How Sweep It Is: Joe Ryan and the New Weapon in His Repertoire

[Lou Hennessy]

Joe Ryan was a bright spot for a Twins pitching staff that lacked many, well, bright spots in 2022. After an off-season of growth and development, can the promising young hurler take things to the next level in 2023?

Image courtesy of Peter Aiken, USA Today

The Twins organization boasts an interesting crop of young pitchers that are ready to contribute to the big-league club in 2023. Few offer as much fan excitement as prized righty Joe Ryan as he enters his second full season in a Twins uniform. From his colorful personality, to his Grateful Dead entrance music, to his unorthodox fastball and his wacky collection of untraditional bikes that he rides to the stadium – very little is normal when it comes to the youngest gun in Minnesota’s starting rotation. 

The Twins probably like it that way. 

They acquired him in a bittersweet swap at the trade deadline in 2021, where the club and fans alike had to say goodbye to the cherished Nelson Cruz. Ryan then proceeded to surf into the hearts of pitching-starved fans, and into the blueprint of the front office for years to come. 

The 26-year-old Californian has shown that he can hold his own in a Major League rotation, with a career 3.56 ERA in 33 starts. But what’s it going to take for him to level up? 

For starters, Ryan is taking that wave head-on, as he’s one of a handful of Twins’ pitchers that did extensive training with Driveline over the off-season. Some players turn to this performance-training development program to clean up their mechanics, increase velocity, learn new offerings, or even reshape pitches in their repertoire.

For Ryan, that was a focus on improving his slider, which he threw 17.8% of the time last year. It was also his de facto put away pitch when he got to two strikes in the count. However, the results on that offering did not merit the love it was getting from the righty. Opposing hitters batted .262 with a whopping .540 slugging percentage against that pitch, which was curious given the nearly 30% whiff rate that it produced. For some reason, the bender just wasn’t working as it should have. 

After his off-season working with Driveline, Ryan came into spring training ready to unleash his new and improved “Sweeper” which is essentially a retooled version of a slider that offers a more substantial glove-side break. That means that instead of just diving toward the ground as it approaches the plate, it also breaks away from right-handed hitters with a more slurvy bend. 

Dan Hayes of The Athletic wrote about Ryan’s adjustments in a recent article, where he spoke to Driveline’s director of pitching about the thought process behind developing this new twist on a secondary offering. 
“He’s got the perfect (arm) slot for a sweeper,” Driveline director of pitching Chris Langin said of Ryan. “The main modification was an alteration to the grip. It was a spike on the index finger and it allowed him to stay in front of the ball when he threw it, which basically makes it when you’re in a game environment you’re not backing it up too much. … It was just pretty clear that if he can just develop some 50-grade secondary stuff, that’s going to help you a ton.”

A better secondary offering will surely work wonders for Ryan, whose fastball has been his bread and butter for his entire professional career, and will likely remain that way going forward. His heater has some deception to it, and this allows for plenty of misses despite its modest 92 MPH average velocity on the pitch. Since 2020, opponents are hitting just .177 off of his fastball, good for 3rd-best among all qualified starting pitchers in that span according to Inside Edge. Not only that, but he’s allowed just a .319 slugging percentage on that pitch since his debut. That ranks 4th-best in baseball. Clearly, Ryan’s four-seam fastball is pound-for-pound one of the most effective heaters in the game. That’s why establishing a more successful secondary offering is essential to him taking his game to the next level. 

Early results are encouraging on that front. Ryan dazzled in his first regular-season start on Sunday against the Kansas City Royals, twirling six innings of three-hit ball with two walks and six punch outs. Better yet, his new and improved sweeper was a dazzling success. Ryan threw it 16 times, getting eight misses without allowing a hit. Look for him to continue driving that train going forward. 

Small sample aside, it’s encouraging to see that there is a process in place for adding a weapon to the arsenal of a pitcher that many around the organization consider to be a building block. Young players that find early success in their careers can have a tendency to try and stick to the status quo. But Ryan knows that baseball is a game of adjustments and the more that you give, the more it will take, to the thin line beyond, which you really can't fake.

As long as Ryan keeps putting in the work to grow and develop just as he did this off-season, he's going to keep on truckin'. 

What do you think about Ryan's new sweeper? Does his new pitch change his chances of becoming a frontline starter in the future? Did you catch all of the Grateful Dead nods in the article? Let us know what you think in the comment section. 

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[Fatbat]

He had 1 tough inning the other day and gave up a bad dinger but has looked great otherwise.  He’s going to be fun to watch for the foreseeable future!!!

[jimbo92107]

The way Joe Ryan throws his fastball, I see two effects: 1) He will continue to get a lot of whiffs and weak pop flies under the ball. 2) When a batter gets around early and adjusts up, we may see some record-breaking velocities and distances. 

Yes, it is vital that Ryan develops and uses off speed pitches, especially ones that bend DOWN. His new sweeper is a good start. I hope he also develops a splitter and/or a change up that uses the same arm motion as his heater. That would really drive hitters nuts. Imagine the frustration of a batter that has worked his butt off to adjust up to Ryan's riding heater, only to get three splitters in a row. 

Joe Ryan today has the foundation of a great pitcher's arsenal. How good can he get? I love asking that question.