The Evolution of Manaea's Slider Continues

A new grip inspired by pitching coach Scott Emerson has Sean Manaea getting more movement from his slider as pitch experimenting continues in Athletics spring camp.

It seems that A’s starter Sean Manaea isn’t willing to rest on his laurels after his 2019, when he came back from shoulder surgery to go 4-0 with a 1.21 ERA down the stretch.

In the eternal battle that see pitchers making little fixes to win the duel with hitters, the left-hander is tinkering with both his fastball and his slider.

He told the East Bay Times that he’s not just trying to throw the slider a little differently, he’s breaking out a new grip. It was inspired by a conversation with pitching coach Scott Emerson.

Emerson’s suggestion was for Manaea to incorporate the grip he’d been using to throw his two-seam fastball, and then rotate it. That leaves his index and middle fingers perpendicular to the seams rather than resting on them.

Manaea tried it out the new grip Friday against the Reds in Mesa. He’d used it in Las Vegas last weekend, but it was Friday’s showing that made Manaea a convert to the new way of doing things.

“It felt really good,” Manaea said of the grip, which in some ways resembles that of the grip a pitcher would use to throw a cutter. “I just want to continue throwing that. My other one was a little slow. This one just feels really good.”

Mix this in with the changes that are leading to better location with the fastball that hit 94 mph on the speed gun Friday, and Manaea is building up to what he hopes will be a breakout year.

Manaea, the first-round draft pick of the Royals who was sent to the A’s in the Ben Zobrist trade deadline deal of 2015, won 12 games in both 2017 and 2018 before his shoulder problems.

If the A’s are going to have the season they expect after back-to-back 97-win seasons, Manaea is going to need to be a big part of hit. The lefty’s three-quarters delivery and his 6-foot-5 frame are particularly tough on left-handed hitters when he’s on, and it’s difficult for men in either batter’s box to immediately pick the ball up out of his hand.

He can be dominant when he changes speeds and mixes in a full complement of pitchers – a mid-90s fastball, an 80-mph slider and an 81-mph changeup.

Last September showed what can happen when he pitches in rhythm. He was dominant in five consecutive starts. But in 2017 and 2018 he’d have stretches where he simply couldn’t repeat his pitches, and when that happened, all of his pitches suffered.

Beyond his pitches, the A’s love his competitiveness and his attitude.

“If you know Sean and you are around him,” manager Bob Melvin said in the waning days of Manaea’s streak last September. “he’s in the same mood every day you can’t tell if it’s pitch day or an in-between day for him. He’s one of the guys everybody rallies around. An infectious personality.

“Every time out, it was borderline dominance.”

The A’s would love nothing better than for Melvin to be able to say that again this season.