This story was excerpted from Adam Berry's Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ST. PETERSBURG -- Shane McClanahan was sitting in the visitors¡¯ dugout in Houston near the end of last season when he started talking about the process of continual improvement. After finishing 2020 with a historic postseason debut and a scoreless inning in the World Series, he wasn¡¯t satisfied. He wouldn¡¯t let himself be.
¡°The second you get content with anything, it's game over,¡± McClanahan told MLB.com before the final start of his rookie year. ¡°Like Clayton Kershaw, probably one of the best pitchers to ever step foot in this world, won the Cy Young and the very next year debuts a brand new slider. It just shows, no matter what you do, don't be complacent. Always try to look for that next thing you can do to get better.¡±
Those were not just words from McClanahan. It was a mission statement he¡¯s followed to become one of the game¡¯s best young starters.
Last season, the Rays¡¯ left-hander revamped his pitch mix, essentially creating two new breaking balls, and dramatically improved his command as he became the Rays¡¯ No. 1 starter in Tyler Glasnow¡¯s absence. This year, McClanahan has continued to evolve. The 25-year-old has taken what could¡¯ve been perceived as the weakest pitch in his arsenal -- his changeup -- and made it into an undeniable asset.
As a pitch used exclusively against right-handed hitters, the changeup accounted for 8 percent of McClanahan¡¯s offerings last year. He¡¯s still only throwing it to righties, but McClanahan has upped his changeup usage to 19.4 percent heading into Tuesday night¡¯s start against the Marlins at Tropicana Field.
In other words, McClanahan has turned what was his fourth pitch into a vital part of his arsenal without sacrificing the quality of anything else he throws, becoming a true four-pitch starter. And his newest weapon has been tremendously effective.
Opponents have just one hit against it, a Javier B¨¢ez single last week at the Trop. McClanahan has used his changeup to finish 14 strikeouts, 10 more than all of last season, while producing a mind-boggling 51.5 percent whiff rate with it. That¡¯s better than even his wicked slider (45.9 percent) or curveball (40.5 percent), which might be two of the better left-handed breaking balls in all of baseball, as a complement to his high-90s fastball.
Just look at this comparison put together by MLB.com¡¯s research team.
None of this happened by accident.
¡°That was a focus point last year,¡± McClanahan said recently. ¡°I went into this offseason knowing that I had a lot of things to work on and improve upon, and I got back with [pitching coach Kyle] Snyder after the lockout and we went from there. We made some adjustments, and it's been having success so far.¡±
McClanahan credited Snyder, who also helped him develop his slider heading into last season, for leading the charge on his improved changeup. McClanahan said all it took was ¡°just a little bit of an adjustment in the way I throw it, nothing major,¡± but the result of that work has been significant.
Compared to last season, McClanahan has added about three inches of vertical movement and a little more than an inch of horizontal movement to his changeup, and he¡¯s locating it well. It¡¯s become one of the most effective offspeed pitches of its kind in MLB. According to Statcast¡¯s Run Value, it¡¯s the fourth-most productive changeup in the Majors behind the Dodgers' Tyler Anderson, Rays teammate Jeffrey Springs, the Padres¡¯ Nabil Crismatt and the Marlins¡¯ Pablo L¨®pez.
¡°He's really upped his unpredictability, because he's really throwing all four pitches about evenly,¡± Snyder said recently ¡°Overall, he's just evolved through the early portion of the year.¡±