BACK FROM ABYSS
After teams gave up on Gausman, he became an All-Star with Giants
SAN FRANCISCO >> In a span of 18 months, Kevin Gausman was traded, placed on waivers, traded again and finally non-tendered.
Less than two years after his future as a major league starting pitcher was in jeopardy, Gausman ranks among the sport’s elite.
“From a pedigree standpoint, from a stuff standpoint, the industry has always viewed him as a top of the rotation starter — always,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said of the firsttime All-Star. “It was always, like, he was a slider short.”
Gausman, who was selected fourth overall by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2012 MLB draft, spent the first five years of his career throwing a high-90s fastball, an impressive splitter and a slider that could generously be considered a liability. What separates a starter from a reliever is often the presence of a solid third pitch, and throughout Gausman’s tenure in Baltimore, he never developed a reliable breaking ball.
So after he’d been traded from Baltimore to Atlanta and again from Atlanta to Cincinnati, Gausman landed in the Reds’ bullpen. During the final two months of the 2019 season,
Ga us man made 14 relief appearances for the Reds as he racked up 29 strikeouts in 22 1/3 innings while posting a 4.03 ERA that was 19% better than the league average during that timeframe.
Gausman was at least a decent major league pitcher, but the Reds had no interest in paying the $10-plus million the righthander was projected to earn for the 2020 season. Especially if his future was in the bullpen.
“I didn’t know what teams were going to value me as,” Gausman said. “I was pitching the last two and a half months out of the bullpen for the Reds and did well, came in in big spots and got outs and there were some teams talking about me possibly being a back end bullpen guy. But the Giants from Day One said, ‘We want you to start.’”
Gausman’s career trajectory could look like that of Drew Pomeranz, the fifth overall pick from the 2010 draft who began the 2019 season in the Giants’ rotation before finishing the season in the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen. With a mid-90s fastball and a hammer curveball, Pomeranz always oozed potential as a starter before signing a four-year, $36 million deal to pitch out of San Diego’s bullpen.
Many teams had Gausman ticketed for a late-inning relief role, but the Giants saw a reason to give him one more chance in a starting rotation: His splitter was dominant.
During a seven-season stretch from 2013-2019, opponents went 174 for 885 (.197) with 349 strikeouts against Gausman’s splitter. By the 2018 season, the pitch was improving too, as he began to generate more strikeouts with his splitter than he did with his fastball.
The problem? Gausman wasn’t throwing his best pitch nearly enough.
“It’s sad to say, but it really took me four years into my career to realize that I should throw it more. And why am I not throwing it more?” Gausman said. “It took some guys in spring training, some of my own teammates and being able to talk to them and them saying, ‘That’s really good, you should throw that moreoften.’”
A free-agent meeting with the Giants gave him even more conviction to increase his splitter usage.
“With getting Gaus on board, it was continuing to emphasize the splitter and not think of him as a fastball pitcher, but making the splitter the feature pitch and working around that,” pitching coach Andrew Bailey said. “Using it early, using it late, using it in and out of at-bats and it just doesn’t need to be a finisher. It’s great because it generates weak contact just as much as it does swing and miss.”
The one-year, $9 million deal Gausman signed with the Giants in December, 2019 was the biggest free-agent contract Farhan Zaidi gave out in his first two winters on the job, and it was also one of the most important in convincing Giants fans the team’s president of baseball operations has the franchise headed in the right direction.
In a 60-game season shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gausman posted a 3.62 ERA and struck out 11.9 batters per nine innings, which was easily the best mark of his career.
In 12 outings with San Francisco, Gausman threw his splitter on 27.7% of his total pitches, which was his second-highest total in eight major league seasons. Opponents went 7 for 72 (.098) against the pitch with no home runs, a .139 slugging percentage and 41 strikeouts.
Gausman’s splitter might have been the best pitch in baseball last year, but with a relatively small sample size to draw from, it was difficult for teams to project him to remain a frontof-the-rotation arm. And after the Giants extended him a one-year, $18.9 million qualifying offer that would have required any team that signed Gausman to forfeit a high draft pick last offseason, the odds of him remaining with the Giants increased.
