HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Martin Maldonado wanted to switch things up. Shohei Ohtani was ready and hacking when Framber Valdez delivered a first pitch fastball with his first pitch on opening day in Anaheim, so to give the reigning American League MVP a different look, the Astros catcher called for a cutter to start the game at Minute Maid Park 12 days later. This time Ohtani took it for a strike. Valdez did not pitch well that night, but his new cutter was a bright spot.
“The cutter is a pitch that I like,” Valdez said through a translator after surrendering six runs in 4.1 innings during a 7-2 loss. “I’ve been throwing it a lot to lefties, and I think it’s helped me a lot, especially in the zone, and it is a pitch I’m going to continue throwing.”
Feeling like he needed another weapon against left-handed hitters, Valdez developed the cutter during the offseason but had barely shown it during his first two starts of 2022. Of the 84 pitches he threw on opening day, only two were cutters, and he didn’t throw it at all in a 75-pitch start against the Diamondbacks on April 13. He went to his cutter eight times in 80 pitches on Tuesday in his second start against the Angels.
Ohtani and Brandon Marsh were the only lefties in Joe Maddon’s lineup, and they were the only hitters to see Valdez’s cutter and they saw it on almost half of the 17 pitches he threw to them. 7-of-8 were thrown for a strike, and three of those strikes were swing and misses. Maldonado explained why that is an effective pitch for him.
“I think it’s something moving away (from the hitter),” he said. “His fastball is moving into a lefty, something moving away, I think that’s how you play the cross game with his pitches. It’s become a pretty good pitch and it’s thrown for a strike and that’s the main thing. You throw that pitch for a strike people have to start respecting that.”
Valdez had a career-year across the board in 2021, finishing with a 3.14 ERA in 134.2 innings, but lefties finished with a .717 OPS against him compared to .626 against righties. He only attacked them with two pitches: Fastballs and curveballs. Of the 386 pitches he threw to left-handed hitters, 381 were one of those two pitches, the other five pitches were changeups and none were thrown for a strike. He was fastball/curveball heavy against righties, but he was able to mix in a changeup 14.5 percent of the time, which is exactly how often he's throwing his cutter to lefties through three starts this season.
“I think every player, every big leaguer, is always willing to get better,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado didn’t think Valdez necessarily needed to add another pitch to his repertoire, but with his fastball moving in against lefties and his curveball breaking down, the cutter made sense, and with the early success he’s had with it, you can expect to see him throw it more.