Slade Cecconi Shares How He Transitioned to Bullpen and Who Helped Him

The former starting pitcher has excelled as a reliever and experienced quite a velocity bump along discovering new joys in pitching.

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Slade Cecconi (43) delivers a pitch on July 10, 2024 at Chase Field in Phoenix. / Owen Ziliak/The Republic / USA TODAY

On Monday afternoon, the Arizona Diamondbacks recalled Slade Cecconi from Triple-A Reno to serve as valuable bullpen depth due to a tired bullpen. Once a starter in the not-too-distant past, Cecconi has been excelling out of the bullpen.

As is usual, this time of year brings out fear of being traded for players. Just today, Lane Thomas of the Nationals was traded hours before his game and Justin Turner of the Blue Jays was traded mid-game. Thus, Cecconi had the same fears when he got the call.

"A lot happens this time of year, so I didn't know what the call was when I got the call, but I'm happy it was me staying here and being up here with the team and not somewhere else," Cecconi said.

Transitioning to the Bullpen

Over his three outings out of the bullpen, he twice pitched two innings. Over those five total innings, he gave up six hits, two runs, one walk, and seven strikeouts.

His fastball averaged 96.1 mph and topped out at 99 MPH. Batters whiffed on it 33.3% of the time. His slider averaged 86.4 MPH but just a whiff rate of 16.7%. Still, the D-backs wanted that slider above 85 MPH and he is achieving that. He has a curveball that averaged 83.5 MPH and had a whiff rate of 17.6%.

Cecconi has been getting lots of compliments and interest from his teammates over him throwing 99 MPH. "Yeah, 99. It's been the topic of conversation for the last hour since I've been here. It's bullpen, man. There are no saving bullets..."

"A lot of people. I guess word travels when you throw hard. I hit that, the first time I hit it, it was rounded up so I felt kind of guilty about saying it but then my last game in Reno I told the guys in the bullpen I needed to hit a true one today just so I can not feel guilty when people ask, so I got a true one, so it feels good. It's the hardest I've thrown."

The Mentality of the Bullpen Mindset

As for the mental aspect of pitching out of the bullpen, Cecconi shared how it's "all gas."

"I'm coming in and throwing my best stuff every pitch for 30-40 pitches in the middle relief role... it's easy for me to just step on the gas for those two innings I got. There's not a thought of saving anything. That's the different mentality."

It was noticed that he has barely thrown the changeup in the minors as compared to Majors and has been focused on fastball, slider and curveball, but Cecconi ensured that he didn't drop it. It's simply because he isn't facing left-handed batters much.

"I haven't ditched it completely, but there's just less times to throw it as a reliever than as a starter. It is a pitch I kind of use more exclusively for lefties and I haven't been facing a lot of lefties in my time down there. I'm certainly not abandoning it but I'm more looking for swing and miss and not as much weak contact."

His Mentor on Transitioning to Bullpen

An unlikely source has become Cecconi's trusted mentor as he began to become a reliever and moved to the bullpen with a new program. That mentor is Bryce Jarvis.

"I talk to Bryce almost every day even when I'm not here so he's a great guy. I actually texted him first when I got moved to the bullpen and I was asking him about notes from his program as a reliever because he's obviously been Mr. Do-It-All this year and been in every role out of the bullpen you can imagine. He's been fantastic so you know how he adjusted from a starter to reliever is definitely something I've taken notice of."

Manager Torey Lovullo spoke about how becoming a reliever was Cecconi's quickest path to getting back to the Diamondbacks. Plus, he compared him to a starter that picked up a lot of velocity out of the bullpen. This player became a dominant closer that led a team to the World Series in 2015 with Kansas City.

"He transitioned to the bullpen very well. I've been reading the reports and the things you've been hearing the extra velocity. It kind of reminds me of Wade Davis from Tampa... We explained this to him that this was a possibility that he could rejoin us quickly as a reliever than as a starter. He went down and grabbed an opportunity and been throwing the ball really well. It's coming out hot."

Cecconi is excited to be a reliever in the Major Leagues. He's ready for it and can't wait.

"I'm showing up every day knowing I could get in this ball game... Every day you show up to the ballpark knowing your number could get called. I like that. I think that's awesome. I love getting the adrenaline going."