Rotation battle comes into focus for D-Backs as spring training hits home stretch
Take a look at the spring training schedule, count off the days and you’ll notice something. Wednesday marked three weeks since pitchers and catchers reported. Thursday marks three weeks until Opening Day.
For the Diamondbacks, that brings urgency. In the past week, manager Torey Lovullo has begun to take a harsher tone on pitch clock violations and high walk rates, saying, “We're getting to the point in the spring where certain guys at certain times, we need to do a little bit better job.”
The turn towards spring’s back stretch also brings a focus on the final roster places, none of which is more critical for the Diamondbacks than the fifth spot in the rotation.
“As we get away from getting in shape, facing hitters and now, it starts to get into a little bit more of a competition of being game-ready,” pitching coordinator Dan Carlson said.
When club officials speak publicly about that spot, they refer to four young pitchers — Drey Jameson, Ryne Nelson, Tommy Henry and Brandon Pfaadt. It’s the former two, though, who are seen as being in the center of the competition, at least to start the season.
With their performances late last year, Jameson and Nelson helped spur an off-season of measured optimism. As Carlson puts it, they “looked like Major League All-Stars” in their brief debuts. Jameson had a 1.48 ERA in four starts; Nelson had a 1.47 ERA in three starts.
Through three appearances apiece this spring, their on-field success has diverged. Jameson has given up three runs in 6 2/3 innings, while Nelson is at 11 runs in just 5 1/3 innings.
For Nelson, though, the increased focus on performance has come at the right time. In a game against the Rangers behind closed doors on Tuesday, he struck out six batters and only walked one in 2 2/3 innings — although he did allow four runs.
Part of his early struggles could be attributed to a lack of strategic gameplanning. In the first few starts of spring training, pitchers will often work to gain familiarity with their pitchers rather than attacking a hitter’s weaknesses. Last week, that manifested itself when Nelson surrendered a home run on a middle-middle change-up to Freddie Freeman, a pitch that he said he wouldn’t have thrown in the regular season.
After that start, though, Nelson’s optimism contrasted with Lovullo, who had issues with Nelson’s fastball command. “It's a process and hopefully he gets there sooner than later,” Lovullo said then. On Tuesday, the tone was different. “We were very satisfied with how he threw the ball,” Lovullo said.
In particular, Nelson has begun to land his off-speed pitches for strikes with more consistency, which has been a focus of his, according to Carlson.
Jameson, on the other hand, has drawn positive reviews throughout the spring. “He's checking a lot of boxes right now,” Lovullo said last week, after Jameson’s second start.
On paper, the third start looked a little different, as Jameson allowed five runs in 2 2/3 innings on Monday, but Carlson saw that outing as a textbook example of spring stats not aligning with performances. One focus for the coaching staff with these young arms has been seeing how they can adjust mid-start. Come the regular season, those little tweaks can help avoid turning a mediocre outing into a full-blown implosion.
“He went out there for the third inning and there was a little bit of a change,” Carlson said. “He started to use his pitches better and he started to expand the strike zone. That's something for him to know and recognize and he did and then he executed.”
While Nelson has carried an air of optimism — at least publicly — Jameson has, despite his success, offered more introspection.
His biggest focus has been trusting all of his pitches, most notably his sinker and change-up. Evaluators see his sinker as a plus pitch at the major league level, while the change-up is a valuable offering against left-handed hitters. To find success with those pitches, though, Jameson has to trust them.
“When the season comes around and it's a situation where you might be thinking fastball but your catcher's calling a change-up, you've gotta be comfortable enough to throw that pitch,” Jameson said. “To not be like, 'Oh, I'm not good at throwing this pitch' when I know that's probably the pitch that I need to be throwing. If I've done my work, I've done everything I need to do so when that pitch is called, I can execute it in the spots and the locations where it needs to be.”
In the minors, Jameson could often get away with a heavy reliance on his four-seamer, a pitch that can touch 100 mph. “A natural thing,” Jameson calls it. “At a very young age, it's how you throw a ball.”
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The other offerings are different, with the exception of his slider, which has long been his go-to off-speed pitch. The change-up can be nasty on occasion, but it has been a constant work in progress throughout his professional career. Even on Tuesday, Jameson said, “It’s a really good pitch. (But) my confidence behind that pitch is not there.” The sinker, meanwhile, is his newest offering. He only developed the pitch in 2021, aiming to induce weaker contact.
In the majors, those secondary offerings take on added importance because they enable Jameson to go outside the strike zone.
“There's times, especially 0-2, 1-2, when you cannot stay in the strike zone,” Carlson said. “Major league hitters hit strikes. So if you stay right there and you give them three or four chances if they foul a ball off, with good pitches that are in that strike zone, they're gonna get hits or hit the ball hard.”
Now, with just three or four spring training starts remaining, that’s the evaluation process for the Diamondbacks’ brass. How will this look come April, against major league hitters, when it counts?
Short hops
The Diamondbacks have their first off day of the spring on Thursday. When they return on Friday, Madison Bumgarner will throw four innings and 55 pitches in a ‘B’ game against the Cubs. Pfaadt will throw four innings and 55 pitches against the Reds in Goodyear.
Pavin Smith is expected to return to action this weekend, according to Lovullo. He has begun to take batting practice at-bats after missing a few days with back spasms.
Diamondbacks 2, Rangers 0
At Salt River Fields
At the plate: It was mostly a quiet day for the Diamondbacks’ bats, but Lourdes Gurriel Jr. continued to swing the bat well, going 2-for-3 with a double. Gabriel Moreno hit his second home run of the spring, sending an 87 mph cutter 448 feet out to center field in the eighth off Marc Church, a minor league reliever.
On the mound: Henry had his best start of spring, continuing a positive trajectory over the past few weeks. He struck out three, didn’t walk anybody and only needed 56 pitches to get through four scoreless innings. Henry attributed the success to an ability to land his breaking balls for strikes. “I was able to trust them in a lot of different counts today, which helped get me back in counts,” Henry said. He also got four swings and misses, all of which were against off-speed pitches.
Extra bases: In a fourth-inning at-bat, the Rangers’ Adolis Garcia stepped out of the box with two seconds left on the pitch clock, seemingly thinking Henry was going to get called for an automatic ball. Henry, though, got the pitch off in time, leaving Garcia standing outside the box as his change-up went over the plate for a strike. “We got the shot off before the shot clock went off so we'll take it,” Henry said. Henry only saw Garcia stepping out as he was delivering the pitch, but he was able to avoid being distracted by the unusual situation.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks' rotation battle comes into focus with season approaching
