Sox stuck in MLB’s sticky situation
Players crying foul amid sudden drop in spin rate
On Friday, June 4, a Sports Illustrated cover story about Major League Baseball pitchers abusing foreign substances to doctor the baseball was titled, “This Should Be the Biggest Scandal in Sports.”
The quote was by an anonymous league executive, and the story further sounded the alarms that MLB was going to crack down on pitchers for doctoring the baseball. The owners had met the day before and the league informed them that rule changes were coming.
“It’s something that has to be cleaned up across the game,” pitching coach Dave Bush agreed after the Sox’ 18-4 loss to the Blue Jays on Sunday. “Our guys know what the rules are and what they have to follow, and no, I don’t think it’s having any impact on us right now.”
The night the SI story ran on June 4, Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi took the ball at Yankee Stadium and threw six strong innings, allowing just one earned run and striking out seven.
The StatCast data showed some interesting results: Eovaldi’s spin rates were down on most of his pitches. While the spin rate on his curveball was actually up 12 revolutions per minute compared to his yearly average, it was down 26 RPM on his cutter, down 30 RPM on his slider, down 51 RPM on his fastball and down 166 RPM on his splitter.
But over the next 10 days, three other Red Sox starters saw their spin rates on their off-speed pitchincreased es drop, and the results got substantially worse.
In Eduardo Rodriguez’s start the day after Eovaldi’s, the spin rate on his signature changeup dropped 196 RPM (though his fastballs that day actually showed increased spin).
Two days later, Nick Pivetta’s slider dropped 64 RPM and his curve dropped 24 RPM.
In Rodriguez’s next start, his goto changeup once again dropped 96 RPM compared to his yearly average.
Pivetta’s spin rate on his curve dropped again in his next start.
And on Sunday, when Martin Perez was shelled for five earned runs and recorded only four outs, he was down 40 RPM on his sinker and cutter.
“I’m not a cheater pitcher,” Perez said afterwards. “I’ve been around for a long time and I don’t use that kind of stuff. I just go out there and compete with what I have that day. I don’t put anything on my arm, I don’t put anything on my glove. Whoever did, it’s their problem.
“It’s not that we’ve not been doing good, not pitching good for three or four days, because of sticky things. No. It’s because we aren’t locating the pitches where we want it. If we go back again and throw the pitch where we want it, it’s going to be fine. But it’s not because we’ve been using sticking things. No way.”
In the Red Sox’ defense, even a change in 150 RPM is only a difference of about 5% compared to most yearly averages. Some would argue the difference is negligible.
It should be noted that Garrett Richards actually saw his RPM increase during this time. And in Eovaldi’s most recent start after the Yankees game, he also his spin rate.
What does this all mean, exactly? Maybe nothing at all. Pitchers are always tinkering with mechanics during the year. Their stuff can feel different on a day-to-day basis. They change attack plans from team to team. There are simply too many variables to draw conclusions.
And it would be unfair to say it’s only the Red Sox who have seen decrease in spin rates from their starters over the last week.
Cy Young winners Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer have been directly called out by some players.
“With Gerrit Cole, he was the first guy to pitch since the (minor league) suspensions had happened and he was the first guy you could see spin rates going down,” Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson told reporters last week. “Since Gerrit did that — we’re going off an interview that was done four or five days ago — there have been 12 or more guys already whose spin rates have magically dropped in the last week.”
Speculation is inevitable when there are grey areas, and that’s the whole point of MLB’s incoming crackdown: eliminate the grey areas and enforce a black-andwhite policy.
Unfortunately for the Red Sox, they probably won’t be getting the benefit of the doubt from their opponents. Their manager, Alex Cora, was suspended a full season for exploiting the grey areas (and violating some not-so-grey rules as well) just last year.
Since the SI story ran on June 4, Red Sox starters have an 8.20 ERA.
Asked if it could be in line with a change in substance usage, Cora wasn’t buying that theory.
“I don’t believe so,” he added. “Obviously, the topic will be out there. Everyone will be looking at the scoreboard and who’s pitching and if you give it up, then you were using something your last start. Before that, a lot of pitchers were giving it up.
“I know the league is doing a good job with the stuff and they’re going to come down with a memo, but I don’t think struggling has to do with stuff. Those guys (the hitters) are really good, too. We have made a lot of pitches right down the middle lately and they’ve taken advantage of them.”
The Red Sox simply picked a bad time to struggle from the mound.