“He has taken it up a notch and if you were a skeptic, you would wonder how that 12-, 13-, 14-start sample (from 2020) might go over the course of a full season,” Zaidi said. “He’s now pretty clearly one of the top starting pitchers in all of baseball so it’s been really cool to see. He’s really a true ace.”
Multiple teams floated multi-year deals in front of Gausman, but he chose to return to the team that let him be himself. With Zaidi, Kapler and Bailey at the helm, there was no pressure for the righthander to rely on a slider that’s never felt right. They
just want to see the splitter miss bats, and so far, Ga us man has delivered.
In 17 starts, Gausman has posted a 1.74 ERA that ranks second among major league pitchers. His splitter usage is up to 37.7% and yet, hitters aren’t having any more success. In 174 at-bats that have ended against Gausman’s splitter, opponents are batting .103 with a .144 slugging percentage and 90 strikeouts.
“I think it’s almost just like a regular changeup where it’s a feel pitch and I think he’s just found his clicking point with it,” fellow starter Anthony DeSclafani said. “In talking to some of the coaches, I think it’s more of a seameffect split and he’s figured out the right way to throw it and his confidence has gotten greater with it. He’s turned it into the league’s best splitter and it’s pretty funtowatch.”
Gausman readily admits that increasing his splitter usage isn’t the only reason he’s having more success. The right-hander said he’s thrown a variation of the splitter since playing JV ball at Grandview High in Aurora, Colorado and noted that he’s tinkered with his thumb placement while gripping the ball throughout his career.
As DeSclafani noted, Gausman has said he began to feel most comfortable with his splitter grip around 2018, which is when opponents batted what was then a career-low .170 against the offering. At the time, Gausman was still throwing his slider around 15% of the time and being held back by the results because opponents batted .268 with a .488 slugging percentage against his breaking ball.
What’s helped Gausman turn another corner is his willingness to now throw the splitter while he’s behind in the count. While other major league pitchers who feature splitters often rely on the pitch in two-strike situations because it’s historically difficult to control, Gausman has been able to locate his splitter inside the strike zone.
“The first thing that comes to my mind is how many splitters he throws for strikes,” reliever Tyler Rogers said. “You don’t see that a lot with splitter guys. It’s more like a chase pitch. But he pitches with it in the zone and effectively. He can throw it behind in the count. A lot of guys with splitters don’t throw it behind in the count, but he can and that’s what makes it like a third pitch.”
Nearly every elite major league starter possesses a dominant secondary pitch, but a select few even throw a splitter. Opposing hitters rarely see the pitch because only 19 major league rs have thrown at least 100 splitters this year, but those who do feature it often to gain an advantage.
Gausman and Mets starters Taijuan Walker and Marcus Storman all rank among the top 13 pitchers in ERA, and all use a splitter. Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani hasn’t thrown enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, but his 3.49 mark is 32% better than league average in large part because opponents are slugging .107 against his splitter, which is even better than the .144 mark batters have posted against Gausman.
Ohtani’s success with his own splitter almost perfectly encapsulates why it’s the pitch that now defines Gausman’s career and has turned him from potential bullpen arm into bonafide ace.
When the two squared off at Angel Stadium in June, Ohtani tossed six innings of one-run ball and racked up nine strikeouts because the Giants couldn’t handle his splitter. At the plate, MLB’s leading home run hitter looked mortal for once, because Ga us man fed Ohtani a steady diet of the only pitch he couldn’t handle.
Ohtani went 0-for-3 with a soft groundout, two strikeouts and several big whiffs. He knew exactly how Gausman wanted to attack him, and even with his mightiest swings of the series, Ohtani didn’t stand a chance against the best pitch in baseball.
“Those are the good ones,” Gausman said. “Those are the ones that are fun and exciting. Especially with a guy like (Ohtani), everybody was watching that game so it was cool.”