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BALTIMORE -- Two years ago, Drew Rasmussen changed the way he pitched. Traditionally armed with a fastball and a slider, Rasmussen wound up with a pitch mix that included a fastball and three breaking balls: A tighter-spinning slider, a big-moving sweeper and eventually a curveball.

This past offseason, Rasmussen shared his sweeper grip with another curious pitcher who had made a living on fastballs and sliders: His offseason training partner, Rays reliever Garrett Cleavinger.

¡°I¡¯ve had success spinning the baseball. Everyone across the league is doing this,¡± Cleavinger said. ¡°Let¡¯s see if I can maybe figure out a way to do this as well.¡±

He¡¯s done that and more, essentially mirroring Rasmussen¡¯s evolution by splitting his trusty breaking ball into two new ones. And the results have been remarkable the first two months of the season, with Cleavinger performing like one of the top relievers in the American League.

The lefty has put together a 1.52 ERA with 33 strikeouts and only 13 hits allowed in 23 2/3 innings over 25 appearances. His ERA and 34% strikeout rate rank eighth among AL relievers with at least 20 innings pitched. He even picked up the first three saves of his career.

Among all qualified pitchers, only the Royals¡¯ Chris Stratton has induced a lower average exit velocity this season (82.3 mph) than Cleavinger¡¯s 82.6 mark. On a per-swing basis, no pitcher in baseball has been harder to square up this year than Cleavinger.

¡°You could ask probably quite a few hitters in the league that have faced him,¡± Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder said. ¡°He¡¯s probably one of the better lefties in the game coming out of the pen in terms of the size of the stuff and now the arsenal buildout, and I expect that to continue.¡±

As Snyder put it, Cleavinger wasn¡¯t somebody the Rays even wanted to ¡°disrupt a whole lot¡± this spring. He¡¯d pitched well in the past, and he was coming back from a torn right ACL that cut his 2023 season short.

But the lefty took it upon himself. He wanted to learn a sweeper, a pitch that¡¯s skyrocketed in popularity around baseball, and he had a good teacher in Rasmussen as they trained every day in the Phoenix area.

¡°That was really nice to have him there to bounce ideas off of,¡± Cleavinger said. ¡°He¡¯s obviously had a lot of success the last few years, so it¡¯s a good person to ask.¡±

Still, it¡¯s a risky gambit. Cleavinger had found success doing things a certain way. And this meant messing with his slider, a pitch that he had thrown for ¡­

¡°¡­ever, yeah,¡± Cleavinger said, smiling. (It had really only been since 2017, he clarified.)

When Cleavinger reported to Spring Training with his new sweeper in tow, Snyder had another idea. As with Rasmussen and others before, Snyder asked Cleavinger to pick up a ¡°rifle slider,¡± which Cleavinger describes as his ¡°smaller, harder, cutter-y¡± breaking ball.

Reliever Robert Stephenson similarly tweaked his slider last season, producing stunning results. The idea was to give Cleavinger two distinct offerings alongside his fastball and, importantly, a breaking pitch he could land in the zone for strikes or to induce weak contact.

¡°It wasn¡¯t very pretty at the beginning, but they showed faith in me that we¡¯d figure it out,¡± Cleavinger said. ¡°[Snyder] told me that this is something that could kind of change your repertoire and make things a whole lot more simple for you. I think we¡¯re kind of starting to see that, which is nice.¡±

Cleavinger¡¯s fastball has remained a weapon, with opponents batting just .059 against it. His sweeper has generated a 30.8% whiff rate and his ¡°cutter¡± a 33.3% whiff rate, according to Statcast. He¡¯s still subject to the occasional walks, but opponents are hitting just .163/.299/.188 against him this season.

Another element of Cleavinger¡¯s success? He¡¯s throwing 49.3% of his pitches in the zone, up from 44.5% last season. And he¡¯s consistently getting ahead of hitters, with a 61.9% first-pitch strike rate that instantly puts hitters on the defensive.

¡°What¡¯s elevated his game is strike-throwing, more than anything,¡± Rays manager Kevin Cash said. ¡°He¡¯s coming in and getting strike one, strike two. Then, when he needs a punchout to get swing-and-miss, he¡¯s established he can throw it in the zone.¡±