How can the Mets Maximize Adam Ottavino's pitch arsenal in 2024? What I think he should change

  *This article is an expanded version of a thread on Twitter/X follow me there - https://twitter.com/isaacgroffman*


How can the Mets maximize Adam Ottavino's pitch arsenal in 2024?
Isaac Groffman

In 2023 Ottavino really relied on his sinker and decreased his sweeper usage significantly. I find this interesting because it was still just as effective as it has been in the past (.165 BAA in 2022 and .226 in 2023).


However, if we look into how the pitch actually profiles it tells a different story according to www.mlbpitchprofiler.com Ottavino's sweeper had a 84 Stuff+ (on a scale of 100 as average) in 2022 and a 79 in 2023. Whereas his sinker had a 126 Stuff+ in 2022 and 114 in 2023. It is very possible that the analytically minded Ottavino is aware of this and that is why he is throwing his sweeper less.



Ottavino also started throwing his cutter more than ever (15% of the time) and this pitch has a 114 Stuff+ technically making it his second best pitch last year.










With his velocity decreasing last year he almost completely stopped throwing his four seam fastball instead relying more on his sinker. What I would like to see from him in 2024 is this. Continue throwing mainly sinkers early in the count to get ahead of hitters, also increase the cutter usage early in the count both these pitches have good results inside the zone. Use the sweeper less, almost always in 2 strike counts as a putaway pitch.

Finally, use the changeup once in a while to keep hitters off balance. With this kind of pitch arsenal Ottavino would look a bit different than he did in his incredible 2022 season but he still will be just as effective as a bridge to Edwin Díaz in 2024.



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