SAN FRANCISCO -- Logan Webb has primarily plied his trade as a ground-ball pitcher for the Giants, but his identity has started to evolve on the mound this season. While Webb has continued to excel at inducing soft contact -- he entered Friday with the seventh-highest ground-ball percentage (54.9%) and the fourth-lowest home runs per nine innings rate (0.33) among qualified starters in the Majors -- he’s also been striking out batters at the highest clip of his seven-year career. Webb entered Friday averaging 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings, a three-batter jump from the 7.6 K/9 rate he posted in 2024. What’s allowing Webb to miss more bats this year? “I think it’s not getting too predictable with some of the stuff I’m throwing,” Webb said. “It’s not like I’m recreating the wheel by throwing new pitches. It’s just trying to be better with when I throw them, where I throw them. So far, so good. “I hate talking about it because I’m bound to have like a one-strikeout game now. But yeah, I kind of wanted to put a point of emphasis on some stuff and just kind of maybe be able to put away guys a little bit more, take away some of the extra bloops or base hits that I give up. I would say I’m happy about it, but I have to keep doing it. There’s a long way to go.” |
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The early results have certainly been promising, as the increased K rate has helped Webb log a 2.42 ERA over a Major League-high 63 1/3 innings across his first 10 starts of 2025, putting him among the frontrunners in MLB.com’s first Cy Young poll of the year. Webb has long been known for his sinker-changeup combination, but he’s expanded his arsenal in recent years, which has helped take some pressure off his signature offerings. He features a five-pitch mix these days, which is still led by his sinker (38.8%) but also includes his sweeper (28.9%), changeup (17.5%), cutter (7.9%) and four-seam fastball (6.9%). “It’s a different repertoire,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s not just sinker, changeup, put it in play. There’s a four-seamer involved. There’s a cutter involved. There’s a sweeper involved. More pitches, and he’s getting some swing-and-misses. I think a couple of times it’s cost him another inning because of the strikeouts. But he’s just evolving and getting better.” Webb’s changeup usage has noticeably dipped from the 30.9% clip he recorded last year, but he’s been getting better results while using the pitch more sparingly in 2025. Opposing batters entered Friday hitting only .205 (9-for-44) with 18 strikeouts against the pitch, yielding a career-high 36.9% whiff rate for Webb’s changeup. Recapturing the dominance of his changeup -- which saw its Run Value fall from +30 in 2023 to +1 last year -- was a major focus for Webb this spring, but he’s also managed to rack up a fair amount of strikeouts with his four-seam fastball, which has generated a 48.4% whiff rate this season. His four-seamer is far from his best pitch -- opposing batters hit .339 against it when he first debuted with the Giants in 2019 -- but it gives him an option to throw at the top of the zone and keep hitters guessing. |
“Obviously, if you’re going up to face Webby, you’re assuming everything is kind of moving down,” catcher Patrick Bailey said. “You’re trying to kind of get him up and see the bottom of the baseball. The four-seam quality is nothing special -- I think he’d be the first one to tell you that -- but I think the thing he does best with it is it’s always toward the top of the zone, and he just locates it really well.” The decision to move away from his four-seam fastball and embrace throwing sinkers at a lower arm slot helped fuel Webb’s rise to one of the best pitchers in the National League in 2021, but he’s kept his original heater in his back pocket and has learned how to maximize its effectiveness this year. “You look up at the boards, it’s not great metrics,” Webb acknowledged. “The only difference is I throw a little lower than I did when I first came up. But yeah, it’s just kind of trying to change eye levels. It hasn’t gotten any better or worse. It’s just not throwing it as much. “I want to pitch like Robbie Ray and just throw fastballs and get guys out, but I can’t do that, so I’ve got to pick and choose when I do it.” |
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