Chris McCosky | The Detroit News
Lakeland, Fla. — There aren’t many more intriguing and potentially pivotal players on the Tigers pitching staff than lefty Gregory Soto.
The baseball world got a taste of that last year when he didn’t allow a run over his first 10 innings, posting a 14-2 strikeout-walk mix. With his elite two-seam fastball velocity and spin (97 mph, 2,424 rpms) and a slider that produced a 61% whiff rate, he became a must-see performer.
“Obviously we’re very excited,” new Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. “You don’t see an arm like that very often. He’s been intriguing for a while. There’s been a lot of excitement about him, but always it’s, ‘If we can get him in the strike zone.’”
Soto, in his first active day in camp Thursday, threw a live bullpen session. Hitters Riley Greene, JaCoby Jones and Robbie Grossman mostly tracked his pitches, and Soto said he was just easing through his mechanics, not at max effort yet.
Command issues are always the first concern with Soto. But let’s, for a minute, put the cart before the horse and ask a secondary question: Does he need to use his four-seam fastball more often?
“Everybody does,” Hinch said. “You need as many weapons as you can have against hitters. There’s always going to be some hitter who can time up everything you have and beat you. So the more weapons you have in your arsenal to attack the game plan, the better.”
The sinker and slider are Soto’s bread-and-butter. He used a four-seamer just 5% of the time last year and 6% in 2019.
But with hitters increasing the launch angle of their swings more and more, a four-seam that stays relatively straight through the top of the zone has been effective across the league — especially for those, like Soto, who can throw it with upper-90s velocity.
“My four-seam behaves from time to time like a cutter,” said Soto, through Tigers bilingual translator Carlos Guillen. “I threw a couple in warmups today, but not against the hitters. But I know I have it always right there. It’s a weapon. When I want to put the ball up high, I can throw it.”
The cut action isn’t desirable, though. Ideally, the four-seam fastball would keep its plane and give the appearance of rising through the strike zone. That’s why even throwing his two-seam up in the zone wouldn’t be as effective, in theory, as a true four-seamer.
“I see it more as location over four-seam vs. two-seam,” Hinch said. “It’s easier to get that hop and carry on your fastball when it’s four-seam and the ball stays more true. You don’t have to worry about the ball coming off the side of your fingers.
“To me, over the plate and up and at the right height is the key. If it has a little run away, it gives the hitter a tick more time to hit it.”
Gaining more trust in the four-seam for Soto, though, is more of an advanced class. The more pressing concern, always, is throwing strikes consistently. After the dominating start last season, he gave up 11 runs in his last 12.2 innings, with 15 strikeouts and 11 walks.
“For him, it sounds simple, but he can beat people in the strike zone,” Hinch said. “And he can beat them with multiple pitches. He’s very dominant when he gets ahead, very dominant when he’s under control and is a more consistent strike-thrower.
“It’s easier said than done, especially with the electrifying stuff he has. But the primary focus for him is strikes, and then the more advanced he gets with that, the more we can attack a game plan.”
And, taking it a step further, the more consistent he is with his command, the stronger his case will be to end up with a late-inning, high-leverage role, possibly even the closer role.
“He’s a real weapon,” Hinch said. “He can pitch in a lot of different roles in a lot of different ways. I know he’s pretty focused on earning the closer’s role. But I see him as a valuable guy regardless of what we call him at the beginning of the season.
“The more he’s in the strike zone, the better he pitches. And the better he pitches the more I’m going to turn to him in games that we are winning.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky