In a bullpen session on Wednesday, Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Vladimir Gutierrez was working with pitching coach Derek Johnson.
Gutierrez was coming off the worst statistical start of his career, and he allowed nine hits and six runs on Monday against the New York Mets. Two days later, Johnson stopped Gutierrez in the middle of the bullpen session.
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Johnson asked the rookie, “Have you ever thrown a sinker before?”
And with that Gutierrez began working on his next adjustment as he continues to establish himself as a Major League starting pitcher.
“Everyone has really been able to get a good report on me because a lot of the teams are now seeing me, people are getting a good sense of what I throw,” Gutierrez said via interpreter Jorge Merlos. “Last time wasn’t a good start for me. The location of my breaking balls weren’t working that well. From that start, I’m going to leave behind all the bad stuff that happened.”
On Friday, the Reds announced that Gutierrez would keep his spot in the Reds starting rotation. Since starting pitcher Jeff Hoffman returned from the injured list, the team needed to decide whether Hoffman would get his spot back in the rotation or whether Gutierrez would remain Cincinnati’s fifth starter.
Gutierrez will start on Tuesday against the Chicago Cubs, and Hoffman will move to the bullpen.
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Gutierrez has a 4.97 ERA in 10 starts, but he has thrown at least five innings in eight of his 10 appearances. He has already delivered several important starts for the Reds, including seven standout innings in a win over the Milwaukee Brewers on June 9 and six one-run innings against the Brewers one month later.
Since Gutierrez’s breaking pitches weren’t as effective as he wanted them in his start against the Mets and since the scouting report on him has expanded, Gutierrez has continued to make adjustments.
The latest update in Gutierrez’s sinker. When Johnson asked Gutierrez if he’d ever thrown a sinker before, Gutierrez informed him that he did in 2019. But as a result of throwing that pitch in 2019, Gutierrez got a blister on his hand, so he stopped throwing it.
Johnson showed Gutierrez a different way to grip the pitch, and the sinker developed more movement down in the strike zone.
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“It was working really well,” Gutierrez said. “Now, we’ll see if we want to use that going forward.”
HOFFMAN TO THE BULLPEN: In his return from the 10-day IL (right shoulder soreness), Hoffman allowed five runs and seven hits in four innings against the Mets on Wednesday. When the Reds announced their starting rotation for the next week, Hoffman was left out.
“I just didn’t have really good command of the off-speed stuff,” Hoffman said. “I got behind a lot, I got myself in bad spots. It was just a weird day for my stuff. I feel healthy, though. That’s the one positive I took away from the other day.”
Hoffman mostly threw his four-seam fastball, his slider and his curveball, but he said he velocity was down. As he moves to the bullpen, Hoffman could lean more often on his slider, which has been his best pitch this season.
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“He has done it before, he has the stuff, he has the arm, he has the experience,” manager David Bell said. “You just never know how an adjustment like that or a different role can help him. It might help his stuff play a little bit different and a change of scenery to get him going. We have a need in the bullpen.”
ROSTER MOVE: After throwing two errant pitches on Friday night against the New York Mets, Reds reliever R.J. Alaniz was pulled from the game with a left calf strain. On Saturday, the Reds placed him on the 10-day injured list.
The Reds recalled infielder Max Schrock from Triple-A, where Schrock had a .333 batting average over his last seven games. Schrock was on the Reds 26-man roster for about a week in April and May, and this will be his first time back with the Reds since he injured his calf in an MLB game on May 31.
“He had a few injuries over the course of the year, and he has continued to hit and we like his at-bats both off the bench and hopefully getting some starts as well,” Bell said. “He has been playing a few different positions, and that will make starting more of a possibility because he can be moved around a little bit.”
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