'They Can't Leave the Ballpark': Rangers' Gibson Adds New Pitch
Spring Training is the time for pitchers to tinker with things. Whether it be a slight adjustment to how they grip one of their pitches or adding a whole new pitch entirely, this is the time to see how opposing hitters react — when games don't truly matter.
Texas Rangers starter Kyle Gibson threw around eight to 10 cutters in his outing on Monday — a pitch he had not been known to throw previously.
"I told Jose [Trevino] before the game, if I shake you off the first time, just throw a cutter down, because that's probably what I want to throw," Gibson said.
“That was my mindset today. I really wanted to see how the hitters reacted to it. I didn't care if I threw three or four in a row, didn't care if the same hitter saw it as many times as possible. I wanted to kind of see how it was going to work off a few pitches.”
So, why add the cutter? Baseball Savant has Gibson with a five-pitch mix already: a sinker, slider, changeup, four-seam fastball, and curveball. Adding a sixth pitch is all about getting back to what Gibson does best: getting ground balls.
"The one thing I love about ground balls is that they can't leave the ballpark," Gibson said. "I gave away too many home runs last year. So if I can even increase those ground balls, that's what I'm going to try to do."
Gibson had overall success in Monday's outing, throwing a scoreless inning. He was satisfied in how his cutter looked, especially off his sinker, and plans to continue to work it in to see how it plays off his other pitches.
It turns out, utilizing the cutter is something that Gibson has already done in the past.
"He kind of made it up on his own last year in Anaheim," said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. "He threw it out of nowhere. We all just kind of looked at each other; looked up at the board and were like, 'That ball looked like it went left.'"
Looking back at his start in Anaheim on September 21, Gibson threw five pitches to Anthony Rendon that registered as sliders on Baseball Savant. However, three of them were significantly faster than his normal slider velocity, which was 83 mph in 2020.
In Rendon's third at-bat in the bottom of the fourth inning, Gibson started him off with an 88.1-mph cutter for a ball outside. Then with a 2-0 count, Gibson got back into the count with an 87.5-mph cutter that Rendon missed. He then fired an 88.4-mph front-door cutter for a called strike to even the count.
"He came back in and was all excited, 'I just threw a cutter,'" Woodward recalled. "He didn't say anything about it until he used it in a game."
Both the Rangers and Gibson followed up this offseason with continued dialogue about whether the cutter should be added to his repertoire. Those conversations have carried over into camp, where the Rangers have been able to evaluate the cutter, along with the rest of his arsenal.
"His sinker is back to where it was before, with the movement pattern," Woodward said. "His slider is much tighter. His velo is back up. He's obviously got command with the curveball.
"He's got all the pitches, but adding that I think gives him a weapon against lefties. He can pound that cutter in on lefties to get them off the plate, which opens up the whole outside of the plate. It's just a weapon that he's done a really good job to get a good feel for."
The Rangers are relying on Kyle Gibson to give them a lot of innings this season. Gibson has been known to eat innings throughout his career, which was why Texas was willing to commit three years to the 33-year-old veteran. If the cutter can help Gibson keep the ball in the ballpark, that will enable him to pitch deeper into ballgames.
"I think it could be a strikeout pitch [and] a ground ball pitch," Gibson said. "If I have one emphasis that I want to do this year, just keep the ball in the ballpark and let the defense do the work that they're really good at doing."
Promo photo: Kelly Gavin / Courtesy of the Texas Rangers
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Chris Halicke covers the Texas Rangers for InsideTheRangers.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisHalicke.
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