Trevor May Abandons Consistency, Finds Enlightenment

When you spoke with Trevor May about pitching in spring training, you were bound to hear the word “consistency.” It was more than just a focus, it was an obsession. It was damn near a zen mantra. “Consistencyyyyyy-ooooooommmmmmm”.

Two months later consistency has turned into a koan, those conflicting riddles that monks pondered to achieve a zen-like state, like the sound of one-hand clapping. That’s because May is attributing his more consistent success this season to…abandoning consistency.

May talked about consistency because it was perceived that his challenge was control. But that was only half the truth. May’s problem was his control when pitching out of the stretch, which pitchers do when runners are on base to keep the runners from stealing. Last year, batters hit just .241 with a 652 OPS against May from the windup, but .421 with a 1245 OPS from the stretch. He thinks the problem was the slide step he was using.

“I used to slide step out of the stretch, to the point where it was really hard for me to get balance, get everything going. It took a lot of effort to get the ball down before,” says May.

“Now I’m varying my leg kick a little bit more. I can afford to have it a little bit higher at times. I haven’t worried about it as much, so I’ve been able to slide step when I need to and vary it. And I’ve found that balance a little bit better.”

Huh? What about mechanics? What about the consistency May had damn near worshipped in spring training?

“My biggest thing was always trying to repeat my delivery as much as possible,” explained May. “But it got a little bit robotic, where my body wouldn’t repeat the way I wanted it to. You’ve got to make it feel natural. I’ve found adding a little wrinkle here and there has made me feel a little more controlled in what I’m doing. I’m happy about it.”

That’s great, but how, in the midst of working so hard on consistency, did he find that varying his approach was the real answer? Like any wise monk, he watched the world around him. Only he didn’t watch a lotus floating in the stream. He watched royalty.

“One guy who has a lot of movement, that struck me, was when I watched King Felix pitch. It’s just something he’s not worried about,” says May. “He’s more worried about throwing. Going after a hitter. And he has a very simple approach to holding runners and guys don’t really run on him.”

May came to the same conclusion watching a pitcher on the Twins staff.

“Ricky [Nolasco] is another guy who varies his leg kicks pretty good. He can be quick and he can be slow. I just thought, there is no reason I have to be the same with my leg kick. I can do it. And I’ve had pretty good success doing it.”

Batters are hitting 100 points lower against May from the stretch this year, and he’s cut 400 points of OPS. He’s done that while holding batters to nearly the same anemic OPS as last year from the windup. Maybe even more promising was his latest outing in which he completed seven innings on just 80 pitches, by far his most efficient outing of his MLB career.

In the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu praises water repeatedly. He sees power in its flexibility. Power that dissolves the strongest of rocks:

Nothing in the world

is as soft and yielding as water.

Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,

nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;

the gentle overcomes the rigid.

Everyone knows this is true,

but few can put it into practice.

It appears lately that Trevor May has. Tonight he’ll get another chance to show us he’s on the path toward enlightenment.

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