Thornton Uses Different Looks To Get Outs With Seven Pitches

The New York Mets got an unexpected surprise from Zac Thornton, as he came from out of nowhere to pitch well and become a rotation mainstay. This is a pitcher who didn’t even receive and invite to big league camp this spring, so how did Thornton do it?

Jared Greenspan of MLB.com took a deeper dive into Thornton’s season, focusing on his pitch arsenal. Thornton wound up with an ERA of .342 across 15 starts, per Greenspan, and by mid-May he was ranked 13th among Mets prospects. 

But Thornton isn’t a power pitcher who uses velocity to get outs. His average fastball velocity as 92.3 mph, which ranked in the 18th percentile in MLB. Thornton recorded just 63 strikeouts in 84 1/3 innings with a swing-and-miss rate  of 17.8 percent, and that ranked eighth lowest among 178 pitchers to throw at least 80 innings last season.

Thornton’s superpower is the ability to give hitters different looks every time he sees them. He has seven pitches to help him do this, and Greenspan broke down four of them in detail. 

Start with his cutter. Thornton throws it about a third of the time, and he uses it against both left-handed and right-handed hitters. That makes him unique to at least some degree, and he has sufficient command to throw it either in or out of the zone. He uses it to keep hitters off balance, and it’s an effective weapon. 

Thornton’s slider is similar, but it has a different purpose.  It’s a slower pitch, and the left-hander throws it low in the zone, which plays into those different looks Thornton mentioned. 

Thornton literally changes his arm angle to throw his sweeper, and it has approximately a foot of break. Once again, the intent is to change the look, and Thornton especially likes to use it against left-handed hitters. He’ll throw as slowly as 80 mph, so it’s something hitters aren;t used to seeing in today’s game. 

The results were impressive, per Greenspan, as hitter averaged just .200 against it with a swing-and-miss rate of almost 25 percent. 

The final pitch Greenspan broke down was the changeup, and it’s the pitch he uses the least and hopes to improve the most. Thornton said the metrics with it aren’t bad, but he hasn’t had the same number of repetitions with it. Right now it doesn’t have enough movement to use it consistently, but that’s something Thornton is looking to change this offseason.