MINNEAPOLIS -- Less than two hours before first pitch on Tuesday, even with rain moving through the area, Michael Soroka was out in the visitor's bullpen with pitching coach Ethan Katz, as they worked with a core velocity belt.
Katz was reluctant, viewing the belt as more beneficial for building a clean line to the plate for pitchers who throw four-seamers, rather than sinkerballers. But Soroka throws both, and had fashioned himself a similar device last year to practice keeping his upper half closed with a construction rappelling belt he ordered off Amazon, so Katz obliged.
"I never really worked with somebody who had worked with it before, and Ethan has had some good success with making some changes with Dylan [Cease], Carlos Rodón, [Lucas] Giolito as well," Soroka said. "Over the last two years, since learning how my lower half is supposed to work, it's been a bit of a struggle actually getting there."
Soroka has a 7.50 ERA through five starts of a season where he hoped to re-establish himself, with more walks than strikeouts. The numbers against Soroka's slider (.190 BA, .333 SLG) have been strong, and Katz thinks the more off-speed he can throw to left-handers (.304/.439/.522 against so far), the better, as neither his sinker nor his four-seamer have reliably avoided damage as of yet. The subtext is he's plainly dissatisfied with how things have gone so far, and thinks mechanics are at least part of the picture.
Stick shifts are less common to see these days, but Soroka compared his delivery to accelerating with a car. He thinks of his delivery as having five gears, and he needs to hit all of them on time. Right now, Soroka feels he's skipping step two which is getting his pelvis in proper position to drive down the mound. His spring training optimism was rooted in feeling like he had it nailed down in the second half of last year, and his work is searching for the consistent 92-96 mph range that has yet to carry over.
"I think it's coming, it's just a matter of getting it there sooner rather than later," Soroka said. "At the end of the day, when I was at my best, I believed that I have four pitches that are going to get outs in zone at all times, and I didn't care even if they knew it was coming."
Soroka does not mythologize the good old days of 2019 as much a you might expect, explaining that he was pitching through nagging shoulder soreness a lot of his earlier career, and that part of his hope with having to remake his delivery post-Achilles tears was to end up in a place that took stress of his arm. But the level of all-encompassing self-belief he once touted to challenge the opposition in the zone with everything is, like his velocity, still a tick behind.
"I think all of us have been able to be very good, very easy," said Soroka, speaking to how a clubhouse full of experienced players with past success is processing historic struggles. "It's knowing that we are enough and just keep playing this game, have fun with it. We've had some real close ones, and had some ones that really burnt us a little bit. But you can't try harder in this game and have things work out. It's just not how it works. It's not like hockey, not like football, not like basketball where you can just outwork your opponent. The work happens off the field, and when we get back on the field, just be happy to play. I think that's going to be a big thing for me and I think to this club as well."
Four of the six home runs Garrett Crochet has allowed this season have come on his slider, and particularly back-foot sliders he's tried to get in on right-handed hitters. While Crochet identified throwing it right behind a cutter inside as a bad sequence, he sounded disenchanted by back-foot sliders in the strike zone to right-handed hitters altogether postgame Wednesday night.
"That's the fourth time that's happened this year," Crochet said. "In the past coming out of the bullpen, I'd throw fastballs arm side and I'd throw sliders right there, so to get burned on that several times this year is tough. But I think I have to come to the realization that that's a bad pitch and not the spot that I want to throw it. It's a very easy pitch for a right-handed hitter to just drop their hands on."
With the heavy slates of right-handed hitters Crochet has and will continue to face, it's to his credit how much he's built up tools to pitch inside, which is essential long-term. But after a night of Twins right-handers turning successfully on inside pitches, there's a feeling from Crochet and the coaching staff that he's overdoing it a bit.
"You can’t cover both sides of the plate," said Pedro Grifol. "Teams are just eliminating the outer half. Teams are focusing on the inner half. Everything is either fastballs in, cutters in, those back-foot sliders. The changeup is going to be a big part of the game for him and he’s going to have to start making adjustments to the outer half."
Grifol acknowledged that Max Kepler's fifth inning bloop RBI double Wednesday night that dropped between Paul DeJong and Andrew Benintendi had over 90 percent catch probability. With DeJong's responsibility on the play to simply pursue until he's called off by the outfielder, the focus shifts to Benintendi, whose range and jumps have been poorly rated by Statcast in a White Sox uniform.
"When that ball goes up there and that probability is that high, we’ve got to make that play," Grifol said. "I have to talk to both of those guys and see why that play wasn’t made. I think it was over 90 percent, so that play’s got to be made. We’ll talk to those guys and see what the communication was."
These defensive struggles are paired with a slow start offensively that has shown fits of abating, with Benintendi doubling Wednesday for his second extra-base hit on the year, but still has him at a .395 OPS on the year.
"He’s not on time," Thames said. "We just have to get him on time and trust the process. I just talked to Andrew about being a good hitter. I don’t want him up there thinking about power, just doing the little things. When I've seen him at his best over his career, he’s just been a good hitter. I want him to get back to that and swing at his pitches."
