Detroit — This is hell right now for Tigers’ reliever Kyle Finnegan. It’s a level of hell most relievers have been through before. But he couldn’t have picked a worse time to fall into it.
“Even at the beginning of the year, I didn’t like the way I was throwing,” said Finnegan, who has a career-high eight blown saves and is giving up home runs at a career-high pace. “But I was preventing runs, so it was like, OK, let’s ride this out. But finally it’s come to a head. It’s time to make it right.
“I haven’t been doing my job the last two or three weeks. I am trying to find a way to get better.”
Finnegan, who signed a two-year, $19 million deal with the Tigers in December, finds himself in the unenviable position of trying to make serious mechanical changes in real time against big-league hitters at the height of the Tigers’ playoff chase.
Brutal.
“There’s things I’ve been working on, things I’ve been seeing in my delivery that have been trending in the wrong direction for a little bit now,” he said. “We’ve been trying little things to correct it. But it’s hard enough to get guys out when everything is going good, let alone when you are working on stuff.
“I just have to push through it. I think what we have identified is the right thing. I just have to make it through this period of adjustment and continue to compete and get outs and help us win games while trying to fix myself.”
Finnegan, in 50 games, has a career-high 5.5% walk rate and career-high 3.8% home run rate (1.5 per nine innings). That’s a cause-and-effect that’s at the heart of his struggles.
“The miss or middle style makes you vulnerable to damage,” manager AJ Hinch said.
Evidence A: Finnegan has allowed five home runs since July 2. All of them have been slugged over 400 feet and four of them have come on middle-of-the-plate, four-seam fastballs.
The 428-footer he gave up to Jo Adell Tuesday night was on a center-cut 96 mph heater. But that heater came after he had Adell in a 0-2 hole. He missed with two non-competitive fastballs and got a foul ball on a slider.
If he was right, he’d probably have gone with his splitter. Instead, he came back with another heater.
“It’s maddening sometimes,” Hinch said. “So many times this year we’re talking about him walking guys. Then he doesn’t walk a guy. He comes in the middle and Jo Adell hits it out and we’re like, ‘Oh, he could’ve been a little more fine there.’ Well, which way do you want it?
“You want both. You want the executed pitch that doesn’t leave the ballpark.”
The primary issue isn’t the fastball itself. It’s still an elite pitch, in terms of velocity and metrics. But as the season has gone on, Finnegan’s splitter, which has been his swing-and-miss weapon, has gone flat. To the point where hitters are barely honoring it and staying on his heater.
“It’s more the way I’m delivering the ball,” Finnegan said. “It’s affecting the movement on my splitter so it’s not quite as depthy as it’s been. It’s harder to make it look like a strike-to-ball pitch and get that swing. It’s more straight, flatter. Things we’ve been working on hopefully will fix two things at once.”
Part of the fix is getting back to hiding the ball better before he delivers the pitch. He’s lost some of the deception in his delivery.
“Over the last two weeks I’ve been trying little things, like band-aids, kind of, to get through,” he said. “It’s a work in progress. I’d like to think I can compete without my best stuff. But for us to get where we need to go, I’ve got to be better and figure out a way to work through this.”
With Will Vest out for the season, Hinch has had to lean on several different relievers in leverage situations ahead of de facto closer Kenley Jansen. Lefties Tyler Holton and Drew Sommers have stepped up impressively. Right-hander Jacob Waguespack has allowed two earned runs in 21.1 innings in his last 16 games.
But the Tigers’ best bullpen has Finnegan getting high-leverage outs late in games.
“It’s been a bizarre year for him and one we don’t think is going to continue because of the talent and the execution and the work,” Hinch said. “But, man, he’s had to go through it. With both spraying it and putting himself in harm’s way and with middle-middle pitches that are leaving the yard. He’s not a happy camper with how things have ended up for him.
“But there’s a ton of trust. With relievers, he can flip it in a pitch or two. We can get this right and he can be a real big part of this.”
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers’ Kyle Finnegan opens up about fighting through brutal stretch
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris McCosky, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
