Mariners’ Marc Rzepczynski looking to be more than a lefty specialist
Mar 23, 2017, 6:00 AM | Updated: 9:27 am
PEORIA, Ariz. – On Wednesday, Mariners reliever Marc Rzepczynski made his seventh appearance of the spring without surrendering an earned run. For a veteran lefty specialist, Rzepczynski’s spring has been typical: get the arm ready, the pitches moving, progress to the up-downs, back to backs and then get the season going. Spring training bears little resemblance to what a lefty faces in season, though, as they tend to see many more right-handed hitters, but Rzepczynski sees this as an opportunity.
“Ninety-eight percent of (the lefties) in the league I have the same plan with,” said the eight-year veteran. “What I am going to do, what I am going to attack them with. It’s more facing the righties, it’s about trying to establish every pitch.”
Drayer: All eyes on Drew Smyly after stellar WBC performance
While Rzepczynski has primarily faced lefties in recent years, the Athletics and Nationals wanted him to pitch in longer stretches in his stints with those teams in 2016. That meant facing more right-handers, which meant he had to re-introduce a changeup to his sinker/slider repertoire.
“It’s a pitch I have always thrown, but it has gotten better,” he said. “In Cleveland and San Diego, throwing primarily to lefties, I put it in my back pocket. Having to throw to righties last year, I had to have something else. I had two pitches going one way or the other and they were picking half and going with it. To be able to try and speed them up and not hit my sinker to the right, it could speed them up and become an effective pitch, but sometimes it got away from me and that resulted in too many walks.”
While Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto acquired Rzepczynski to get left-handed hitters out, he is open to seeing how the changeup plays against righties.
“If it becomes a weapon for him, kind of like Nick Vincent last year. He changed his profile where he was able to manage getting lefties better than he had in years past. If he can do that there will always be opportunities,” Dipoto said. “But plan A for Zep is to make sure he is in a position to come in and get the lefties. If along the way he comes up with a special trick that allows us to get through a three-hitter stretch rather than flip them in and out or flip around the switch hitter, because he has command of that changeup, I think it’s a great thing.”
It will be interesting to see if Rzepczynski can pull a Vincent and change his profile a bit. Both he and Dipoto believe that increased confidence gained in throwing the changeup more last season could come into play.
“He has a good changeup,” Dipoto said. “It has nice sink to the bottom of the zone. You just have to be comfortable.”
“Last year, it was a matter of getting confidence in the pitch,” Rzepczynski said. “At times I was timid with it pitching to some righties and that’s where the walks came from, but with the experience I got last year, I’m not afraid to get anybody out in the league.”
