Why the Mets are trying to bring back the sinker, a pitch that fell out of style

NEW YORK — In the wake of his near no-hit performance against the Chicago Cubs last week, Luis Severino was asked if he was back to the pitcher he used to be.

“I think I’m in a different position right now,” Severino said. “Before, when I was a little younger, I was thinking too much about striking everybody out. Right now, I’m just focused on getting people out and getting deep into the game. It’s more important to throw innings than to strike everybody out.”

For Severino, that shift in mindset manifests through one pitch, specifically. His sinker.

Severino had thrown 62 sinkers in his career before this season. He’s now throwing it just under 17 percent of the time.

“Just to have that pitch in my pocket that can help me get a groundball here, get a double play, get out of an inning with one pitch instead of striking out two guys,” he said. “I was just thinking about how I can be more productive and save more pitches.”

Severino isn’t alone.

Adrian Houser, Painted 93mph Sinker. 🖌️🎨 pic.twitter.com/EGyJcX8Pxl

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 15, 2024

No team has increased its sinker usage in 2024 like the New York Mets. Some of that can be explained by the pitchers New York added in the offseason. More of it can be attributed to an emphasis on a pitch that had previously fallen out of favor across the sport and that the club thinks is about to make a comeback.

A decade and a half ago, the sinker was a prominent weapon across the league. Brandon Webb won a Cy Young Award with his sinker. Scott Kazmir dominated opposing lineups year after year with his sinker. Ubaldo Jiménez threw a 99 mph backdoor sinker that the game broadcast and multiple online publications called the best pitch ever. The Pittsburgh Pirates built a pitching pipeline on the back of the sinker.

But in the second half of the past decade, the pitch fell victim to the launch-angle revolution in the batter’s box. With more hitters tailoring their swings to get the ball in the air — and specifically, to drive pitches down in the zone like sinkers, in the air — the pitch fell out of favor. It was thrown less and less in the sport, with more and more pitchers altering their repertoires to incorporate high-ride four-seam fastballs up in the zone. Gerrit Cole went from a good Pirate to a great Astro by making that switch.

Nearly a decade after you first heard of launch angle, the Mets see an opportunity for a response.

“The hitters have responded and adjusted to getting on top of the fastball, so once they started making that adjustment, that opens the sinker back up,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said. “It’s just a natural cycle of the game because of the way the hitters are trying to get on top of the heater now.”

To that end, the Mets have nearly doubled the frequency of sinkers they’re throwing in 2024. Last year, New York ranked 21st in the sport in the percentage of pitches that were sinkers; this year, it ranks fourth. No team has increased its usage of the sinker, by either a percentage or a percentage points basis, more than the Mets.

So Severino is throwing more sinkers. Sean Manaea has shifted back to the sinker from the four-seamer. Jose Quintana, José Buttó, Reed Garrett and Drew Smith — all are throwing more sinkers than they have in the past.

Against sinkers from Buttó, Manaea and Severino, opponents are 16-for-97.

“We understand better now what a good sinker is,” Hefner said. “You either need depth or run, and it’s different for every guy. Buttó’s is going to run a little more, Reed’s is going to be more vertical with some more depth to it. Then you just try to identify guys in the game where that works well, and you throw it.”

Manaea’s sinker is all about arm-side run — about expanding the plate horizontally in the opposite direction of his sweeping slider. Severino altered the grip on his sinker this past offseason, spreading out his fingers to achieve more depth on the pitch.

That’s how he’s pushed his ground-ball rate to better than 55 percent — 10 percentage points higher than his career rate entering the season.

“I saw last year that I was losing some ride on my fastball. One day, if I go out there and my fastball is not elite, at least I can go heavy two-seam in and get a lineup out,” Severino said. “The more pitches that you have, you are less predictable.”

While Hefner said the Mets have no “overarching organizational theme that we’re going to throw a bunch more sinkers,” it’s become a go-to solution for the staff of late.

“There’s a lot of things that need to go well for a rainforest to thrive. That’s similar to pitch usage. There could be one thing that’s missing from their repertoire,” Hefner said. “Because guys haven’t thrown sinkers, that tends to be where we go just because hitters hadn’t seen as many sinkers in recent years. Maybe that does pose a little bit of an advantage.”

Once a pitcher develops a viable sinker, the next step is deploying it at the right time.

“What (we) have talked a lot about is giving guys tools for their toolbelt,” Hefner said. “I’m facing this hitter, the scoreboard is saying this, what pitch should I throw? This gives me potentially a quick out, it allows me to go deeper into games or allows me to pitch a back-to-back.”

Just look at how Severino approached Chicago’s Christopher Morel two starts ago. Known for his free-swinging, Morel faced sinkers on the inner half over three at-bats against Severino. He grounded out twice and blooped into a double play; he made four outs in five pitches.

“Even if (a groundball) gets through, that’s a positive in our minds,” Hefner said. “If we get the groundball, that’s what the pitch is designed to do. It’s not designed to get swing-and-miss.”

The across-the-board results have been mixed for the Mets. On a per-pitch basis, their sinkers are slightly less effective than they were last year, though a lot of that is due to the struggles of Adrian Houser’s sinker-heavy arsenal. For Manaea, Severino and Smith, in particular, it’s been a critical pitch.

“I still need to work on some pitches and location,” Severino said. “But right now, I’m really happy with where they are.”

(Photo of Luis Severino: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)