Working with splitter has Junk back on right track
PHOENIX – In his first spring training with his new club, Janson Junk is doing what he wishes he had done all along.
It was late August 2021 when Junk made what may have been the best start of his minor-league career to that point with the Los Angeles Angels' Class AA affiliate. He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, struck out eight and finished just two outs shy of a shutout.
In that start, Junk carved up hitters with a splitter, a pitch he had added to his repertoire about a month prior following a trade from the New York Yankees.
But when Junk was called up to the majors for the first time a few days later, the Angels told him to scrap the sinker in favor of a changeup.
“I couldn't really throw the splitter with the big league ball for some reason,” Junk said. “I don't know what the deal was with those balls, but it was just not a good pitch. I was out there and they're like, ‘Yeah, let's just go back to this changeup.' So I kind of abandoned it.”
Last season, at the behest of the Angels, Junk completely ditched the splitter because its metrics were poor when it had been tested late in 2021 – in large part because couldn't grip the ball well at first with smaller hands. He hasn't thrown it once in his 242⁄3 big-league innings.
“I think that was just kind of the wrong mindset,” Junk said. “I should've gone back into the split after having a full off-season of adjusting to the ball.”
Now in a new organization once again following a trade last November that sent Hunter Renfroe to the Angels, Junk is back to throwing the splitter. The 25-year-old righthander has always had a difficult time pronating enough to develop a consistent changeup but needed another pitch to play off his fastball and slider.
Junk came down for a pitch design camp at the Brewers' spring complex in Phoenix with the primary objective of working on the splitter.
“I was like, why not come down here, have some more eyes on me, have some more resources and develop that pitch?” Janson said. “I was already in such a good place with it before that it was just coming here and kind of tinkering a little thing, being comfortable with it. That's the biggest thing with the splitter, is once you're able to get more comfortable with the grip, you're able to trust it.”
The splitter will never be a high usage pitch for Junk, but it can be an effective one if he ever gets comfortable enough with it.
“It's going to be my second-best pitch behind my slider,” Junk said. “It has the potential for that.”
Junk had the split on display, albeit only twice, in a crisp outing Sunday as the Brewers beat the Cubs, 5-3, at Sloan Park in Mesa.
He instead was focusing primarily on sequencing his slider and fastball and executed marvelously in holding the Cubs' "A" lineup to one hit over three scoreless innings.
It was a better performance for Junk than his previous two outings, in which he allowed four runs over two innings combined.
“It's nice to see that in spring, that when I'm executing I can put up scoreless innings,” Junk said. “But I expect that. I have high expectations for myself.”
Junk threw first-pitch strikes to eight of 10 hitters, induced plenty of weak contact and struck out Trey Mancini looking on a slider.
“That's what Janson does,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “He gets ahead of people, executes pitches and he's done a nice job.”
Janson won't break camp with the Brewers, who already have their rotation set with Adrian Houser and Bryse Wilson also ahead of him on the starting pitching depth chart.
Sunday, though, was a step in the right direction of showing what he's capable of when getting ahead of hitters, sequencing the fastball and slider well and keeping them on the edges of the plate.
Brewers 5, Cubs 2
Luke Voit and Brice Turang hit back-to-back homers off Cubs starter Adrian Sampson in the second inning to kickstart a second consecutive Cactus League win for Milwaukee.
Junk started and went three scoreless before passing off the baton to another likely Class AAA starter to open the year, lefty Robert Gasser.
Gasser, the Journal Sentinel's No. 8 prospect, impressed across two scoreless innings, striking out three and allowing just one hit.
Tyson Miller and Hoby Milner each threw scoreless frames for the Brewers.