Clayton Kershaw isn’t the one Dodgers lefty who has been putting up zeroes. Up to now within the younger season, Andrew Heaney has thrown 10.1 innings with out permitting an earned run by means of his first two begins, together with one on Sunday, when he held the Reds to only one hit over six innings whereas putting out 11. Within the wake of a disappointing 2021 marketing campaign, Heaney has overhauled each his supply and his repertoire, and it has shortly paid dividends for the Dodgers.
The 30-year-old Heaney signed a one-year, $8.5 million take care of Los Angeles on November 10, a surprisingly fast and profitable signing for a pitcher coming off such a forgettable season. He didn’t crack our Top 50 Free Agents checklist, however he was the primary free agent signed to a serious league deal final fall, that after reportedly more than a dozen teams, including the Blue Jays, Cardinals, Nationals, Purple Sox, and Reds, expressed curiosity.
Heaney spent the primary 4 months of the 2021 season with the Angels, whom you might recall really acquired him from the Dodgers in trade for Howie Kendrick in what was successfully a three-way take care of the Marlins again in December ’14, on the daybreak of the Andrew Friedman period. On the heels of three years of kind of league-average work with the Angels — and fewer accidents than normal — Heaney was hit for a 5.27 ERA by means of the primary 4 months of final season, although his FIP was a extra promising 4.06. As recommended by his .319 BABIP on the time, the hole between these two numbers owed one thing to his pitching in entrance of one of many majors’ worst defenses, and so his July 30 trade to the Yankees in trade for prospects Janson Junk and Elvis Peguero made some sense. Outdated buddy Eno Sarris summarized Heaney’s attraction:
Very to see what Matthew Blake does with Andrew Heaney. He’s all the time off the charts by superior metrics (104 Stuff+, 107 Command+, prime 25 Ok-BB), has excessive spin, low slot 4-seamer, and has underperformed his estimators. Powerful park, however perhaps some clay right here to be molded.
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) July 30, 2021
Heaney started his Yankees profession in inauspicious trend on August 2, serving up 4 homers in 4 innings — or actually, 4 homers within the span of six batters whereas making his second run by means of the Orioles’ lineup. Issues went downhill so shortly that by the top of the month he had misplaced his rotation spot, and made only one aid look after September 13. He was tattooed for a 7.32 ERA and 6.93 FIP in simply 35.2 innings for New York, and completed the 12 months with a 5.83 ERA and 4.85 FIP, his worst marks in any of the 5 seasons during which he’s pitched not less than 50 innings.
Even given these gaudy numbers, it’s not laborious to see the extra tantalizing elements of Heaney’s efficiency, a few of which Sarris referenced. He caught out 26.9% of all batters whereas strolling simply 7.3%; his strikeout-walk differential of 19.5% ranked thirty first among the many 129 pitchers with not less than 100 innings final 12 months, and was inside 0.3% of the likes of Joe Musgrove, Walker Buehler, Alex Wood, and Frankie Montas, all of whom had profitable seasons. Per Statcast, his 32.5% chase price positioned him within the 91st percentile, and the two,443 rpm spin price on his four-seam fastball put him within the ninetieth percentile.
That great things was undone by his permitting 2.01 homers per 9, the majors’ sixth-highest price amongst pitchers with not less than 100 innings. Heaney’s 89.3 mph common exit velocity (thirty sixth percentile), 40.8% hard-hit price (thirty second percentile) and 9.4% barrel price (twenty first percentile) had been nothing to write down house about, both. His fastball averaged 92.0 mph, however on contact, it was hit for a .271 common and .537 slugging share.
As The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya summarized, the Dodgers and different groups all for Heaney favored his talent set sufficient to miss final 12 months’s outcomes:
“His fastball possesses the kind of traits groups crave. When he’s proper, he’s proven a capability to overlook bats. Los Angeles has proven a capability to higher entry that with sure arms, tailoring their pitching improvement to individualized leads to a collaborative effort from the entrance workplace on down.”
In brief order, the Dodgers have labored with Heaney to rebuild his mechanics, adjusting his arm slot, correcting his tendency to grow to be too rotational, and putting him in the course of the rubber as an alternative of shifting back and forth seeking a fleeting benefit. Their largest transfer, nevertheless, was to junk Heaney’s curveball, which had below-average horizontal and vertical motion, in favor of a sweeper, a well-liked new variant of the slider that will get extra horizontal motion. According to Sarris, on the Dodgers’ workers alone, seven pitchers together with Buehler, Julio Urías, Blake Treinen, and Evan Phillips added a sweeper or adjusted their breaking balls to grow to be one final 12 months (Urías calls his model a slurve). Wrote Sarris in October. “[F]or most Dodgers sliders, the distinction between the spin axis the batter sees, and the motion he expects from that spin axis — a phenomenon often called seam-shifted wake — is critical. That sudden motion is up and out, so these sliders typically have much less drop and extra sweep than they seem they are going to as they spin out of the hand.”
