Ryne Nelson Fine Tunes Pitches Against Live Batters
D-backs pitchers faced a bit of a change yesterday, with five arms facing live batters. Among them was young right-hander Ryne Nelson, who struggled to a 5.31 ERA as a member of the D-backs rotation in 2023.
Nelson struggled to produce swing-and-miss on his secondary pitches last season, and while his fastball has solid velocity, his tendency to rely heavily on it set him up to pitch predictably.
But with an entire Spring Training ahead of him, the young right-hander is putting in the work to improve, this time against live batters. Nelson said he enjoyed the opportunity to face actual hitters, and feels good about where he's at currently.
“I felt good. I feel like I'm getting all my pitches working, body feels like it’s in a good spot. And it’s nice to get out there and compete and throw against some hitters."
Notably, there was a time where Nelson was thought to have been tipping his pitches, but the right-hander has been hard at work to prevent this issue from arising again. Nelson noted his attention to working on a consistent delivery while facing batters.
"Just fine-tuning, working on making it less easy for the hitters to pick them up, and trying to keep everything looking like a fastball as long as possible. Tunneling, arm slot consistency, extension consistency. Just trying to be super repeatable and not give away any information."
Nelson, like many of the other D-backs pitching staff, only took a short time off following the World Series, before returning to throwing regularly. In fact, Nelson has been working out at Salt River since November. For Nelson, working on consistency in his delivery was key to improving his secondary pitches.
“A lot of work on just staying in line, staying direct to home plate, trying to get really good extension, it's helped me get out in front of my off-speed stuff to be a little bit more consistent with them."
Manager Torey Lovullo said that the pitchers who faced live batters, including Nelson, all exhibited good command and that their secondary pitches were "fantastic." He praised Nelson's results from his live-simulated work.
"I liked what I saw today, the shape of his secondary stuff…I saw some good changeups as well. All pitches were around the zone… it seemed to tunnel well, I didn’t see a lot of really good swings off him, looked like he had a good day today," Lovullo said.
Nelson is in a unique position with regards to his spot on the team next season. Although left-hander Tommy Henry might be the default choice to take the final starter spot, Nelson will be entrenched in a camp battle to compete for a starting role, with the idea of him becoming a reliever in the mix as well.
But Nelson isn't too concerned with the results of a potential roster battle. The right-hander said he didn't know how the rotation might look, and is rather looking to improve in whatever way he can.
“I have no idea, I'm just trying to focus on myself and make sure that I'm the best version that I can be,” Nelson said.
