The temptation to change the arm slot to manipulate a pitch makes sense. Sometimes the body moves toward a result without consulting the mind. And it can work.
“But it’s very inconsistent,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said.
So, Hottovy and the rest of the pitching coach staff have been working with right-hander Hayden Wesneksi to fight that temptation.
“It’s not the perfect done project,” Wesneksi told the Sun-Times in recent weeks. “But I definitely got closer.”
With Javier Assad in the rotation for the past couple turns, relievers like Wesneski have shouldered more of the multi-inning reliever responsibility. The Cubs see Wesneski as a starter long term — the rookie made the rotation out of spring training, after all. But this season has also been about development for Wesneski.
Early on, he was working to regain the shape of his slider, then reintroduce the cutter, then hone execution. Now, the Cubs have seen progress in the consistency of Wesneski’s release point.
“I haven’t been scared to just, ‘Hey, let’s change this,’” Wesneski said. “It’s something that the really good ones do, and they do it faster than everybody else. … It’s been hard, and it will continue to be hard. But I’ll always have to change anyway, so why not get to it today?”
That was his attitude when he first learned a cutter in the minors. He said the next day he tried throwing the pitch in a game.
Through that process, Wesneski is no stranger to release point issues. His arm slot was always a bit higher for his cutter than it was for his sinker and slider. Ideally, a pitcher wants almost identical release points for every pitch to make it harder for hitters to identify the pitch type.
Between trying to compete, and then being traded from the Yankees organization to the Cubs last year, it took until this season for Wesneski and his pitching coaches to prioritize honing his release point on all his pitches.
“Same problem, different issue,” Wesneski said.
When Wesneski first moved from the rotation to the bullpen in late May, the change in pitching schedule gave him and the coaching staff time to address thought-process and routine along with mechanics. The latter focused on his release point.
“I would throw the pitch, and I was thinking, ‘Man, I have no clue where this is going,’” Wesneski said. “It didn’t feel consistent.”
He could tell it was wrong, but he wasn’t sure exactly how. And fixing the issue became a battle of “feel versus real,” as Wesneski put it.
“In order to adjust, I felt like I was throwing way over the top,” he said. “But in reality, it was right where I needed to be.”
The process took repetition and immediate feedback from a coach looking on during side sessions to combat the disconnect.
“He took it great and then just took off from that point,” Hottovy said.
Wesneski carried his progress with him to Triple-A during a couple week stint with Iowa. He remembers throwing what he thought was a really good changeup at one point, and the batter took the pitch. The feedback he got from hitters the next day suggested he might have tipped the changeup.
“It’s something that I realized I can do not only with my sinker, but with my changeup,” Wesneksi said of the release point adjustment. “So it’s one of those things where it’s starting to make everything clear. And I think a changeup would make my life a lot easier with lefties.”
Lefties have been Wesneski’s Achilles heel this season. While right-handed batters have been hitting .188 against him, lefties are batting .311.
“This could really boost me right to where I need to be,” he said.