Astros' Héctor Neris Has Been on a Journey With His Splitter in 2022

Houston Astros reliever Héctor Neris has been using his signature pitch far less often this season, but he might be starting to switch things up.

Author:
Leo Morgenstern
Publish date:
Aug 23, 2022 4:00 PM EDT

In this story:

Houston Astros

On Saturday night in Atlanta, Héctor Neris blew his third save of the season. He allowed back-to-back RBI hits on two poorly placed splitters, and the Atlanta Braves went on to beat the Houston Astros 5-4.

It was a shame to see Neris blow the game with his splitter, because he had been looking so good with the pitch lately. While he began the season throwing fewer splitters than normal, his confidence in the pitch had been on the rise.

Over the years, Neris has been on quite the journey with his split-finger fastball. The pitch has been with him throughout his entire career. Neris and the splitter have a special relationship, and they have been through a lot together.

Let me explain.

Héctor Neris pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2015.
© Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Those who knew Héctor Neris during his Phillies career know him for his splitter. Since his debut in 2014, no pitcher has thrown more split-finger fastballs than Neris.

From the end of 2015 to the start of 2020, he threw the splitter at least once in 285 consecutive appearances.

During his six full seasons in Philadelphia (from 2016 to 2021), Neris threw his splitter more than half the time. He used the pitch so much that The Athletic ran a story titled "Héctor Neris and the splitter, a baseball love story."

As of the day that story ran, Neris was throwing his split-finger fastball 72% of the time. The author, Matt Gelb, explained how the Phillies were asking Neris to throw "more and more and more" splitters. Yet since that day, Neris has actually been using the pitch less and less.

From the day Gelb's story ran until the end of the 2019 season, Neris used his splitter about 62% of the time. Over the next few seasons, his usage of the pitch continued to decrease.

2020: 48.1% splitters
2021: 40.6% splitters
2022: 29.8% splitters

In particular, he was using the splitter less frequently against right-handed hitters.

2020 vs. L: 52.4% splitters
2021 vs. L: 49.8% splitters
2022 vs. L: 44% splitters

2020 vs. R: 42.4% splitters
2021 vs. R: 30.7% splitters
2022 vs. R: 15.7% splitters

(per Baseball Savant)

The thing is, it's not immediately clear why Neris would use fewer splitters against righties. Throughout the years, the pitch has been a deadly weapon against them.

Last season, Neris threw 184 splitters to right-handed hitters. Those opposing batters managed just two hits against the pitch.

When he threw his split-finger to a righty with two strikes, it resulted in a punch out more than 30% of the time. That's really good. When righties swung at his splitter, they missed more often than they made any contact at all. That's also really good.

Neris is continuing to succeed with his signature pitch in 2022, even though he is using it less often than ever. He has deployed 60 splitters versus right-handed opponents so far. Those hitters have swung 30 times but have only managed to put the pitch in play on five occasions. He has thrown the splitter to 17 different right-handed batters and struck 11 of them out.

The 33-year-old Neris is having another strong season. He is on pace for 66 IP with a 3.42 ERA. Whatever he is doing is working, and there is no reason to mess with success. Even so, one can't help but wonder why Neris is using fewer and fewer splitters.

It is the pitch that made his career, and it is still an excellent offering. Why would the most splitter-heavy pitcher in the league who is really good at throwing splitters all of a sudden stop throwing splitters?

Well, maybe he's not.

I know, I know. It sounds confusing. But hear me out.

Since the start of August, the splitter has made a resurgence. Neris is throwing it 53.1% of the time (per Baseball Savant). That's more than twice as often as he was using it from April to July.

Against right-handed hitters, he has used the pitch 36.7% of the time. From April to July, that number was just 12.7%.

Neris has only made eight appearances so far this month, so it is quite a small sample size. Even so, it is hard to ignore the sudden change that has taken place. He has thrown at least 45% splitters in six of those eight games. Throughout the first four months of the season, he threw at least 45% splitters just twice.

The reliever and his splitter spent some time apart earlier this season, but they appear to have reconciled. It is hard to say why Neris reduced his splitter usage so dramatically at the start of the season, but what really matters is that he and the splitter are back together and looking. stronger than ever. In his eight August appearances, Neris has faced 30 batters and struck out ten. He has a 2.25 ERA and 1.74 FIP.

Right-handers have managed just two hits against him, good for a .143 batting average. He has thrown the splitter to them 18 times, and they have yet to hit it into the field of play.

Again, these numbers are coming from a very small sample size, but it certainly seemed like Neris had returned to his old ways and was all the better for having done so.

And then he went and blew a save with a couple bad splitters.

Does this spell trouble for Neris and his splitter? No. It doesn't have to.

First things first, both RBI hits were by left-handers.

More importantly, though, every pitcher has bad days. Every reliever gets hit around on even their best pitches from time to time. It would be foolish to let this one bad outing from Neris influence an analysis of his splitter.

Yet it would also be irresponsible not to mention it at all. Neris was just getting comfortable with his splitter again, and now his newfound split-finger confidence has been shaken.

Going forward, it will be very interesting to see what Neris does with his favorite pitch. Will he stick with what's familiar and continue throwing more splitters? Or will he continue to experiment, working with the Astros staff to find the best pitch mix?

Only time will tell. But when it comes to Neris and his splitter, at least you know it's going to be a fascinating journey.