Lakeland, Fla. — Casey Mize, firmly established as an integral member of the Tigers’ starting rotation, thought he’d be as relaxed as he’d ever been coming into a spring camp.
After all, it’s his fourth one since the Tigers took him with the first-overall pick in the 2018 draft. He made his big-league debut in 2020 and went to the post 30 times last season. A couple month shy of his 25th birthday and he’s darn-near a veteran already.
No sweat, right?
“Coming in here I was like, ‘Man, this is going to be such a fun camp,’” Mize said Monday. “I don’t have to worry about making a team, I’m not going to be nervous or anything, no anxiousness.”
Wrong.
“Yeah, that’s still there,” he said, smiling. “Like, first day of lives (live batting practice) and I’m like, ‘Let’s go!’ I’m a competitor. I want to compete. I mean there’s no smooth sailing. Somebody steps in the box and I’m going to try to get him out. That doesn’t change.”
Especially when you face the group of hitters Mize faced Monday in the first live batting practice session of camp. He and prospect Beau Brieske faced Jonathan Schoop, Miguel Cabrera, Javy Baez and Isaac Paredes, two innings apiece.
Talk about jumping right into the fire.
“No, it’s good,” Mize said. “I’ve been doing some lives (before the lockout lifted) so I was definitely ready for that. The workload is right on par for what I’ve been doing. It was good to be out there. Good to see Javy in our uniform and not somebody else’s.
“I got some good feedback from those guys.”
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Manager AJ Hinch said the pairing wasn’t meant to be any kind of challenge to either pitcher or the hitters.
“I didn’t think any of our hitters was going to get hit, that was one advantage,” Hinch said. “There wasn’t a ton of thought put into that stuff other than both Beau and Casey generally are going to throw strikes and throw the ball where they want.”
A major point of emphasis for Mize this offseason, as he told the News back in January, was regaining the feel on his splitter, a pitch he essentially abandoned for long stretches last year. He got some useful feedback from Baez Monday — both verbally and visually.
“I threw some good splits,” he said. “Left a couple up and Javy hit one.”
The splitters that were hit Monday were ones that sailed and stayed up.
“I spent a lot of time on that pitch and I felt like it’s coming out (of his hand) good,” Mize said. “I’m getting more on top of the ball so it’s not sailing as much. If I get under it, like on the one Javy hit, it has more fade to it.
“When I get on top, it has that true depth like it’s supposed to. Javy noticed it, too. He said, ‘Get it down, it’s a money pitch.’”
Understand, Mize had a solid rookie season without the split. After a rough start, the Tigers went 13-12 in his last 25 starts. He posted a 3.42 ERA and limited hitters to a .227 batting average. Mize, though, will never be content with solid or average or even good.
He strives to be great. And the splitter is the pitch, he believes, that can take him next level.
“It’s just mindset stuff,” he said. “It’s crazy how much if you just think something when you are doing it, it’ll change the outcome of the pitch. It’s as simple as that. The adjustments we make at this level are really minuscule that make a huge difference.”
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Too often last season, he abandoned the split early in games. There would be stretches, he said, where he’d go 500-600 pitches and only throw a handful of splits. It was no wonder that he ultimately lost the feel for it.
“You aren’t going to have consistent feel if you aren’t throwing it enough,” he said. “I think just the decrease in volume led to a decrease in feel.”
And without the splitter in the tool kit, some of his metrics suffered. Hitters weren’t chasing pitches just off the plate (25% chase rate). They weren’t swing-and-missing much (22.5%) or striking out a lot (19.3%). And without the split, he didn’t have an effective change-of-pace pitch to neutralize left-handed hitters, who accounted for 17 of the 24 homers he allowed.
“It’s important for Casey to evolve as a pitcher and to be whatever he’s going to be,” said Hinch, who is loathe to define Mize by the aforementioned numbers. “We don’t need to set anything, like, he needs to be a strikeout guy or a ground ball guy. He needs to be a guy who makes his starts and throws his innings and pitches in winning games.
“His job is to get the ball to Jose Cisnero and Michael Fulmer and Gregory Soto, the guys at the backend of the bullpen. That’s his job and he did it pretty darn well last year. That should be good enough.”
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Though perhaps not for Mize. Besides re-integrating the split, he’s also cut the two-seam fastball out of his mix. Opponents slashed .322/.315/.572 with nine homers off the two-seamer last year.
“That’s something we re-evaluated,” Mize said. “No more sinkers. Just going with the four-seam mainly. I might throw a few to right-handed hitters, but none to lefties.”
Also, he plans to use his curveball more. Hitters were 4-for-31 against it last year, but he only threw 160 of them.
“Coming off last season, we have a ton of confidence in Casey being an elite pitcher,” Hinch said.
That’s a goal Mize can get behind.
“It feels good knowing I am on the team and I will be pitching,” he said. “Especially where we are at as a whole, the mindset and expectations for our team are way higher than they’ve been. That feels so good. Everybody is pulling in the same direction.”
Twitter: @cmccosky