How Zack Greinke’s newest pitch is fueling a recent resurgence with Kansas City Royals

Zack Greinke picked up his first win of the season on June 24 — some 4,825 days since his last win for Kansas City, on Sept. 30, 2010.

It didn’t take him nearly as long to get his second victory of the season.

Returning to the mound for the second time since a right flexor strain sidelined the right-handed pitcher on May 29, Greinke again pitched a six-inning, one-run quality start in a 2-1 Wednesday afternoon victory over the Texas Rangers.

And he did it with a new pitch in his arsenal: the cutter.

The pitch was a staple for Greinke in 2012 and 2013. But he abandoned the cutter after that and didn’t throw another one until 2019. He’d used it only sparingly ever since.

That changed last Friday when, according to Statcast, Greinke threw 17 cutters. He threw 18 more on Wednesday. Greinke said after Friday’s game that the pitch is an offshoot of his normal slider.

“The thought is to mix it up some and throw more pitches,” he said.

Thrown 5 mph faster on average than his slider, his cutter has similar movement — albeit less horizontal movement. And it’s working: hitters are just 2-for-13 with two singles when they make contact.

Of Greinke’s six offerings, the cutter has induced the second-highest percentage of swings and misses in his last two starts.

“I’ve been just as impressed with the slider, what he’s been able to do with that lately. It’s got a different shape and he’s been able to manipulate how much side-to-side run he’s getting,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “It’s a radically different pitch than what we even saw earlier in the spring.”

Greinke has always been known for his unique arsenal of pitches: Matheny called him a “student of the game.” The six pitches the 38-year-old throws regularly in 2022 is actually down from the seven or eight he threw during his peak years.

But it’s not just that he uses a lot of different pitches — the pitches Greinke throws are a bit different from those thrown by others, too.

His power changeup doesn’t use a typical change of speed to keep hitters off-guard, for example. Just 2 mph slower on average than his fastball, the changeup instead relies on late movement.

Now, it seems he has another unique pitch. Whatever you want to term it — a cutter, “power slider” or some other sort of breaking ball — it’s been extremely effective this season, especially against right-handed hitters.

Take Greinke’s counterpart on Wednesday, for instance. Rangers right-hander Dane Dunning’s cutter has similar velocity and break to Greinke’s cutter. But Dunning throws hthe pitch almost exclusively to left-handers — when thrown by righties, good cut fastballs will break “in” on left-handed hitters, inducing weak contact.

Greinke, meanwhile, throws his cutter slightly more often to right-handed hitters, typically using it as a complement to his normal slider.

He already uses the slider more often versus righties (34.4%, compared to 4.5% against lefties) and his curveball more often against lefties (25.8%, compared to 15.3% against righties).

Against right-handed hitters, Greinke’s cutter effectively balances his slider. He’ll often throw the two pitches back-to-back. For instance, against Rangers designated hitter Mitch Garver, who bats right-handed, Greinke threw a cutter for a called strike, a slider that had Garver waving weakly at the pitch and a cutter for a flyout.

Given Greinke’s propensity for tinkering with his pitches, the cutter or second slider might not be around for long.

“Some days, he’ll go in and have a pitch that he really wants to throw,” Royals catcher M.J. Melendez said. “Maybe that next outing, he doesn’t even throw it one time, or maybe he does it only once or twice.”

During a fifth-inning visit to the mound on Wednesday, Melendez recalled, Greinke joked that he needed a break because he was ”starting to get old out here.”

Kidding aside, part of what makes this future Hall of Famer special and helps prolong his career is Greinke’s ability to add to, and tweak, his lineup of pitches.

Add this cutter/slider to the mix.