Pablo López knows the precise moment he transformed from a pretty good pitcher into one of the nastiest starters in baseball and a strong candidate to be this season’s American League Cy Young Award winner.
Standing in the bullpen last May during a mid-start session in Anaheim, Calif., the Minnesota Twins’ right-hander was engrossed in a conversation with pitching coach Pete Maki on how to properly throw the sweeper.
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Roughly three months earlier, the Twins had asked López to incorporate the pitch into his mix after he arrived in a high-profile offseason trade that shipped Luis Arraez to the Miami Marlins. They viewed the sweeper as a better version of the cut fastball López was throwing that batters knocked around.
Though López was eager to try and had already determined the pitch’s shape, he occasionally found the grip uncomfortable and struggled to grasp the release point.
“I was too much in my head with the pitch,” López said. “I wanted it bigger.”
He had produced some good moments by that point in the season, but not enough for his taste. Whereas Arraez was flirting with a .400 average in Miami, López carried a 4.00 ERA through May 15.
López was throwing the sweeper 22 percent of the time, but with negative results. The pitch had a minus-2.8 run value, meaning it was being used to his detriment.
During their session, Maki suggested López needed to throw the sweeper harder; the shape was already good and making the pitch bigger would lead to a decrease in velocity, which would diminish its effectiveness.
“We wanted more power and strikeability,” said Maki. “I think that was the cue there. He was working too much around the ball.”
López listened to the suggestion and made the switch. He immediately felt a difference.
“That’s when it clicked for me,” López said. “It’s thrown the same way. It’s a different grip, but the seams are doing the work for you.”
Two days later, López pitched against the Los Angeles Angels.
Though he took the loss after allowing two earned runs in six innings, López had vastly improved stuff. Suddenly, he could pair a sweeper with a much-improved fastball and the rest of his well-rounded repertoire. The overwhelming combination allowed López to generate a then-season-high 19 swings-and-misses in 101 pitches, resulting in nine strikeouts.
“Across the board, his velo was up and the sweeper in particular was absolutely lethal,” Twins pitching development and acquisitions specialist Matt Daniels said.
Pablo López, Nasty 84mph Sweeper. 😨 pic.twitter.com/oFWeYUBmMI
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 2, 2023
The results weren’t fleeting, either.
López saw immediate improvement with his sweeper, which carried an outstanding plus-6 run value by the season’s end. He earned an All-Star nod and led the league in strikeouts, establishing a career high with 234.
More importantly, López developed into the full-blown ace the Twins had hoped he’d become. Over the final two months of the regular season and postseason, López went 8-2 with a 2.42 ERA and 84 strikeouts in 78 innings across 13 starts, including two dominant playoff victories.
“He was really accomplished coming in,” Maki said. “We knew that. And he had such a great year. It was awesome. Simply put, it was outstanding.”
When they traded Arraez on Jan. 20, 2023, the Twins knew they acquired a good pitcher in López, who’d posted a 3.52 ERA with 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings from 2020-22.
But the Twins believed López could be even better. They demonstrated their belief by extending his contract through the 2027 season after he made only four starts with the team.
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The plan to develop López into a top-15 starting pitcher involved swapping out a decent cut fastball for a sweeper with massive strikeout potential. They just had to convince him.
“It can be (a difficult conversation) if it’s not handled right, if you take it personal,” López said. “You’re in a room with people telling you that you’re not good enough, that you’re not doing something right. … It’s about understanding the nature of the conversation.”
López approached the discussion with an open mind.
During a team-wide miniature-golf outing in spring training, teammates Carlos Correa and Christian Vázquez introduced López to Daniels. After spending several days together in camp, Correa was fascinated by Daniels’ knowledge of pitch tunneling and pitch design. Once Daniels and López got to talking, they didn’t stop.
Daniels listened as López described previously making a two-day trip to Driveline Baseball for an assessment. He also knew López, who’d lost 25 pounds in the offseason after changing his diet and was throwing his fastball harder than ever, continued to throw a cutter he developed in Miami.
“I explained to him, ‘Based on how you move, here’s why we think you could have real aptitude to do this,’” Daniels said. “If you have a good rationale for something, he’s very receptive to information. He’s like, ‘Yeah, let’s try it.’”
Daniels’ no-nonsense presentation helped López quickly grasp the concept. Over the previous three seasons, López’s cut fastball had a total run value of one. But he rarely used the pitch, throwing it less than 10 percent of the time in two of the three seasons and maxing out at 13.5 percent in 2021.
López rarely got strikeouts with the cutter, putting away hitters only 10.9 percent of the time with it in 2022. The Twins believed he would use the sweeper more frequently and produce strikeouts at a higher clip.
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“They’re not telling me I’m not good,” López said. “They’re telling me I could be better, that there’s a next level that I can find that’s going to help give me options. It’s going to help me make my job easier at staying unpredictable, giving myself more opportunities to attack batters from different angles and different situations.”
Daniels informed Maki of his conversation with López. From there, the Twins’ pitching team went to work.
First, they began to experiment with different grips whenever López played catch. Then he began to incorporate the pitch in bullpen sessions. Within two weeks, López introduced the pitch in an exhibition game.
“We can make recommendations to any of our pitchers, but they then have to buy in and go do it,” Maki said. “And he did it.”
