Pedro Martinez Explains How Young Red Sox Hurler Can Take Next Step

Martinez will be a huge aid for this talented righty in spring training

Scott Neville | Oct 31, 2022

Pedro Martinez Explains How Young Red Sox Hurler Can Take Next Step /

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Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox's 2022 season can be looked at as a tryout for young players amid an injury-plagued year where postseason contention was ruled out early on.

One of the first pitchers to earn a shot last season was Josh Winckowski. The 24-year-old went 5-7 with a 5.89 ERA, 44-to-27 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a .300 batting average against in 70 1/3 innings pitched across 15 appearances (14 starts).

The eye test would indicate that he was better than his numbers, as would his 4.84 expected ERA and 4.95 FIP, but there was one massive flaw in his game.

Winckowski ended the season in the second percentile in both chase and whiff rate, and in the third percentile for strikeout rate. In other words, he couldn't generate swings-and-misses if his life depended on it.

I asked Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez if there was anything Winckowski could do to increase his chase and whiff rates.

"There are some things that could be done, but it takes a lot of work," Martinez said on Friday. "Sometimes people misjudge how difficult it is to improve one pitch, to improve on one area of pitching."

The Hall of Famer then dove into some specifics as to how Winckowski can optimize his skillset.

"He needs a lot more pitch movement, he needs to create bigger gaps between some of the pitches." Martinez said. "Hopefully we'll be able to work and pinpoint those areas and find ways to improve on those with the talent he has."

To Martinez's point, Winckowski does feature too many parallels with his current repertoire. The 24-year-old throws a sinker (38.4% usage), slider (28.6%), four-seam fastball (12.9%), cutter (10.3%) and changeup (9.8%).

His fastball and sinker only have a 0.3 mph difference, and his sinker doesn't have enough movement to drastically differentiate the two.

However, Winckowski's biggest issue, and likely the main point Martinez was alluding to, is his lack of contrast between his cutter and slider. The cutter is thrown just 3.8 mph harder with similar horizontal movement. His slider has significantly more vertical drop, which really is the lone difference between the two pitches. To make matters worse, he tends to only throw both pitches to the right side of the plate.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Josh Winckowski Slider — Savant IllustratorBaseball IllustratorSlider vs. Cutter Heatmap

Boston Red Sox pitcher Josh Winckowski Cutter — Savant IllustratorBaseball IllustratorSlider vs. Cutter Heatmap

It's very easy for hitters to key in on the right side of the plate and wait on either of the two offerings without even needing to identify which one is coming due to the similarities in velocity and movement.

While the best approach would be to create stark contract between the cutter and slider this offseason, he'd also benefit greatly from throwing to both sides of the plate.

There's a good chance Martinez will work on these concerns with Winckowski in spring training, as he plans to focus his attention on the younger arms on the roster.

The sixth annual Pedro Martinez Foundation Gala will be held on Nov. 11 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel with celebrities such as former Boston Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek and San Diego Padres superstar Juan Soto scheduled to be in attendance. To find out more about the event and/or purchase tickets, click here.

More MLB: Pedro Martinez Names Red Sox Pitchers He Plans To Work With In Spring Training

Published Oct 31, 2022

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu