Detroit – The thing about throwing one pitch as much as new Tigers’ lefty Andrew Vasquez throws his slider, it’s not really the same pitch every time.
“It has a couple of different faces,” said Vasquez, who the Tigers claimed off waivers from the Phillies Friday. “Sometimes it comes out differently. It just adds a different layer to it. You’re not sure exactly which break you’re going to get.”
He’s thrown his slider 82% of the time this season and he’s holding hitters to a .246 average. Left-handed hitters hit just .220 off it. But it’s not a traditional wipeout slider. He throws it 80 to 81 mph, it doesn’t have elite spin (2,650 rpm) and he doesn’t get a ton of chase or swing-and-miss with it (18%).
He just gets hitters out with it, generally on softly-struck balls.
“Honestly it started in college,” said Vasquez, whose size (6-6, 240) belies the soft-tossing nature of his repertoire. “I used to be a starter. I don’t know what happened but all of a sudden I got really good command of my slider. When you have good command of a pitch, you have to ride with it.
“It kept working and I got to the point in professional ball where, you know what, ‘This is working. This is me. I’m going to trust it.’”
Coaches certainly tried to get him to vary his arsenal. He throws a fastball (89 mph), curveball and sinker, but they are mostly show-me pitches.
“When I first got drafted, the game was still evolving in terms of analytics and all that stuff,” he said. “And the coaches were preaching fastball command and establishing the fastball and I struggled. It got to a point when I was with Minnesota where they were like, ‘You know what, do whatever you want. Throw the slider.’
“It freed me up. It was like I can get back into counts. It took the pressure off the fastball and the fastball got better. It made it easier to trust a fastball when in the back of my mind, worst case scenario, I can attack with the slider.”
Fun fact: Vasquez has thrown 43 fastballs this season and hitters are 0 for 9 with five strikeouts against it.
“The slider is a good weapon for him,” Tigers’ manager AJ Hinch said. “Especially against lefties. It’s one of the bigger breaking balls you will see…It’s a little unpredictable. It has different shapes and he gets a lot of soft contact. It’s not always the swing-and-miss but he’s getting outs.
“And if you can do that when the majority of the league knows that pitch is coming, it’s a pretty effective pitch.”
The Tigers are his sixth team in five years. So even though he pitched well for the Phillies (2.27 ERA in 30 games), he wasn’t surprised he was the odd-man out when they traded for former Tiger Michael Lorenzen.
“I was a little bit (surprised) but there’s a lot of big names in that bullpen,” he said. “Being on so many teams in just a few years, I just try to show up and not worry about stuff like that.”
He will be the third lefty in the Tigers bullpen, joining Tyler Holton and Chasen Shreve.
“Vasquez is more of a true matchup lefty.” Hinch said. “You can target certain left-handed hitters or if you want to flip the lineup and get some of the left-handed hitters out of there, he’s a guy that can do that.”
AROUND THE HORN
…The Tigers could be without shortstop Javier Baez for a few games. He was scratched from the lineup Saturday after learning of a death in his family. It’s likely he will go on the three-day bereavement list as early as Sunday.
…Right-handed reliever Trey Wingenter was optioned to Triple-A Toledo to clear a spot for Vasquez.
…Starting pitcher Spencer Turnbull (neck) had to wait out a rain delay in Des Moines before making his third rehab start Friday night. After facing High-A hitters in the first two, he went 3.1 innings against Triple-A hitters, allowing two runs, three hits and a walk with two strikeouts for Toledo. He will make another start for the Mud Hens next week.
…Reliever Will Vest (left lower leg strain) pitched in the same game and allowed a run with two strikeouts in one inning. Vest is scheduled to pitch again Sunday.
Twitter@cmccosky
Rays at Tigers, Comerica Park
1:40 p.m.
TV/Radio: Bally Sports Detroit, 97.1, 1270.
Scouting report:
RHP Tyler Glasnow (5-3, 3.15), Rays: Tough customer here. He ranks in the top 10 percentile in strikeout rate (34.5%), whiff (37%) and chase (33%). Off a 96-97 mph heater (with 7.6 feet of extension), he’s getting 43% whiffs on his slider, 52% on his curveball. Over his last seven starts, he’s posted a 2.08 ERA and held hitters to a .190 average with 63 strikeouts and nine walks.
RHP Matt Manning (3-3, 4.53), Tigers: He’s had good moments, even in his rough starts. Consistency remains elusive. Left-handed hitters are doing a lot of damage against him (.506 slug and .815 OPS) and that’s partly because he hasn’t found a feel for his changeup. He’s only thrown 20 of them total. He’s been relying on a curveball as his secondary pitch to lefties and it’s not been reliable.
–Chris McCosky