Kyle Gibson sees progress as he tries to control his newest pitch - a cutter

NORTH PORT, Fla. — When Kyle Gibson was asked if he’d like to make a road start versus the Atlanta Braves on Sunday afternoon, his answer was an immediate “yes.” The Phillies right-handed starter had spent his entire offseason trying to throw his cutter to both sides of the plate, and was eager to test it out against some professional hitters. Gibson figured that because it was a home game for Atlanta, he’d see some of their better players, and he was right; his first four at-bats were against Orlando Arcia, Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson, and Marcell Ozuna. His next three were against Adam Duvall, Travis d’Arnaud, and Michael Harris.

In two innings and 25 pitches, the lone minor leaguer he faced was Jesse Franklin, an outfielder/first baseman who hasn’t ventured past high-A. Gibson made quick work of him, firing his arm-side cutter to strike out the lefty swinging.

He made quick work of some established major league hitters, too. Olson, a 2021 AL All-Star who was recently traded to the Braves by the A’s, whiffed in the first inning. For that one, Gibson didn’t change much, firing off a sequence he’d used against the first baseman before: a few fastballs, hard and in, followed by a well-placed curveball. After eight MLB seasons, Gibson is wary of repeating his sequences. He says that this one worked, because his fastball was sharp today, but that he usually tries to keep hitters on their toes.

“Every now and then I’ve fallen in love with a certain pitch in certain situation, so I try to do avoid doing that,” he said after the Phillies’ 5-1 loss to the Braves on Sunday. “Eight years in the big leagues, you can develop certain patterns. I’ve faced Matt Olson a lot. I’ve faced some of these other guys a lot. It’s not about re-inventing yourself, but rather, eight years in, am I using my pitches the best that I can? And I think there’s some adjustments that I can do to hopefully make the arsenal better.”

This is where the cutter comes in. According to Baseball Savant, Gibson has six pitches in his arsenal — a sinker, a slider, a cutter, a changeup, a four-seam fastball, and a curveball. The cutter is the newest of those six, and is the pitch that Gibson has struggled to move around the plate the most. In 2021, it was more of a glove-side pitch. In 2022, he’d like to be able to throw it both glove-side and arm-side.

“It’s an easy pitch to execute glove side, but it’s a little bit harder to execute arm-side,” he said. “Just with how it moves, to essentially throw it away to a lefty, I have to start it as a ball. So in your mind, you’re starting it off the plate and you’re trusting that it comes back. In to a righty, same thing, you’re starting it on that white line for a ball, and you’re trusting that you’re not going to throw a pitch that stays there and is never a strike.

“Finding a way to execute it on both sides of the plate … it’s what pitching is. I’ve gotten into scenarios where I’ve only thrown sinkers in to righties and everything else is away. As soon as you do that, and they see the ball away, they’re going to take it. So you have to throw all your pitches to both sides of the plate.”

Because Gibson spent his lockout trying to throw his cutter arm-side, his at-bat against d’Arnaud — arm-side cutter, glove-side cutter, slider, for a strikeout — was particularly gratifying. It’s a new sequence that he’ll probably use again, whether or not he throws it in that order.

“You can work on something in the bullpen, but the hitters are ultimately going to let you know if it’s any good,” he said. “Rapsodo can tell me it’s a really good pitch, but if hitters hit it every time, it’s not a that good of a pitch.”

So what was the verdict after Sunday’s outing?

“Good pitch.”