When Heaney signed, Baseball Prospectus‘ Michael Ajeto accurately anticipated that the Dodgers would work so as to add a sweeper to his repertoire, given the mediocrity of his curve and changeup. Wrote Ajeto:
“Sweepers are nice pitches in a vacuum, and if Heaney succeeds in folding one into his repertoire, he’ll virtually actually add extra whiffs to his profile. However, like every pitch, its success remains to be depending on its relationship with the pitcher’s fastball. Heaney’s fastball and changeup get extra arm-side motion than common, and so it solely is sensible that Heaney would take his curveball and make it transfer extra side-to-side.”
Spoiler alert, that’s kind of what’s occurred:
By way of Statcast, Heaney’s curve averaged 46.8 inches of drop final 12 months, whereas the brand new slider has averaged 39.9 inches. The brand new pitch really will get much less horizontal motion in an absolute sense (5.6 inches versus seven), however extra motion relative to its vertical drop.
Given a spring coaching compressed by the lockout, the Dodgers and Heaney had lots of floor to cowl, they usually could possibly be forgiven if this overhaul wasn’t but prepared for prime time. Up to now, nevertheless, the outcomes have been eye-opening. In his first look, on April 12 in opposition to the Twins, Heaney threw 4.1 shutout innings, permitting simply three hits and an unearned run whereas putting out 5. He generated 15 swings and misses on simply 67 pitches, 9 of which got here from amongst his 34 sweepers (sliders, as Statcast data them, although at Baseball Prospectus, the Pitch Data leaderboard separates them out), together with two put-aways apiece in opposition to Byron Buxton and Gary Sánchez:
Heaney additionally received six whiffs and eight referred to as strikes from amongst his 30 four-seam fastballs, for a 47% CSW on the pitch and a 37% CSW general.
On Sunday, Heaney retired the primary seven batters he confronted, 5 of them by strikeout. He struck out leadoff hitter Kyle Farmer after which 4 and 5 hitters Joey Votto and Tyler Stephenson by way of sliders, ending the aspect off within the second by getting Aristides Aquino taking a look at a low fastball. He started the third by getting Mike Moustakas swinging at a slider, however walked Brandon Drury, and two batters later served up a double to Farmer, although Drury held at third. He escaped the jam, and labored round a two-out stroll of Stephenson within the fourth whereas putting out Tommy Pham, Votto, and Aquino all swinging at sliders. He ended the fifth by whiffing Jake Fraley on a slider, and sandwiched strikeouts of Tyler Naquin (fastball) and Votto (slider) round a two-out stroll of Pham within the sixth. Whew!
That was the primary time Votto struck out thrice in the identical sport in opposition to one pitcher since August 25, 2020, when Brandon Woodruff did a quantity on him. To search out the final time a lefty did it to him, one has to go all the best way again to September 10, 2010, when the Pirates’ Paul Maholm did so, becoming a member of the Giants’ Jonathan Sanchez (April 25, 2008), the Brewers’ CC Sabathia (4 occasions on September 10, 2008), and Kershaw (August 30, 2009). Welcome to the membership, Andrew Heaney.
In keeping with Statcast, on Sunday Heaney received 14 whiffs from amongst his 39 sliders; throw in these 4 referred to as strikes and that’s a 46% CSW for the pitch, and once more a 37% CSW general. For the 2 outings, the slider has produced a 36.5% swinging strike price, and a 51.1% whiffs per swing price. When batters have linked on the pitch, they’re 2-for-20, with each hits doubles.
Which raises a cautionary level: Whereas Heaney is lacking bats galore along with his new toy, he’s additionally giving up lots of laborious contact. Batters have averaged a 93.3 mph exit velocity on the 20 balls they’ve put in play throughout his two begins, with a 55% hard-hit price; all 4 hits he’s surrendered have been doubles, and loud ones at that, two by the Twins’ Carlos Correa (100.3 mph and 105.5 mph), one by Max Kepler (106.5 mph), and one by Farmer (97.3 mph). Hitters have solely barreled one ball in opposition to him — a 108.2 mph third-inning lineout by Naquin that Cody Bellinger needed to run down in middle discipline — however of the eight balls the Reds put into play, 5 had xBAs of not less than .370. Moreover, whereas sweepers are inclined to cause a lot of popups, Heaney has but to generate a single one. However even with these hard-hit balls, the combo has nonetheless been favorable sufficient for Heaney that his xERA based mostly on his Statcast numbers is 1.99.
On one other optimistic notice, the new-look Heaney has thus far held lefties to a 1-for-13 displaying, that after they cuffed him at a .280/.340/.451 (.339 wOBA) clip over the earlier three seasons, in comparison with .243/.305/.463 (.324 wOBA) by righties. Small pattern, clearly, and on the subject of the brand new pitch, demonstrative of the extremes illustrated above: he’s completed 5 lefties off with the slider (together with Votto thrice), however of the 2 put into play, Naquin not solely scorched that liner to Bellinger but additionally hit a equally sizzling grounder (108.3 mph), albeit proper at second baseman Gavin Lux.
For as spectacular as his new providing is, it’s price noting that Heaney is mainly simply working with two pitches; he’s thrown the four-seamer 48.7% of the time this 12 months, the sweeper 48.1%, and his changeup simply 3.2% (5 occasions). Odds are that these limitations, and the laborious contact, will catch as much as Heaney, however for the second his efficiency stands as a powerful testomony to the short makeover he and the Dodgers have undertaken.
