The Arrival of Reynaldo Lopez

Why has Reynaldo Lopez been so dominant through his first two starts during the 2018 season? He has given up two hits in each of his two starts and a combined one earned run.  The answer lies in a pitch that he just started throwing. That pitch is the Slider (SL).  According to FanGraphs Lopez has thrown the SL the second most out of his pitching arsenal. The pitch has wielded four strikeouts and a .000 batting avg.  The SL is up to 87.4 mph but sits at 83.6 mph on avg. Why has he incorporated a SL?

He has gone to the SL in place of his Changeup (CH) and Curveball (CB).  Both pitches graded out as negative pitches sitting -2.5 and -3.7 respectively.  Out of his seven home runs given up last year four of them came off the CH. His CB has wielded a career BABIP of .341. It was fair to say that Lopez needed a better secondary pitch to accompany his 95.5 mph Fastball (FB).

So far in two starts this season the SL has produced a total contact percentage of 62.5. This includes pitches outside and inside the zone.  The average for any pitch in the 2017 season was 77.5%. His SL has also produced a swinging strike percentage of 17.7.  That is the highest percentage of any pitch in his career.

But not to be lost in the shuffle, you cannot forget about the CH. Lopez scraped the CB for the most part, however, he kept the CH.  So far hitters are producing more groundballs and producing around the same contact percentage as the SL. The contact percentage on the CH is almost down 7% from his career average.  What is even more impressive is the 21.1% swinging strike. The CH has graded as a positive pitch so far this season along with his SL and FB.

Lopez has also found another pitch to supplement the CB and he has found it in the form of a Cutter (FC).  This pitch has been more of the same producing less contact and a high swinging strike percentage. It is also producing strikeouts along with the FB and SL. For Lopez adding two pitches has helped increase his FB and CH effectiveness and also allowed him to drop the CB, which was ultimately a slurve. His FB velocity has arm side run and has an added velocity bump this season. His CH has similar arm side run at a much-reduced velocity. The SL has given Lopez a pitch to go away from RHH and in on LHH.

Overall, Lopez has found a lot of success this season in his two starts. His swinging strike percentage is up to 13.1, which is 3% above the MLB avg. He is almost 10% down on his overall contact percentage.  Finally, he is producing 4% more first pitch strikes. All of this has produced back-to-back two hitters. With a whole season ahead it’s safe to say a lot of these numbers will not hold. However, with the Slider and Cutter we can expect an ERA in the 3’s and a high strike out percentage. This is the season Reynaldo Lopez shows that he has arrived as a legitimate #2 starter. 

“Reynaldo Lopez.”Reynaldo Lopez » PitchFx » Overview | FanGraphs Baseball, 10 Apr. 2018, 10:15 AM, www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?playerid=16400&position=P.