Kevin Ginkel heads up group of resurgent relievers for Arizona Diamondbacks

NEW YORK — Kevin Ginkel hollered in triumph as he stomped off the field on Saturday in Chicago, fired up after a scoreless appearance. It is becoming a regular occurrence late in games for the Diamondbacks.

Ginkel remains an under-the-radar name across the baseball landscape, but for anyone following the Diamondbacks this season, he represents one of the few reliable options manager Torey Lovullo can call upon out of the bullpen.

He heads a group of mostly anonymous relievers ahead of closer Paul Sewald who might just be coming together at the right time for the Diamondbacks, who for years have struggled to find consistent performers out of the bullpen.

For several years, Ginkel was among those underperformers. He burst onto the scene late in the 2019 season before falling hard the next two years. By the end of 2021, he had been removed from the 40-man roster and passed through waivers unclaimed. His career was at an apparent crossroads.

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To hear Ginkel tell it, he would not be where he is today — anchoring the bullpen and locking down the eighth inning — were it not for those hard times.

“I think going through the struggles and the troubles that I did has helped me kind of trust myself again,” Ginkel said. “It’s like, OK, I’m here for a reason. I can handle pitching in any type of game. I’m ready for the challenge. It’s just an opportunity, at the end of the day. Win, lose, whatever, I’m going to be fine.”

Ginkel said he fell into the same trap that befalls many young pitchers: he gave opposing hitters too much credit and doubted whether he belonged. Maturity and experience, he said, have helped him overcome those issues.

“I think it’s nothing more than his confidence and understanding that you’re going to have bad days and if you have bad days you have to let them go,” Diamondbacks bullpen coach Mike Fetters said. “That’s all it is is growing up, maturing. He’s always had the stuff; no one ever questioned the stuff. It was his mental makeup and his ability to bounce back after bad ones.”

Ginkel’s stuff has been impressive. He has relied primarily on two pitches: a fastball that averages 95-96 mph and a slider that has generated whiffs at a strong 38.6% clip. He said the slider feels better now than it has at any point in his career, and he believes he has gotten better at preparing for outings and understanding how best to attack hitters.

In 54 appearances, he has logged a 2.26 ERA. He has struck out more than one batter an inning and allowed fewer than one baserunner per inning.

“I feel like I’m going out there and having a game plan,” he said. “I feel like I’m just trying to be one or two steps ahead of everybody else. It’s helped me a lot.”

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While Ginkel helped the club pull out of the 7-25 tailspin it found itself in during July and August, others have emerged more recently to help further stabilize what had been a tumultuous unit for most of the year.

Right-hander Ryan Thompson, a sidearmer whom the Diamondbacks signed after he was released by the Tampa Bay Rays, has turned in five scoreless appearances with his new team. Lefty Andrew Saalfrank, a rookie who made his major league debut last week, has fired three scoreless innings across three appearances.

And right-hander Luis Frias has turned in four scoreless outings over the past 10 days, pumping strikes at a frequency that had previously alluded him.

It might not sound like much, but it is enough to create some optimism that the bullpen might be finding its footing.

“It’s a small sample size but it’s exciting to see,” Fetters said. “This game can flip in one inning, one pitch, so I don’t want to get too ahead of it or too excited about it. … There’s ups and downs, each guy goes through it, and right now at this point we’ve brought some guys up who are on the good end of things. So right now it’s going good for us.”

Said Ginkel: “I think there’s a lot of guys that can help this team. I’ve seen a shift in the way we’ve been pitching lately. Obviously me and Paul in the backend has been great, and I’m happy to pitch in whatever role they want me in, but we’ve got other guys on this team who can really step up and help.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kevin Ginkel leads group of resurgent Arizona Diamondbacks relievers