Aiming higher after strong rookie year
MESA, Ariz. — Even with four closers in their bullpen, the A’s most valuable reliever just might be a small and unassuming second-year right-hander.
Ryan Dull is the sort of reliever who makes managers and pitching coaches look good, and who makes starting pitchers very happy. He set a majorleague record for stranding inherited runners last year as a rookie, and he could be even better this season.
“The thing is, this spring he wants to improve,” Oakland pitching coach Curt Young said. “His changeup has been so much better.”
Dull came into camp determined to spiff up that pitch, which he threw just 7.3 percent of the time last year. He threw his fastball 58.9 percent of the time and his slider 33.7 percent of the time.
“I’ve been continuing to get a feel for the changeup again, throwing it in to some righties so they don’t just eliminate it when they get into the box,” Dull said. “When I’ve thrown it, it’s worked out. I’ve used it against lefties a lot this spring because I’ve faced a majority of lefties so far.”
Dull, 27, also has worked a lot on getting stronger. He increased the intensity of his winter workouts, lifting heavier weights, because he wants to ensure he doesn’t fizzle down the stretch. The final two months of last season, he wasn’t quite as sharp, especially in August, when batters hit .333 with a .929 OPS against him. They also whacked three homers — he’d allowed only six total the previous four months — and he struck out just five batters; he had recorded at least 13 strikeouts in every other month of the season.
“I don’t think I was out of gas, but the length of the season caught up to me a little bit, more so experiencing the full 162 games,” Dull said. “I was trying my best to do whatever I could do to make sure I was good enough to pitch, and I don’t think I was. I took that into the offseason thinking, ‘I’m going to be ready this year for whatever happens.’ ”
Dull has added only about 5 pounds, but he’s more muscular and he believes he’ll have greater stamina as a result. In addition, the A’s have taken things slowly with Dull this spring, as they have with most of their primary relievers. He has thrown only 31⁄3 innings, allowing two hits and one run with two walks and four strikeouts.
He is trying to absorb as much information as possible from the many more-experienced members of the bullpen. The team added another member to the late-innings corps over the winter, signing former Giants closer Santiago Casilla to go with Ryan Madson, the A’s incumbent closer; Sean Doolittle, their former closer; and onetime Rockies closer John Axford.
“You add another guy with late-inning experience and when you get to a tough point in the game, there are all these guys who are mentally prepared for any situation,” Dull said. “The amount of knowledge they share, they’ve been there, done that, everything you can think of. You just try to soak it all in.”
Closing might be in Dull’s future, although with his ability to work out of trouble, many managers might prefer to keep him in his current role, the hazardous-duty guy who comes in to take care of others’ messes.
“We knew what we were going to get from him every single outing,” Young said, “He’s going to come in and make it happen right away. You know if the starter is in a bind, he’s the one picking up the runners.”
To wit: He set a major-league record last year by stranding the first 36 runners he inherited.
“Everyone needs to be more like him, there’s no panic in him at all,” said non-roster lefty Ross Detwiler of Dull. “He should have been an All-Star last year. If you’re trying to win an All-Star Game, he’s a guy who should be there.”
Manager Bob Melvin said he has no doubt that Dull could handle closing duties.
“He could do anything in a bullpen,” Melvin said. “But there aren’t many guys who do what he does, and there are reasons for it: He’s a strike thrower, he has multiple pitches he can throw for strikes, he fields his position well, he’s quick to the plate . ... And he’s not afraid to pitch with runners on base. So there are a lot of reasons we have him in the role we do.”