What Ryan Pressly is working to correct after a historically bad outing

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CHICAGO — Just as it seemed the Cubs had finally found a group of trusted relievers, their veteran closer delivered a historically bad performance on Tuesday evening. In the 11th inning of a 14-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants, Ryan Pressly faced eight batters, all of whom reached base and eventually scored.

It was a disastrous outing that raised questions about Pressly’s effectiveness, particularly his ability to miss bats. Before Wednesday’s 3-1 loss to the Giants — a game in which five relievers worked four shutout frames — pitching coach Tommy Hottovy met with reporters at Wrigley Field.

Hottovy suggested Pressly needed to get more in-game work regardless of the situation. But did that mean Pressly’s struggles were pushing him out of a high-leverage role for the time being?

“No,” Hottovy said. “I just think we have to get him consistent work. That’s the bottom line.”

Pressly has issued walks to 12.1 percent of batters, well above his career rate of 7.2 percent. In his 12 previous years in the big leagues, he had just one season with a walk rate above 9 percent (10.1 percent in 2015). He has also given up a .327 batting average and an .869 OPS.

But Pressly’s biggest issue is the lack of strikeouts. On Tuesday, he threw 26 pitches and drew just one whiff. On the season, Pressly’s swinging-strike rate is 5.7 percent and his strikeout rate is 8.1 percent. Those numbers were 12.6 and 23.8 percent, respectively, last season and peaked at 17.7 and 35.7 percent, respectively, in 2022.

Among eligible relievers, only one has a worse strikeout rate and three have a worse swinging-strike rate. Pressly’s fastball is down a half tick in miles per hour from last year, continuing a recent trend. But he’s never been heavily reliant on velocity, mainly because he has two plus breaking balls, both of which seem to be spinning similarly to the past.

Hottovy doesn’t believe it’s a stuff issue. Rather, it’s that hitters are picking up Pressly’s pitches earlier than they used to.

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“I believe in deception factors that don’t maybe show up in normal mechanical breakdowns or even in pitch data,” Hottovy said. “He can have good pitch data, but I do believe there are some mechanical things that hitters are just seeing the ball a little early. When you can have good pitch data, good velocity, but a hitter sees it a tick early, whether it’s subconscious or they’re actually picking it up, it just gives them more time.”

Hottovy said this problem is different than tipping pitches.

“Tipping would be more where they literally know what’s coming,” Hottovy said. “We’re on top of making sure that’s not happening. He’s very astute of what he’s doing. Not to say there aren’t minor things that pop up. But I’m thinking more about how the delivery happens. When a guy’s front shoulder flies open early, that shows the hitter and gives them more time.”

Hottovy also believes that hitters are very familiar with how Pressly pitches. He wants hitters to chase his breaking balls down. They know that. Hottovy wants to combat that by having Pressly use his fastball up in the strike zone more often.

Pressly had his right knee drained on April 22 to relieve some discomfort. On Tuesday night, both Pressly and manager Craig Counsell said that wasn’t an issue, and Hottovy reiterated that the veteran is feeling healthy. But Hottovy did say that they lost some time to get work in while the knee was bothering him.

“It’s the balance,” Hottovy said. “‘Ok, what do I need to do today to get better but also be available to pitch?’ And when you’re dealing with a knee, a physical ailment, that’s gonna shut down a lot of the work you do. Let’s make sure you feel good. We probably missed a week there where we weren’t getting the consistent work that we wanted to get in.”

It’s also likely that while Pressly’s knee was hurting, he came out of his normal delivery as he tried to compensate for the issue.

“He’s feeling great with the knee,” Hottovy said. “What always happens when you deal with lower-body, minor injuries is mechanics — you form bad habits. So it’s kind of like, ‘I feel good now, now I have to work back through all the habits I was kind of compensating for.’ We see that with guys with these types of injuries.”

Tuesday marked just Pressly’s third appearance in two weeks. The combination of the knee being drained then the Cubs not playing many close games lately led to a lack of consistent work. That is something Hottovy expects to change as they look to get Pressly in games more often, regardless of the score, so he can get locked in with his mechanics.

“There’s going to be opportunities where ‘Hey, if you haven’t thrown in a couple days, we need to get your work day in,’” Hottovy said. “It might not be a high-leverage situation, but we need to get the reps. Because he’s going to be better down the road by pitching more. We just gotta kind of figure out how to navigate that in a series.”

The good news for the Cubs is that they have multiple relievers pitching well at the moment. They’ve all had hiccups, but they seem to have hit strides. Porter Hodge would be the obvious choice to get saves if Pressly is removed from the role — either temporarily or permanently.

Daniel Palencia, Brad Keller, Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz also have been strong. Julian Merryweather has been solid and Gavin Hollowell has been effective in his brief stint. The Cubs, like most contenders, will also likely be looking for relief help at the July 31 trade deadline.

Ultimately, the Cubs would love for Pressly to regain his deception and find his best self. But it appears they may have options to fill his role if he can’t. They know that regardless if it works or not, Pressly is going to do whatever he can to regain his effectiveness.

“The best part about Ryan was he was here at 8 o’clock (Wednesday) morning to go out to the bullpen and do dry work,” Hottovy said. “As a coach, you want to be around those guys who want to continue to get better, who do whatever they have to do to do what’s best for them and the team. For him to take that rough night, he’s like, ‘I didn’t sleep last night anyway, let’s get to work.’”

(Photo of Pressly, left: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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