An article from The Athletic expanded on how Kirby’s cutter could be a big boost to his arsenal
Despite being arguably the best starting rotation in baseball, the staff isn’t content with resting on its laurels. Dating from the middle of last season to now, every starter – and All-Star closer Andres Munoz have all made adjustments to their current repertoire’s or have worked on a new offering.
Seattle starting pitcher George Kirby pitched in his first spring training game of the season against the Athletics on Wednesday. He didn’t have the cleanest outing. He threw one inning and struck out one batter, allowed one earned run and walked two hitters. The biggest takeaway from Kirby’s start was a new cutter.Kirby threw the cutter just 11 times out of 2,967 total pitches in 2024, according to Baseball Savant.
Kirby is already one of the best command pitchers in the game. But a recent story highlighted how introducing a cutter could benefit him.
An article written by The Athletic’s Eno Sarris mentioned how Kirby’s thrown his four-seam fastball with two strikes a third of the time in his career. This works out well often for Kirby. But Sarris also pointed out how in August of last season, hitters slugged .857 against the four-seamer with two-strikes.
Sarris also pointed out how left-handed batters have done well against the fastball compared to righties.
Kirby’s cutter could be the solution to getting out lefties at a more efficient rate. In the 11-pitch sample size in 2024, his cutter was often located on the inside of the plate for left-handed pitchers. In the nine segmented areas inside the strike zone, Kirby generated the second-lowest to fourth-lowest exit velocities in the areas the cutter was located the most (also according to Baseball Savant).
It’s not that Kirby needs help, necessarily. Of the pitches that Kirby threw at least 100 times in 2024, hitters maxed out at a .253 average against his sinker. Hitters averaged .226 against his slider and .230 against his four-seam fastball.
Adding a cutter to the mix could help Kirby avoid bad stretches or the rare demerit on what is an otherwise stellar ledger.