WASHINGTON –– It’s a pitch without a name.
A breakthrough development nobody quite knows how to label.
Since the start of spring training this year, Roki Sasaki has been working on a new third weapon to complement his fastball-splitter arsenal. It’s a crucial addition for the Dodgers’ second-year phenom, even if its identity is still being formed.
The pitch is part breaking ball, possessing right-to-left movement and late vertical drop.
But it’s also an off-speed offering, clocking in at the upper-80 mph range as an uncomfortable change of pace to his upper-90s heater.
When Sasaki debuted it in regular-season play for the first time last week, MLB’s Statcast system originally tagged it as a cutter.
But upon a check Saturday afternoon –– ahead of Sasaki’s next outing Sunday against the Nationals –– it’d been reclassified as a slider on the league’s official stats page.
“I think the name will change depending on how much it breaks,” Sasaki said in Japanese this spring. “Personally, I just want to be able to throw it comfortably without it affecting my current pitching motion.”
To that end, the Dodgers have given Sasaki mental cues, instructing him to think like he’s throwing a cutter even if the pitch has more slider-esque movement.
That doesn’t mean, however, people around the team have settled on exactly what to call it.
Sometimes it’s a slider. Sometimes it’s a cutter. And sometimes, it’s an unintentionally-NSFW mash-up of both. (Not a slurve, but…)
“I’m not sure,” manager Dave Roberts laughed when asked what the team’s official term for it is.
“We haven’t seen it enough to know how we’re gonna treat it,” echoed catcher Dalton Rushing.
“Honestly,” pitching coach Mark Prior added, “it depends on the day.”
Alas, Sasaki’s new pitch doesn’t need a specific name –– just as long as it serves a specific purpose.
The right-hander could’ve benefited from a more consistent third alternative last year, when his fastball velocity was down, his splitter command was wild, and he stumbled to a 4.72 ERA in eight rookie-season starts.
Some of that, of course, was due to a shoulder injury that eventually landed the 24-year-old on the injured list. When he returned for the playoffs in the bullpen, his primary two weapons were enough to navigate a relief role.
Enter the new third pitch, which proved surprisingly effective in his first start of the campaign.
“It was a big step forward,” said Rushing, who was behind the plate for the four-plus-inning, one-run performance against the Cleveland Guardians last Monday.
In that outing, Sasaki still lacked much control. His fastball was over the plate on less than half of 38 throws. Only one of his 18 splitters wouldn’t have been a called ball. And if not for an overly-aggressive Cleveland offense, he almost certainly would’ve finished with more than two walks.
However, the cutter/slider/whatever helped give him balance. It clipped the zone 13 of the 22 times Sasaki used it. It also got four whiffs on 12 swings, only really getting squared up once when Steven Kwan hit a center-cut mistake for a double.
“He’s still gonna be meat-and-potatoes with four-seam and split,” Prior said. “But (the third pitch) has honestly been a pretty decent pitch for him, even in spring training … He seems to have a good idea of where it’s going. He can throw it to get back into counts.”
That latter point is the most crucial one.
Whereas last year, Sasaki toyed around with a big-breaking sweeper that averaged almost a foot of horizontal break, his new pitch is more of a “gyro” or “bullet” slider, spiraling out of his hand almost like a quarterback throws a football.
It has less break, moving only a couple inches to his glove side. It has little spin, similar to his fork-ball splitter that practically knuckles to the plate. Yet, it appears to be easier to locate, giving him a more deceptive option with which to challenge hitters.
“The more he throws it in the zone,” Rushing said, “it makes his fastball much better.”
Last year, Sasaki and the Dodgers learned what happened when opposing hitters could sit on his fastball. Thanks in part to its flat shape, opponents slugged .500 against it.
The return of Sasaki’s velocity should help with that. Better command will also make his heater a more potent pitch.
But for now, the new third offering at least gives him something different –– even if it still lacks a designated name.
“We’ll see what the game ultimately tells us as we get more sample size, if there needs to be an adjustment in how we use it,” Prior said. “But right now, whether it’s (because it’s) limited on the opposing team’s radar, or actually comes out of the hand where it effectively gives him some separation and goes the other direction, it’s serving its purpose.”
