks I\u2019ve seen so far.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll hit on the following names: Devin Williams, Roki Sasaki, Chase Dollander, Ryan Sloan, Jack Kochanowicz, Brayan Bello, Chase Burns, Garrett Crochet, and Hayden Birdsong.<\/p>\n

After 235.2 innings of a 1.83 ERA in 2024, an abysmal strand rate pushed Williams\u2019 ERA to 4.79 last season. His peripherals suggest he\u2019ll revert to being dominant once again if he changes absolutely nothing in 2026. Preferring to take an active approach in his reversion to being good, we\u2019re getting a pair of tweaks for the Mets\u2019 new closer. <\/p>\n

Williams has thrown both a cutter and a gyro slider in the past. The highest usage of his cutter came in 2023, when he threw it exclusively to left-handed hitters (6%) and mostly in early count situations. His changeup was a surprisingly average pitch to left-handed hitters in 2024 and 2025. Perhaps more cutters will help him move off his 45% changeup usage early in counts and help it have more success as a two-strike pitch.<\/p>\n

From 2020-2022, Williams threw a glove-side shape resembling a gyro slider but it kind of morphed each season. Like his cutter, the usage was so light that it\u2019s difficult to say the pitch was anything more than a passing thought. It\u2019s uncommon for a changeup-heavy pitcher to be better against righties than lefties, but that\u2019s what Williams has managed to do every season he\u2019s been in the majors. This makes me wonder whether both the cutter and gyro slider are primarily to help against left-handed hitters. Even if that\u2019s correct, we might still see some usage of the gyro slider, in particular, against righties. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Williams\u2019 Gyro Slider grip (2020)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have been tracking on social media which pitchers are adding new pitches, changing their mechanics, or reviving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-483116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}