Bryce Jarvis Opens Up About Role Change and Pitching in Reno

The former first round pick was moved to the bullpen to finish the 2023 season to fill an organization need.

Bryce Jarvis was taken by the Diamondbacks in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft. In three years he has continued to make steady progress throughout the system, pitching from High-A to Triple-A. He's on the cusp of his major league debut with Arizona, albeit in a different role than originally imagined. Recently the organization has elected to move the former first rounder to the bullpen. 

The organization approached him with the idea two weeks ago, after his start against Round Rock on July 23rd, to fill a situational need in the organization for the rest of the season. The D-backs have lacked reliever capable of getting more than six outs since losing Drey Jameson to injury last month.

"They value me as a pitcher, no matter what the role is," said Jarvis. "It was something they saw, I can provide help to a big league bullpen much quicker than I can provide help to a starting rotation. I think there are still long term plans of me being a starter, but for the rest of this year it sounded like [their] main need was going to be bullpen."

The move had nothing to do with workload concerns, although Jarvis is just six innings short of his 2022 total at the time of this writing. When the organization informed him of the move Jarvis consulted his dad, Kevin. Kevin Jarvis made 118 starts and 69 relief appearances in the big leagues, including five appearances with Arizona in 2006.

"I had a pretty good conversation with him when the move came up. Obviously starting is where I feel like I want to be long term and he's on the same page as that. But we were looking back at some of the best starters in the game who got their feet wet out of the pen and it's a pretty common route to take."

Converting a starter to a reliever can be a difficult process. A reliever has to quickly be able to recover between outings, which some starters are unable to do. Future Hall of Famer and former Diamondback Max Scherzer is a famous example of that. Jarvis however has noted he can recover quickly, which is factored into why the organization was willing to ask him to change roles in July. The main changes in his routine have been moving a couple lifts around and no more midweek bullpens that normally happen on a starter's schedule.

"I've always been someone who recovers extremely well from my starts, especially this year. I've really not felt any fatigue or soreness at all, that was one of the things the D-backs had the ultimate confidence in. They said, 'we wouldn't be confident in very many people making the switch at this point in the year, but we have the ultimate faith in your physical preparation and everything you do off the field to handle this change in workload'."

Out of the bullpen, his average 4-seam fastball velocity has jumped from 95.0 MPH in his final two starts to 95.9 in his five relief appearances. Jarvis compared pitching as being "analogous to driving a car. You have a gas tank on the mound, you can let it eat a little more when you know the volume is going to be less. To know they only need me to throw one maybe two innings, 30-40 pitches, you can step on the gas a little bit."

The biggest lesson that Jarvis has learned is "really committing to being ahead in counts, attacking hitters from the get-go and putting myself in advantage situations". He noted sometimes with the notorious reputation that Amarillo and Reno have as extreme hitter-friendly parks, that pitchers can be scared out of filling up the strike zone. With the Automatic Ball-Strike system that the Pacific Coast League uses on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, that could cause pitchers to fall behind and feed that monster. 

"I think spending the last three years in two very hitter-friendly parks taught me that you don't have to be perfect to get outs. When guys first get to Amarillo or Reno, they've heard the reputations of pitches not moving as much, balls flying further when they get hit, and they try to do too much. I think some of my best outings in both places have come when I just trust that even though there is a penalty due to the environment, my stuff is good enough to get some of the best hitters out. Just trusting that being in the zone early in counts and taking your shots later is going to work like it always does."

As a pitching prospect who has handled some of the toughest challenges the minor leagues can offer, Jarvis' advice for pitchers coming up after him is "to understand that the results aren't always going to be pretty and that you've got to stay focused on the internal development and doing what you can to fine tune your pitches to work in environments when it's going to be more friendly and to not pay too much attention to the numbers". With Amarillo and Reno rated in the 100th and 91st percentile for total run environment by Baseball America, a high ERA at either level isn't that unusual for even the top pitching prospects.

When he makes his major league debut, Jarvis will join fellow pitching prospects Slade Cecconi and Brandon Pfaadt. All three pitchers were taken out of college in the shortened 2020 draft class. Throughout their journey to the majors, they've been teammates at each level.

"It's been nice to have a group of guys to develop with and come up through the ranks with. Any time you can see the same faces every day and develop those friendships and relationships, it's definitely helps create a more comfortable environment to come to work to every day."

Depending on how well the conversion process goes, we could see Jarvis make his MLB debut in the final month of the season. He is eligible for the Rule 5 Draft next December, but the D-backs will add him to their 40-man roster by November.