Phillies closer Jhoan Duran’s new pitch, a split-changeup, is ‘something new for the league’
The pitch, which Duran threw growing up until he ditched it in the minor leagues, averages 89.2 mph. But it is not to be confused with the “splinker” that Duran has always thrown.
PITTSBURGH — When the Phillies faced the Colorado Rockies last week, Jhoan Duran caught up with old friend and former Minnesota teammate Willi Castro.
The Phillies closer teased Castro about striking him out in the series opener on May 8.
“He told me, ‘Yeah, because I don’t know what you throw to me, because you throw too many pitches,’” Duran said.
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Duran struck out Castro swinging on a 99.5 mph four-seamer elevated above the zone. But while trying to catch up to the blazing velocity, Castro also had to be ready for all of Duran’s other offerings.
And, as of this season, his arsenal has a new addition. It is officially designated a splitter by StatCast, but Duran considers it a changeup.
The pitch, which averages 89.2 mph, is not to be confused with the “splinker” that Duran has always thrown. His “splinker” has the depth of a splitter but the velocity of a sinker, averaging 97.3 mph.
The new pitch comes in much slower, and has 33.6 inches of vertical drop, often deceiving hitters who are expecting higher velocity. Duran has thrown it 13 times in a game entering Friday, and is confident throwing it to both lefties and righties. The pitch hasn’t allowed a hit yet and he has three strikeouts on it.
“It’s great for me,” Duran said. “Not good for the hitters.”
That includes in Thursday’s series finale against Boston, when he struck out three in the ninth to earn his seventh save of the year. He got Mickey Gasper looking on a perfectly placed, 91 mph split-change on the outside bottom corner of the zone.
Duran actually started throwing the pitch when he was 13, but ditched it when he got to the minor leagues. At the time, he was developing as a starting pitcher, and it was too similar to his splinker. But Duran decided to bring it back this year to add a different challenge for opposing teams.
“It’s something new for the league,” Duran said. “‘Oh, Duran throws a changeup or a splitter.’”
Duran’s arsenal now has five pitches: four-seam, splinker, split-change, sweeper, and curveball. But no matter what he’s throwing — even if it’s off-speed — his mentality is always to “think fastball.”
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“Because I want to throw hard, and I want to be in the zone,” Duran said. “I don’t want to throw the pitch over the zone, because they won’t swing if I do that. So, if I throw splitter middle-middle, it’ll look like it goes to the middle, but as soon as they swing, it goes down.”
Since recovering from an oblique strain and being activated from the injured list on May 5, Duran has a 1.80 ERA. He is a perfect 7-for-7 in save opportunities this year.
“His stuff’s always been good. I’ve seen him since Minnesota,” said interim manager Don Mattingly. “You don’t like him in the game [against you]. If he’s in the game, usually you’re in a bad spot.”
Extra bases
Adolis García got the day off Friday against Pirates righty Braxton Ashcraft. García was hitless in 12 at-bats in the series against Boston. “[García] was swinging the bat really good at home, and looked a little rough on that trip for the first part of this one. Just give him a day,” Mattingly said. Alec Bohm was back in the cleanup spot. … J.T. Realmuto had a preplanned day off, with Garrett Stubbs starting behind the plate. … Cristopher Sánchez (4-2, 2.11 ERA) is scheduled to start Saturday against Pirates righty Bubba Chandler (1-4, 4.62).