Opening Day: MacKenzie Gore's New Slider, Paul Skenes' Slot, Carlos Rodon's Sinker

MacKenzie Gore, Paul Skenes, Carlo Rodon & a lot more

• Nationals MacKenzie Gore has a new slider. The velocity is the same at ~86.5 mph, but the pitch is moving to his glove-side, away from left-handed hitters, ~2” The axis of spin out of hand has also fallen, suggesting he’s more on the side of the ball at release (1:00 to 2:45). He also featured his slider as his primary offering to lefties, using it 51%. He used his slider just 6% to lefties in the second half last season, leaning on his four-seamer and cutter more. To righties, Gore backed off his fastball. He used it 56% versus righties in the second half. He used it just 44% in yesterday’s dominant performance of the Phillies (6 IP, 13 K, 1 baserunner). 🏛️

  • If Gore hangs in the 45% region with his fastball usage this season, he will smash his ~4 ERA projection. This approach is something I suggested this offseason. I’m happy to see it take shape. My fingers are crossed that it sticks.

• Brewers Freddy Peralta threw just one slider yesterday and appears to have reworked his curveball. The velocity on both his changeup and curveball was up ~2.5 mph, while his fastball only jumped up 1 mph in the outing. Despite the harder velocity, his curveball and changeup both had bigger shape. 4” more sweep, 2.5” more drop on his curveball and 1” less vertical break, 2” more arm-side movement on his changeup. Adding velo and creating drop is a recipe for Stuff models to like you. Peralta also shifted ~1 foot over toward the 3B side of the rubber. 🍺

  • Backing off his slider is an interesting decision. The pitch has morphed each of the last two seasons, a nice way to say it’s been inconsistent. It been an average pitch in 2 of the last 3 seasons on results. I’m not assuming the slider never comes back, but if he holds this curveball shape and velocity, I could see that leading his mix to righties. Both his changeup and curveball grips look identical to last season, so I’m mildly skeptical this is more blip than added secondary velo.

• Yankees Carlos Rodon has a new sinker. It’s 93 mph with 3” vertical break and 13” arm-side movement from his high 6.3’ release. No sinker in baseball last season had lower than 4” induced vertical break from a release above 6.2’. Rodon is creating a ton of drop on the pitch for how high his arm angle is, an impressive feat. He used the pitch 21% to lefties in this outing. 🗽

  • Rodon threw a sinker before 2019. The pitch had 11” vertical break, dramatically more lift than what he flashed yesterday. The Yankees continue to work magic with orientation tweaks.

• Red Sox Garrett Crochet appears to be throwing his cutter as his primary offering to right-handed hitters. He threw his four-seam 51% to righties in the second half last season and his cutter 33%. Yesterday, he threw his cutter 50% and his four-seam 37%. ✂️

  • I won’t overreact to small-sample usage, but we saw Crochet throwing more cutter in spring as well. The Red Sox and their disdain for four-seamers are back. I think the strategy makes sense for swing-miss. I’ll monitor how the damage against him and zone rates on both pitches evolve.

• Giants Logan Webb threw a bunch of cutters to lefties. He broke out the pitch last September, finishing the month with 18% usage to lefties. Yesterday, he threw it 29%. The pitch sits 90 mph with 8” vertical break and 2” glove-side movement. It’s an average cutter shape from his super-low slot. He also appears to have shifted toward the 3B side of the rubber, roughly a 6” change. ✂️

• Reds Hunter Greene posted one of the best velocity-vertical break combinations he’s had in a game in his career. He averaged 99.2 mph on his four-seam with 17.4” vertical break from his 5.9’ release. Clear plus shape. Last year when he eclipsed 98.5 mph in an outing for average four-seam velocity, his vertical break was 1-2” lower. ☄️

• Padres Michael King had a bunch of added arm-side movement on his sinker and changeup yesterday. With velo roughly similar, his sinker jumped from around 16.5” arm-side movement to 22” while his changeup jumped from 17.5” to 22”. He maxed out at 18.7” arm-side on his sinker last year and 20” on his changeup. His slot was up marginally, which often causes less arm-side movement, so even more of an oddity. Given his results—2.2 IP, 8 baserunners, 3 ER, 3 K—I’ll assume the added arm-side was more of a blip than a feature. 💫

• Pirates Paul Skenes threw a career-high 43% sinker (splinker) versus the Marlins. His high last season was 41%. Skenes’ release height was also down ~4”, a considerable amount with a minor increase in extension. This suggests his slot has dropped compared to 2024 (arm angle data isnt’ available yet). The result was more arm-side movement on his four-seam and changeup, as well as drop on this sinker/splinker. 🏴‍☠️