How Skubal helped another Cy winner with his changeup

LAKELAND, Fla. ¨C All the Tarik Skubal trade talk was supposed to have died last summer. But instead of swapping pitchers, Skubal found himself swapping pitches this offseason, from one Cy Young Award winner to another, from a current Tigers left-hander to a former one.

It started with a message at the end of last season from Giants southpaw Robbie Ray. Like the rest of baseball, he had seen the success Skubal had with his changeup, a pitch that Skubal had developed a couple years ago during his rehab from left flexor tendon surgery after tinkering with a few different versions over the years.

"I saw the way his fastball explodes through the zone, higher arm slot, had a really good changeup,¡± Ray told MLB.com Giants reporter Maria Guardado. ¡°Similar arm slot as me. I was like, ¡®Alright, I've got to figure out how he¡¯s doing this.¡¯"

Statcast uses metrics and results to assign a run value to each pitch type that a pitcher throws. Among qualified left-handers in 2024, Skubal¡¯s plus-7 Run Value on his changeup was the fourth highest in the Majors, behind just Philadelphia¡¯s Cristopher S¨¢nchez (+18), Angels southpaw Tyler Anderson (+17) and NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale (+9). Opponents hit just .216 off Skubal¡¯s changeup, with a 46.1 percent whiff rate. It was a big reason Skubal held right-handed hitters to a .204 average and a .572 OPS last season.

Like Skubal, Ray has struggled to find a changeup that works for him. He hasn¡¯t thrown one more than sparingly in a season since 2021, when it comprised 3.6 percent of his pitches.

¡°We have similar arm slots,¡± Ray said. ¡°He¡¯s maybe a little bit higher than I am, but very similar. I¡¯ve always struggled with throwing a changeup, and I don¡¯t pronate very well. So that¡¯s usually how you throw a changeup. The way he taught me, you don¡¯t have to.¡±

Ray texted Skubal asking if he¡¯d be willing to share the way he grips the changeup. He wasn¡¯t expecting what he got in return.

"He kind of just sent me the kitchen sink,¡± Ray said. ¡°He sent me pictures, video, everything. He was very open about it, and I was very thankful.¡±

For Skubal, there was nothing secretive about his game-changing pitch. Other pitchers have asked him about the pitch, but not as intently as Ray. The issues Ray has had learning a changeup sounded similar to what Skubal went through during the first couple years of his career.

And Skubal admittedly asks other pitchers all the time about their grips and pitch shapes. So if he could get some knowledge on Ray¡¯s arsenal that could help him, all the better.

¡°He reached out to me, and I sent him my cues,¡± Skubal said. ¡°It was a little 1-for-1 swap. He showed me slider stuff; I showed him changeup stuff. I thought it was a good trade.

¡°That was pretty cool for him to reach out to me. He¡¯s a Cy Young guy. He¡¯s been doing it for a long time.¡±

Ray was able to learn the pitch without seeing Skubal in person. They traded videos as he tinkered with the pitch during the offseason. Ray tried it out Tuesday in his first outing of Spring Training and was happy with the results after striking out three over two scoreless innings.