The Pitch that Changed Tim Mayza's Career and the Confidence it Brings

Tim Mayza found a new pitch, and it unlocked the bullpen weapon that now eats efficient innings for the Blue Jays

Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Sam Gaviglio pitched in 82 games for the Blue Jays from 2018 to 2020.

He posted a 7-13 record, released by Toronto with a 5.06 ERA out of the rotation and bullpen. Nearly two years after his final pitch for the Jays, Gaviglio now starts in the Dodgers' farm system. But, he still decides games for the Blue Jays—at least by association. 

A sinker/slider swingman, it was Gaviglio who taught Tim Mayza the two-seam pitch that's become such a dominant weapon out of the Toronto bullpen. As throwing partners in the 2019 season, Gaviglio and Mayza tinkered and toyed with the southpaw's new pitch, working with coaches and catchers to morph the standard two-seamer into the arm action and grip that now comprise the dominant delivery that changed Mayza's career.

Mayza had been a four-seam/slider guy his entire life before hitters began to adjust at the big-league level. In 2019, Mayza's strikeout rate was the lowest of his career and walk rate the highest. After two seasons in an MLB 'pen, hitters caught on to his pitch mix, laying off the slider for balls and capitalizing on the straight four-seamer.

"At the time, I wasn't missing many bats or barrels," Mayza said. "I wanted something that would run off a barrel, or just a different kind of look."

Working with Gaviglio, bullpen coach Matt Buschmann, and catcher Danny Jansen, Mayza toyed with grips for a new weapon until he found one that maximized control, comfort, and the depth he wanted. Pushing his outside finger just inside the second seam made for peak two-seam nastiness and the lefty found the diving arm-side run that now enters Blue Jays games in late innings.

Initially, the two-seamer was just a wrinkle for Mayza, only using it away to righties, inside on lefties. Hesitant to ditch the two pitches that had carried him his whole career, Mayza also understood the difficulty of spotting the two-seamer to both sides of the plate. If you miss with the pitch coming across the plate, the ball can easily run back into the heart of barrels.

He slowly worked the new pitch in during the second half of 2019 before his season ended early, falling to the ground at Rogers Centre with an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery. The injury kept Mayza off an MLB mound for 569 days, but he took the time off as a chance to reset—rethinking himself as a pitcher with a clean slate. He was still the two-pitch pitcher he'd always been, but those two pitches changed.

"Looking back and digging through numbers, the four-seam didn't generate a whole lot of positive results and positive feedback," Mayza said. "So what was there to lose?"

The results were immediate. Mayza didn't allow a single run in 2021 spring training in his return from surgery, and he finished the season with the sixth-highest two-seamer rate in baseball. Catching the pitch, Jansen called it one of the best in the game, and the .196 opponent batting average and -7 run value in 2021 seem to back up the claim.

“Once he got that pitch down," Jansen said. "Once he kind of found himself with that, he figured out who Tim Mayza really is.”

With the amended grip and usage, the lefty's pitch is a sort of hybrid between a two-seamer and sinker. It has heavy horizontal run high in the zone, like a traditional two-seam pitch, and dives below bats when he throws it low, like a sinker. With a hard weapon to miss bats and barrels, Mayza can embrace Toronto's bullpen philosophy of "getting busy in the zone," posting the fourth-highest first-pitch strike rate in baseball  (80%). Despite several multi-inning outings, Mayza has just one appearance over 14 pitches this season and his 3.11 pitches per plate appearance is the lowest on the team.

"Get in and out of at-bats," Mayza said. "Get ahead and put guys away when we have the chance."

Just two years ago, Mayza's confidence in his arsenal bottomed out. The strike rate was the lowest of his career, the walks peaked, and he just didn't have a weapon to miss MLB bats. But now, with some help from Gaviglio and an arsenal reset, Mayza believes in himself and his two-seamer—rightfully so.

"Confidence is developed over time," Mayza said. "I'm a believer that results breed confidence. When you see positive feedback and positive results on a pitch, it makes you more confident in throwing the pitch."