A month in, Daniels was optimistic about the pitcher’s process when López unleashed several nasty sweepers in a dominant performance for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic on March 13, 2023. But for as many times as López had success, others brought frustration.
“It took me a while,” López said. “They gave me the grip. It was an unfamiliar grip. It was a little uncomfortable. I would throw and the thing would be nowhere near the zone. I needed to get it in my head: ‘The movement’s right. The location is not.’”
López experimented with several grips in catch-play and bullpen sessions until he found one that seemed to work. Whether it was Daniels shooting grainy footage with his iPhone during catch or the cameras monitoring every bullpen session, López and the Twins gathered data to determine the best grip. The one they settled on was related to López’s curveball.
“You’re trying to get the concepts of how the ball is being released and how it’s spinning,” Daniels said. “They were a little inconsistent. It just had to do with the consistency of his release.”
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Despite the inconsistency, López began to frequently throw the sweeper.
In his second spring start, he threw 14 sweepers in 45 pitches, according to Baseball Savant. López, who was preparing for the WBC, quickly learned he needed to manage his expectations.
“You can’t be looking for two things at once because you’re going to get frustrated and disappointed,” López said. “OK, let me focus on the movement. The movement is good, it’s getting more consistent. Now, I’ve got to shift my eyes and my target and get it in the zone. The plate is 15 inches. The ball is moving 15 inches. I have to shift my eyes 15 inches this way so it lands. Little nuances like that. I would say it was a month-to-two-month process.’”
COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT. 🔥
What a performance by Pablo Lopez 👏
(via @BallySportsNOR)pic.twitter.com/WdTxDmsfoZ
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 6, 2023
Still, López wouldn’t feel totally comfortable until that bullpen session in Anaheim.
“(Maki) said, ‘Tell yourself that it’s basically a cutter with a different grip,’” López said. “I’m like, ‘I never thought about it that way.’ Two days later, I’m pitching and I’m thinking about it like a cutter. It was moving the way it was supposed to, but it was harder than ever before.”
Correa immediately smiled when reflecting upon López’s development. His smile widened as he talked about the pitcher’s 2023 season.
“I had probably one of the best seats in the house,” Correa said. “It was just so much fun to watch.”
From the moment it clicked in Anaheim, López’s sweeper became an out pitch.
Before Anaheim, López’s sweeper averaged 83.6 mph. For the rest of the season, he increased the average velocity to 84.7 mph. Hitters went from producing a .278 weighted on base average against López’ sweeper down to .184.
Whereas the sweeper was valued at minus-2.8 runs over López’s first nine starts, it registered at plus-8.7 in the final 23. Nine of López’s top 15 strikeout performances of the season occurred after his mental adjustment that day and the physical adjustments over time.
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“It was different, but it was fun different,” López said. “Obviously, everyone would prefer getting one out with one pitch, but there are times you’re looking for a strikeout. … It’s about being aggressive, but then being committed. Once you have the opportunity, go for it. And I had the right plans to explore those options.”
Learning how to properly throw the sweeper wasn’t a cure-all. Even after he figured out how to throw it, López wanted to do so all the time, even on days it wasn’t working.
López’s “stubbornness” led to four rough starts in his final 23 turns, outings that prevented him from producing eye-popping numbers. In those four games, López accrued a 9.70 ERA. In his other 19 starts to end the season, López produced a 2.42 ERA.
“The times I would get in trouble was when I was not feeling it that day, which was natural because it was a new pitch,” López said. “I would force myself to try and try and try. It was funny because sometimes (Maki) would come and say, ‘You don’t have that pitch today. But guess what? You didn’t have it for four years. So go out today and pitch the way you did for the last two or three years.’”
But those new mental adjustments created by learning the sweeper helped López in critical future spots.
As he warmed up in the bullpen in Houston before Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Oct. 8, López realized the sweeper wasn’t very good that day. Rather than force himself to get it right, López reverted to the pitcher he previously was and dominated Houston with his fastballs and a changeup, striking out seven batters over seven scoreless innings. He earned the victory and announced to the world he’d become an ace.
Swing & a miss 🔥
Pablo Lopez keeps the Astros off the board!
📺: @FS1 pic.twitter.com/ROtthFlD5Q
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 9, 2023
After watching him from shortstop all last season, Correa finally had a chance to face López in live batting practice earlier this spring. He understands why López is listed among the betting favorites to be the AL Cy Young Award winner.
“It just looks like a fastball,” Correa said of the sweeper. “When he throws it for a strike, it looks like it’s going to hit you and then it lands for a strike. The one that’s for chase, it’s a fastball middle-middle until it’s not. Then he has the curveball, the changeup, sinker. He’s got so many plus-pitches that he can get you out with anything, and that’s what makes him so special. He’s not just a two-pitch-mix guy.”
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Daniels pointed out it’s not only the sweeper, but also how López improved his diet, which helped him recover better between starts and led to a 1.4 mph increase in fastball velocity. It all helped López take meaningful steps and become the pitcher Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey had hoped he was when they traded away Arraez.
“We had a vision for what he could be,” Falvey said. “Now we’re a year later and we have a much better, complete picture of what we hoped Pablo would be, what he’s turned into and what he is.”
(Top photo of Pablo López: Brace Hemmelgarn / Minnesota Twins / Getty Images)
