Bryan Woo's Righty Tweak. Luis L Ortiz's Lefty Overhaul

Bryan Woo, Luis L Ortiz, Will Warren

• Mariners Bryan Woo moved his sinker location to right-handed hitters. Last season, he was throwing the pitch down in the zone. He’s now pushed it up-and-inside to right-handed hitters (see below). He’s also running an astronomical ~80% strike rate on his mix to righties, somehow up from 70% last season (65% is average). Not much is different versus lefties, he’s just throwing a bunch of four-seamers (57%).

  • Woo tends to struggle against lefties more—lower swing-miss, worse contact quality but still above-average zone rates. He still hasn’t figured out a secondary pitch that works to that handedness. Despite that, he still projects as a 2+ WAR pitcher rest of season, top 60ish in baseball. He’ll struggle a bit versus left-mashing teams, and the heavy fastball usage somewhat limits the strikeout rate. But he’s the rare pitcher where you can project him confidently on a per-inning basis and there’s a clear unlock if he ever figures out a lefty whiff pitch.

Bryan Woos’s sinker location to right-handed hitters. Notice how the deepest orange concentration has drifted up and inside to right-handed hitters. (Credit: TJ Stats)

• Guardians Luis L Ortiz posted a 9.5% K-BB versus lefties last season (~14.5% is average), and he’s in the process of improving that. He pulled way back on his sinker usage, dropping it from 30% to 5%, and has reincorporated the changeup he threw back in 2023 (shape looks similar, his slot is lower now). FanGraphs Stuff+ has the changeup as an average pitch at 89 mph with 1” vertical break and 16” arm-side (roughly average shape for his slot). He’s also using his cutter a lot as a back-door pitch to lefties, something he didn’t do much last season. It was more of an inside offering with the Pirates and had mediocre results.

  • His lefty swinging-strike rate is up to 14% from 9% through 3 starts, an encouraging sign. We see a similar increase in his righty swinging strike rate despite very little difference in his mix or locations to that handedness. I’m encouraged here. He’s allowed a few barrels, but nothing concerning. xFIP likes him as more of a ~4 ERA pitcher, and the swinging-strike rate bounce is encouraging. Easy to buy back in after a rocky Guardians debut.

• Yankees Will Warren has stopped throwing his shorter slider and added a curveball. Not much has changed from a usage perspective, he’s just throwing less sinker to left-handed hitters, still heavy fastball + sweeper to righties. His velocity is down about 1 mph across the board compared to his major league stint last year, which has pulled down the Stuff+ on his four-seamer more than his sinker (the former now an average pitch rather than above average).

  • Barrels are still a concern here. He allowed 3 yesterday, 2 to Heliot Ramos and has 5 on the season. The positive takeaway (maybe?) is that 4 of the 5 have been on small misses. I still like Warren overall and had him as a breakout candidate on my YouTube channel. We’re seeing some growth from a missed location standpoint in this small sample, and I like the curveball, but he’s still a ways away from the Michael King levels of command. I still want to see sinkers inside and outside to righties to vault the profile up. A 4-4.2 ERA across 100 IP+ this season would be a success. My hope is for lower as he settles into a big league role.