When Carlos Rodón returns to the mound tonight — the 30-year-old New York Yankees southpaw has been out all season with forearm and again points — he’ll be doing so with one in every of baseball’s best-known sliders. Lengthy his signature pitch, it has contributed closely to his success, which features a 2.67 ERA, a 2.42 FIP, and a 12.23 Okay/9 price between the 2021 and ’22 campaigns. Way back to 2016, former FanGraphs columnist (and now Tampa Bay Rays analyst) Jeff Sullivan in contrast Rodón’s slider to the one thrown by future Corridor of Famer Clayton Kershaw.

Harkening again to my Studying and Growing a Pitch collection, which has been on hiatus since final July, I just lately requested Rodón for the story behind his slider.

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Carlos Rodón: “The slider I throw now is identical one I threw in faculty. Earlier than I acquired to [North Carolina State University], it was extra of a slurve. My pitching coach in faculty was Tom Holliday, and he thought that I ought to throw a tougher breaking ball versus one which was extra curvish/slurvish. He stated, ‘Let’s attempt to make this nearer to a real slider,’ confirmed me a grip, then stated, ‘I would like you to throw this as laborious as you may.’ I did, and from there it didn’t take very lengthy to turn into the breaking ball I’ve now. It fell into my arsenal fairly simply.

“The grip isn’t a standard slider grip. The tracks of the ball, above the horseshoe — each horseshoes — such as you’re throwing a two-seamer… you spin it such as you’re going straight perpendicular throughout [the seams]. You’re crossing them, after which my leverage is on that subsequent horseshoe. The leverage is with my center finger, and whereas that’s conventional, the grip itself is sort of unorthodox. It’s not like I’m on only one seam. It’s laborious to elucidate, however I’m sort of above it.

“You hear guys discuss throwing it like a soccer, however I truly preserve that fastball-like orientation in my hand, after which all of it occurs upon launch. Once I come by the supply, I’m considering the underside a part of my hand goes hit my leg, hit my proper thigh.

“[The movement profile] is round eight horizontal, and vertical it’s on the zero line or simply under. I feel the largest factor once I throw it’s my sightline. I need to tunnel it with my fastball. My tunnel is like outer third. That’s the place I need to begin the pitch, and clearly it’s not going to finish up there due to the horizontal break and, after all, gravity. So I do know the place I need to begin it, after which gravity and physics are going to take management of the remainder.

“There are variations to my slider. I can get 12–13 horizontal, or I can add depth and make it extra of a downer, getting extra adverse vert out of it and getting under the zero line. It’s mainly about hand manipulation. With the baseline slider I throw, I’m principally behind the pitch with some gyro. If I would like extra horizontal, I begin considering a bit of extra to the facet of the ball upon launch. If I would like extra downward, it’s extra like I’m throwing it nearly like a cutter. It’s extra fastball hand place, and I’m going extra by it.

“Once I throw a foul slider… the largest miss is often once I hit a righty within the foot. I’ll pull it, and will probably be quick; will probably be a 58-foot breaking ball as a substitute of creating it to the plate. I feel one of the simplest ways for me to repair the miss is the sightline I discussed. I’ve to decide to driving that pitch to its start line. Mainly, I can’t take into consideration the place it’s going to finish up. I’ve to decide to the place I’m going to begin it. It’s principally a matter of focus.

“There are occasions the place… we discuss overthrowing. I overcook the pitch, making an attempt to do an excessive amount of with it. I need to throw it laborious, however you additionally don’t need to overthrow it, as a result of that takes away from the profile of the pitch. I’ve a fairly good one, so I don’t need to get away from what makes it good.”