LAKELAND, Fla. -- Chase De Jong started to tinker with a slider when he was sent down to Class Low-A with the Blue Jays in 2015. It didn't start to click though until he was with the Dodgers later that season when his pitching coach, Bill Simas, taught him the curveball he threw over his six-year major-league career.
Ever since then, every slider De Jong has thrown has been a Simas slider, one of the few areas of his game where he hasn't tinkered over these past eight years of baseball. Last year, it ended up being one of the best sliders in baseball. It got a 41.4% whiff rate while holding hitters to a .170 average and .242 wOBA/expected wOBA.
“I just knew it was something that worked for me," De Jong told me, admitting he had no idea his slider was one of the highest graded pitches on the team last year until Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton told him during his exit interview. "I threw two breaking balls for the sole purpose of hoping to have one that day. Then I started profiling it and it was like, ‘Hey this isn’t just something you throw to righties. You can throw it to lefties. You can get off of your curveball with it.’ ”
On Wednesday, De Jong threw plenty of those sliders in his 1 1/3 scoreless innings against the Tigers at Publix Field, a game the Pirates would eventually lose, 8-7. In fact, he threw more breaking balls than fastballs that afternoon.
That's the plan going forward. He's slider first, fastball second. The theme of that exit interview was the slider is his pitch, so use it.
“It became very easy because of the transparency by them," De Jong said. "It was, 'This is who you are, this is what we want you to do.' ”
Or, to put it in old school baseball terms, pitch "backwards."
"I really don't know if we should think about it that way anymore," Derek Shelton said. "Pitching backwards, traditionally, is the way it's been looked at. But because of guys usage … especially with relievers, breaking balls are becoming more prominent, more prevalent."
De Jong was on board with the idea, especially since he knew it meant they viewed him as someone who could, if not should, be part of that 2023 bullpen. He had a solid season, recording a 2.64 ERA over 71 2/3 innings in his jump to full-time reliever.
He's still taking the competition mantra of this camp to heart and is focused on earning his job back, but for the first time in a long time, he had some semblance of job security.
“I think last season, having a good year for us, afforded me the ability to tinker a little bit this offseason," De Jong said.
That tinkering resulted in a new pitch: A splitter.
De Jong stopped throwing his changeup last year, opting to stick with the fastball and two breaking balls. In his head, he was already planning on incorporating that splitter. If Kevin Gausman came to town, he would track him down and pick his brain on the pitch. Kirby Yates? Well, David Bednar is an ex-teammate of his, so he had an in to introduce himself.
This winter, De Jong closed on a house near Bradenton, Fla. and spent a lot of the offseason with bullpen coach Justin Meccage. Together, they started to take the ideas and advice he had been given and mold it into his new pitch. Gone was the Vulcan changeup. With his high arm slot and his large hands, he was able to change his grip to kill the spin and get more drop.
“[Going from] a new pitch to a major-league caliber pitch is something we’re still working on," De Jong said. "We’re really forcing the issue in live BPs. I’m getting good feedback. With my hand size and my arm slot, it seemed like a natural fit.”
De Jong threw a pair of splitters Wednesday, registering with two more inches of depth than last year's changeup, two fewer inches of run and 500 RPM less spin. Those are the ingredients of a good drop pitch.
If it works, it could give De Jong another plus pitch and something he could rely on, continuing his journey from a non-roster guy multiple years with the Pirates to a real part of their bullpen. He's always looking for points like that, because he knows his journey is not done yet.
“I will never think I’m a finished product until I’m done playing baseball," De Jong said. "If there’s a way to get better or get an edge, I will always listen.”
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Johan Oviedo tinkered with his four-seamer grip during his cameo with the Pirates last September. During the season, dating back to even his time with the Cardinals, he was working on a more drastic change, adding a sinker.
"I didn’t try it in-season [last year], so this year, I was working out with the coaches and stuff," Oviedo said. "They were [like], ‘Why not?’ They said it’s good. So, just try to play around with a new grip, new fastball grip, try to work out all my stuff that I’m going to have right now."
Oviedo mixed in both fastballs in his two innings of work Wednesday, but was tagged for four runs on five well-hit balls in the first. The second frame went smoother, though there were still a handful left over the middle of the plate.
"In my mind, in the first inning, even with the first batter was more to get ahead instead of being too picky on the corners, throwing nasty sliders, just try to get ahead most of the time," Oviedo said. "But, they were swinging and I didn’t switch the page. Instead, I need to be more smart about the pitches in the first inning. Body feels good, so I’m just going to move forward."
• Rolling through who also pitched in addition to De Jong, Duane Underwood Jr. struck out the side, touching 96 mph. Non-roster lefties Caleb Smith and Daniel Zamora combined to allow three runs, while Juan Minaya threw a scoreless eighth.
The Pirates rallied from being down, 7-3, to tie the game and force a bottom of the ninth (a real one, not an Orioles one), but Osvaldo Bido gave up a walk-off home run to Nick Maton to end it.
• Oneil Cruz said at the start of camp that he is aiming for a 30-30, if not 40-40, campaign this season. On Wednesday, he swiped a bag and hit a two-run homer to left. That lofty goal is definitely possible.
Oneil just doing Oneil things. pic.twitter.com/7HsvhinsNW
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 1, 2023
• There's an outfield competition going on, and Travis Swaggerty made a compelling case Wednesday by launching a game-tying 433-foot home run to center field in the eighth.
There's still plenty of spring to go, and plenty of outfielders vying for those jobs.
"We have a high level of competition in our outfield," Shelton said about the team's depth of young outfielders. "These young kids are going to get the opportunity to do things. It’s important to make sure that we get them reps, make sure we get to look at them because like you said, all of them touched the big leagues at some point last year, all of them have worked very hard this winter and we need to make sure that we get a good look at them this spring to make our final roster decision.”
• Endy Rodriguez doubled and scored a run while starting at first base. I wrote about him and Henry Davis (who walked and stole a base off the bench) Tuesday.
• Time of game: 2 hours, 27 minutes. Long live the pitch clock.
