Greinke Focuses on Slider, Royals’ Defense After First Start of Year
In the Kansas City Royals' Opening Day win over the Cleveland Guardians, both teams' starting pitchers had good outings. For Cleveland, Shane Bieber pitched 4-2/3 innings of three-hit, one-run baseball while striking out four. On Kansas City's side, Zack Greinke tossed 5-2/3 innings and allowed just one run. The starters did their jobs.
Greinke, who made his first Opening Day start for the Royals in over a decade, is a much different pitcher now than he was back then. He no longer has much juice behind his fastball and he simply isn't as good as he once was. With that said, he's a wiser pitcher and pitches to contact. His command is at an all-time high. Those elements will play well at Kauffman Stadium, and Greinke was impressed all around by the Royals' first game of the year in front of the home crowd.
Apr 7, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Zack Greinke (23) pitches against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
"Good crowd, a lot of energy, the weather was nasty," Greinke said of Opening Day at 'The K' in his postgame interview. "The weather was a mess, both teams had to deal with it, and it was just tough conditions. I thought we played a great game defensively and pitched pretty good."
Greinke's comments about the conditions and Royals' defense were both accurate. Temperatures were below 50 degrees and it was a windy day in Kansas City, making it difficult for just about everyone. Pitchers couldn't get a great feel and fielders had a more difficult time getting the ball to stick in their gloves and also had trouble locating it in the wind gusts. That didn't stop Nicky Lopez, though:
With Lopez, the Royals have a premier defender in the infield. He's capable of playing a Gold Glove-caliber shortstop, and he could be even better at second base. Adalberto Mondesi is a rangy player with a good arm, and top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. is handling the transition to third base extremely well. The infield is a clear plus defensively.
Two-thirds of the Royals' 2022 outfield won Gold Gloves last year. A smart player like Greinke will benefit from a stellar defense more than just about any pitcher on the team's staff. As his pitches have grown slower and his arm potentially a bit weaker, he's learned to emphasize movement and location. Greinke is experimenting with throwing his slider more often, as he spoke about that and the rest of his pitch-mix following Thursday's outing.
"I was hoping to use it more often this year," Greinke said of the slider. "Success was pretty good. No strikeouts with it, not a long of swing-and-misses but overall, pretty good with the slider. All the pitches were okay, the curveball was probably the best today."
Apr 7, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Zack Greinke (23) leaves the game during the sixth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
Of his 84 pitches thrown against Cleveland, Greinke tossed 20 sliders. That was good for 23.8% of his offerings, which is a significant jump from the 15.2% figure he posted last season. It's still way too early to conclude whether this increase will hold or not, but he's off to a good start. The next step will be forcing more swings and misses, as last year's slider saw a 31% whiff rate. On Opening Day, that number was 11.1%.
Greinke very well may be headed to the Hall of Fame one day. He's undoubtedly in the twilight of his career and despite that, he remains an effective member of a major league starting rotation. With his mind focused on messing around with his slider more, as well as having full confidence in the defense behind him, Greinke's contributions in 2022 may be more than just a feel-good story.
