Talk to Josh Winckowski and you get a pretty good idea why this is working. This is a roll-with-the-punches type of guy.
For Winckowski, when it comes to the whirlwind of the last year or so, it is what it is.
A Southwest Florida kid living in Maine while pitching for the Portland Sea Dogs? "I will say the lobster wasn’t quite what I expecting. I’ve done a few lobster rolls and they haven’t been bad, but people put them as this life-changing experience. I haven’t quite felt that so far," the 22-year-old told WEEI.com.
Getting traded twice in a matter of a month this offseason? "For the most part it’s kind of what I expected. It’s a change of scenery and whole new fan base that is super-passionate. It’s been a lot of fun. I think the Jays liked me but they didn’t love me. I definitely feel a little bit more love from the Red Sox. It’s been pretty awesome."
And, of course, there's the existence of being one of the two primary players the Red Sox got in return for Andrew Benintendi. "I definitely don’t want to underestimate the Blue Jays fans because they really do love, love baseball up there. Toronto being the only baseball team up there, you do have a whole country behind you. But the Red Sox fans definitely bleed pretty true. I still will occasionally get tagged in something that says, ‘Oh, Benintendi had a 3-for-4 night.’ I’m like, ‘Thanks. Yes, he’s a really good ballplayer.’"
Yes, until the three players-to-be-named-later are announced, Winckowski is the other guy in that trade. While Cordero's introduction into the Red Sox hasn't gone as planned -- with the outfielder now living life in Triple-A after a horrific start to the big-league season -- Winckowski has a dramatically different story.
Heading into his Friday night start, the righty starter has been dominant at Double-A, highlighted by his latest outing: Seven shutout innings with just one hit, nine strikeouts and not a single walk.
Winckowski, the kid whose previous immersion into other big leaguers before this spring training was as a high-schooler posing with David Ortiz in a Fort Myers suit shop, has opened eyes.
In five starts, he has a 1.33 ERA, giving up just four earned runs in his 27 innings.
"Getting off to a good start makes life easier," he said. "I’ve had some years where I have gotten off to a bad start and you’re fighting back the whole year."
This is no accident.
The transformation actually started more than a year ago, when Winckowski - a 15th-round pick in the 2016 MLB Draft - was still a semi-innocuous Blue Jays minor leaguer. The kid who came into pro ball had worked out feverishly heading into the 2020 season, changing a frame that had entered pro ball at 180 pounds to the point where he was now living in the 220's.
Suddenly, the fastball velocity had crept to the mid-90's, offering the image that has biggest difference-maker to what is currently transpiring. Sure, he gets the spin rate and other analytics. But all Winckowski knows is that more than ever, his four-seamer goes over bats and his two-seamer lands underneath them.
"The changeup definitely helps, but the fastball is a tick or two up this year," he noted. "If I have to be honest, I think it has been barreled twice this year. My fastball just feels at a whole different level right now. I’m just not giving up a lot of hits on it. Even if they are getting hits, it’s not super solid contact."
Oh yes, there is that changeup.
While it's nice to have that fastball, along with a pretty decent slider, it has been the changeup which perhaps is currently changing the pitcher's identity.
For years, Winckowski was told he couldn't survive as a starter with a change that crept into the 90's. Too hard. Not enough separation. And it wasn't just the Blue Jays' coaches who had that opinion. It was a narrative which he had to also fend off in his new surroundings this past spring training.
But, ultimately, there was acceptance. Now the Sea Dogs' starter is throwing the pitch he had previously put in his back pocket right around 25 percent of the time.
"Coaches will also say, ‘Well, Zack Greinke throws a hard changeup.’ Well, Zack Greinke flips a 69 mph curveball in there and I don’t. I don’t do that. I will manipulate my slider to get a little bit bigger at times but even that gets down to 83 at the worst, but mostly it’s at 86-87. So my entire range gets to 8-10 mph. But it has had really good action this year and I’ve been trusting it a little more and throwing it a bunch," Winckowski said of the circle change.
"If we were in person we could sit here for five minutes showing all the grips that I tried. Spring training I was literally throwing a palm ball. I put the ball on the ground, picked it up as deep in my hand as naturally as I could and I still threw it 87. I don’t know what it is.
"I don’t want to use the word frustrating, but coming to Boston and them not really knowing me, a lot of the discussions I had about my changeup were discussions I already had with the Blue Jays a couple of times. It had been a main focus with the Blue Jays for a while. I had tried a whole bunch of stuff. So talking to guys this year, there was some new stuff in the feedback that I got. But I really am throwing the same changeup that I had for a while. I’m just trusting it more I think. About the third game in my pitching coach was like, ‘You just need to throw it.’ ... The changeup has come into the picture. It’s been a pitch I really haven’t had confidence in or trusted to throw. But this year I’m mixing it in. The changeup has carried the off speed stuff."
And throw it he has.
The pitcher who made his presence felt in major league spring training - (as was evident by Matt Barnes' praise after watching the minor-leaguer warm up. "That was pretty cool," admitted Winckowski) - is keeping the momentum going.
He is heeding the advice he got from the big leaguers in March whose message, was Winckowski remembered, was simply, "‘Trust your stuff and attack hitters.’ That was the message of spring training. They see guys with really good stuff get shaken around a little bit and they don’t trust themselves anymore, not wanting to attack the zone. They said that’s probably the biggest key to having success in the big leagues."
It's working.
At this rate, it might not be too long before we start calling it the "Josh Winckowski Trade". For the kid from Florida, and the Red Sox, that wouldn't be such a bad thing.