San Francisco Giants Former Top Prospect Has Made Successful Adjustments

After spending a couple years struggling in the Majors, this former San Francisco Giants top prospect made some big changes entering 2024, and they're working.

Apr 24, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Sean Hjelle (64) pitches the ball against the New York Mets during the third inning at Oracle Park. / Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants have had a long list of pitchers come up and make their debut over the past couple of years.

Kyle Harrison, Mason Black and Keaton Winn are pitchers that debuted in the last two seasons who fans were excited about, but have had their ups and downs.

Before them, Sean Hjelle was in that exact situation.

Taken in the second round in the 2018 draft out of the University of Kentucky, the right-hander was pretty consistently in the Top 10 of Giants prospects before his debut. Standing at a whopping 6-foot-11, Hjelle was a baseball outlier as soon as he was drafted. His minor league stats didn't pop off the screen, but he was putting up good numbers year after year.

He was called up to make his debut in 2022 at 25 years old and struggled mightily in eight games.

He struck out 28 batters in 25 innings, but pitched to a 5.76 ERA. In his sophomore campaign, things didn't get any better. His strikeout numbers went down and his ERA rose almost a full run to 6.52.

A starter his whole career, Hjelle has yet to start a big league game thus far, and after his first two seasons, he seemed to be a full time bullpen arm.

As a former starter, he looked like he was going to be a long relief option coming into 2024. Given his performance in the two prior years, though, even that job looked like it could be in jeopardy if he didn't turn it around.

So, over the offseason, he changed his repertoire, and it has paid big dividends.

A three pitch pitcher, he relied heavily on his sinker in 2023, with a minimal two percent bump in usage in 2024. He's still using it heavily, but that isn't what the big changes have been.

For one, his knuckle curveball usage has taken a considerable dip.

Last year, he threw that pitch 43.2 percent of the time and has dropped it to a 33.7 mark this season. Throwing it less has resulted in getting more whiffs as he's getting seven percent more on the pitch than he was previously. Getting a 41.5 whiff percentage has made it his best pitch to get batters out.

The biggest change he has made, though, is losing one pitch and adding a new one.

In 2023, the big right-hander was throwing his changeup 3.7 percent of the time, but he has now decided to cut that pitch entirely.

Instead, he is now throwing a cutter.

Not only did he add a completely new pitch, but he's throwing it more than he did the changeup, throwing it 12 percent of the time. It's a big change to add a completely new pitch, and in the time of the sweeper taking over the pitching world, Hjelle added an old school cut fastball.

Hjelle's new pitch mix has not only changed him as a pitcher on paper, but it's evident in watching him as well. He looks completely different than he did in 2023, and that is showing in his stat output.

In 21.1 innings, his ERA sits at 2.95, his walks are down from 4.0 to 1.7 per nine innings and his WHIP has dropped from 1.759 to 1.078.

Overall, his adjustments have made him a better pitcher and is now a real weapon as a long reliever for San Francisco.

In six of his 14 outings, he has gone multiple innings.

That will be big for the Giants, especially with the team dealing with starting rotation injuries.