Class AA pitcher revamps his arsenal
Carmen Mlodzinski felt he had to take hold of his career. The 23-year-old right-hander and the Pirates’ No. 14 prospect broke spring training with a sinker, a pitch the Pirates wanted him to use frequently.
But the results weren’t showing, and Mlodzinski liked his four-seam fastball more. He understood the intention behind the sinker was to induce weak contact from opponents and pitch more efficiently, but Mlodzinski also felt more confident in the four-seamer, and in his mind, that’s what mattered most.
So, Mlodzinski began studying. He says he tried to get every number he could possibly get his hands on, diving into velocity, spin rate, vertical approach angle, spin axis, vertical break, whatever sort of thing could help him make the case.
Then, he called the Pirates to make his pitch.
“I really just had to take a stand in my career, look past what the Pirates were saying and say, ‘What is going to help me stay in the big leagues for 15 years, not just be a good pitcher for the Pirates?’ ” Mlodzinski said. “I called them, had a discussion with them, really made my case and why I believe I should be throwing that fourseam fastball.”
There are a couple things to dissect in Mlodzinski’s sentiment there.
For one, there is the honest admission Mlodzinski doesn’t strictly think about being a Pirate. He thinks about his career as a whole, and he wants to be someone who can get deep into games and dominate. The four-seam fastball, he thinks, paired with a new cutter, a slider and a changeup is the best arsenal to do that and enjoy a lengthy career in the majors.
Secondly — and perhaps more importantly — the gumption it takes for a prospect in Class AA Altoona to approach his organization like that is illustrative of Mlodzinski’s attitude.
He said he wasn’t nervous about the call because he really did believe in his request, but he still understood how it could be perceived.
To the Pirates’ credit, they responded well. Mlodzinski said they were impressed with the research he had done and the initiative he’d shown.
“I think the guys that I see at that level and the guys that I know from the small experience that I’ve had with major league players, the guys who stand up for themselves and believe in what they’re doing, it’s going to go a lot longer of a way than you listening to someone else tell you what you need to do,” Mlodzinski said.
“... I think [the Pirates] were taken aback a little at first, when a player says, ‘No, I don’t want to do what you guys want me to,’ but by the end, with the research I did, the attitude and the aggressiveness and me taking control of my career, they were certainly happy that a player is doing that, for sure.”
To a certain extent, Mlodzinski’s decision has panned out recently. He couldn’t get out of the first inning in his second most recent outing, allowing two earned runs on three hits and a walk in twothirds of an inning. In his two appearances before that, though, he allowed only one earned run in nine combined innings, his best two-game stretch of the season.
On Thursday, he lasted five innings again, allowing two earned runs on three hits and four walks.
Mlodzinski is almost alarmingly zen about it all. That, too, is intentional. He told the Post-Gazette earlier in the season he’s spent a large amount of time working on the mental side of the game, talking to a specialist with the Pirates and figuring out the type of mindset he needed to become his best self.
That mindset can easily be heard in a conversation with Mlodzinski, who is doggedly determined to become the best pitcher he can be. Sure, that means adjusting his arsenal to how he wants it adjusted. It also means gaining confidence through day-today effort.
“What keeps the confidence level for me is outworking everybody I possibly can and giving this game every piece of sweat, blood, everything that I have to make sure I’m giving myself the best opportunity to be the best player,” Mlodzinski said. “Just not having any doubts — it’s not something I do monthly and look back on. It’s every single day: Did I give literally everything that I had today to outwork every person here, to outsmart every person here, to try to get to the next level and get to the major leagues and stay there?”
And now, the goal is to start getting deeper into games. Mlodzinski hasn’t pitched into the sixth inning at any point this season. In 2021, he did it just twice.
He believes pitching less to contact with the sinker, which wasn’t getting as much weak contact as desired, and instead trying to induce swings and misses with the four-seam fastball will help him.
He also believes it will help him set hitters up as he goes through an outing. After all, to get into the seventh inning or beyond, the first few frames are just as important as the last few, using different weapons to keep hitters off balance.
With the new arsenal, including the four-seamer he wanted, Mlodzinski feels as confident now as ever.
“It’s really just trying to approach pitching in a better way and trying to understand how my stuff can play and really just right now find a better game plan for how I want to get deeper in games,” Mlodzinski said. “I think the overall trajectory of switching back to four-seams only from my slot, my angle and my velocity, it’s really, really going to help me out down the road.”