Whitlock’s repertoire has new twist
SEATTLE — In 2006, back in the days when the Red Sox were trying to win, they outbid other determined teams to sign Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Matsuzaka was said to throw a mysterious pitch called the gyroball, which proved to be more fantasy than fact. But he did win Game 7 of the ALCS and
Game 3 of the World Series in 2007.
Now, 17 years later, the Red Sox may actually have a pitcher who throws a gyroball.
After working on it during spring training, Garrett Whitlock will use a new pitch against the Seattle Mariners when he makes his first start of the season on Sunday.
“What’s it called? You’ll have to ask Bailey,” Whitlock said, directing a curious reporter to pitching coach Andrew Bailey.
Bailey referred to the pitch as a gyro slider or a bullet slider. It’s a slider thrown with a downward break.
“It’s a slider but I don’t throw it like a slider,” Whitlock said. “It’s an off-speed pitch even though I throw it more like a fastball.”
By any name, it’s a pitch that so far has generated poor swings from lefthanded hitters.
A point of emphasis in spring training was to find a way to increase Whitlock’s strikeouts. He has traditionally been a strike-thrower, averaging only 1.8 walks per nine innings in his major league career. But all those strikes weren’t resulting in enough strikeouts.
The gyro slider should change that, and the early results are promising.
Facing minor league hitters March 20, Whitlock struck out 10 of the 20 batters he faced. He followed that Monday with a start against the Texas Rangers and struck out six in six innings while allowing one unearned run.
“Having a weapon that can carry through the zone and finish as hard as what we’re trying to develop can help him,” Bailey said.
Bailey and new director of pitching Justin Willard have worked with Whitlock and other pitchers on their secondary pitches going back to the start of spring training and even before.
At a time when high-end velocity is increasingly commonplace, pitchers need to constantly adapt.
Whitlock throws a sweeper slider with horizontal movement. The gyro slider moves vertically. Combine those with his two-seam fastball, changeup, and conventional slider, and now Whitlock has five pitches.
“It’s playing well right now. I want to continue working with it,” Whitlock said. “I’m throwing it for strikes, but I still want to command it better and be able to put it where I want to put it.”
Manager Alex Cora sees Whitlock “pitching like a starter” now because he can attack hitters with a variety of combinations.
But it goes deeper than that. It’s as much a mental change for Whitlock as the physical one of learning a new pitch.
“I’m starting to really learn what I want each pitch to accomplish versus just going there and throwing exactly what’s called,” he said. “Thanks to Bailey, I’ve figured out why I want to throw a certain pitch and what that pitch’s purpose is, and these are the results we’re looking for.
“It’s knowing what you want to accomplish with each pitch, not just going pitch to pitch, which is how I’ve pitched in the past.”
To condense that thought, Whitlock has a plan for the entire at-bat.
Whitlock learned the gyro slider only a few weeks ago during a bullpen session.
“[Bailey] was like, ‘Hey, try this,’ and I kept throwing it,” Whitlock said.
Whitlock had tremendous success as a reliever in 2021 after the Red Sox took him from the Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft. He is 9-7 with a 4.26 ERA since and had five stints on the injured list.
Whitlock opened the 2022 season in the bullpen, went into the rotation, then went back to the bullpen. He opened as a starter in ’23, then went into the bullpen after nearly six weeks on the injured list.
Now he’s a starter again, at least for now. Maybe the new pitch is what will finally put Whitlock over the top.
Whitlock was a Little Leaguer in Alabama when Matsuzaka made his debut with the Red Sox. No gyroballs were thrown that day. It was a myth.
Not so with Whitlock. His gyroball is real, and Sunday will be its first test.