Article: Adbert Alzolay's Three Breaking Ball Looks Make Him a Versatile Relief Ace

[Matthew Trueblood]

The Cubs did make a few moves to bolster their bullpen this winter, but they stayed well clear of the elite reliever market. They already have a top closer in whom they trust, and the reason is simple: his slider--er, sliders.

Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Making the full-time move to a relief role in 2022 unlocked a lot of things for Adbert Alzolay. With an extra mile per hour or two on his fastball (thanks to being able to cut loose so much more in short bursts), everything has played up, but Alzolay's breakout 2023 campaign seemed to be primarily about his slider. Opponents whiffed on 40.6 percent of their swings against the slider, leading to 38 of his 67 strikeouts.

Superficially, it was a power arsenal, and a neat pairing for the right-handed Venezuela native. In reality, though, Alzolay has developed three distinct breaking balls--his bread-and-butter slider, a cutter (thrown harder, and primarily to lefties) and a sweeper (slower, and primarily to righties). Those lesser cousins to the true slider play underrated roles in helping Alzolay dominate the way he did when he was healthy in 2023.

Rounding out and defining that suite of breaking balls was a pivotal development for Alzolay last year. He found a consistent shape for the slider, and swapped out what had been a mostly ineffecitve curveball for the sweeper, while gaining greater utility on the cutter by focusing its deployment on left-handed batters.

Unlike many relievers (who confine themselves to one fastball look in the simple showdown of a single inning), Alzolay employs both a four-seamer and a sinker, leaning toward the former against lefties and the latter against righties. The four-seam heater has above-average run to his arm side, so it and the slider pair nicely. For that same reason, though, when Alzolay wants to get up and in on a lefty, the cutter is highly valuable. It stops those hitters from eliminating that quadrant of the zone and sitting on the slider low and in, and it makes them less aggressive in their swings against the four-seamer on the outer half.

Against righties, the slider's tight but sweepy shape is a good match for the sinker, but for bigger movement and a change of speeds that can make the sinker more effective inside, the sweeper was a key addition. Alzolay's curveball was, briefly, his best breaking pitch, but see how the sweeper has greater lift? That makes it a much better partner to his sinker than the curve could ever be, and the slider is better with his four-seamer than the curve is. 

Five-pitch relievers are a rarity for a reason. It can be viciously difficult to sustain the feel for that deep a repertoire, given the constraints of being a reliever. A closer like Alzolay doesn't have the luxury of doing side work on a fixed schedule. They don't get the same opportunities to implement new things or make adjustments. With the four-seamer, the sinker, the slider, the sweeper, and the cutter, though, Alzolay has enough ways to find outs to succeed in all kinds of game situations and against all kinds of hitters.

He might not be as consistent as a conventional two-pitch monster with triple-digit heat and a slider with an optimal spin axis, because there will be days when one of his indispensable weapons will not be at full power. He's going to be versatile and impressive, though, and his steady improvement to reach this level of excellence in relief is a credit to both the player and the Cubs' pitching infrastructure, which improves with each passing season.

Research assistance provided by TruMedia.

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[Bertz]

It was really great to see Alzolay finally have that sustained success last year.  He seems like a good dude and has definitely grinded and to finally produce and stay mostly healthy was awesome.  He also seems like a good evangelist for a lot of the Cubs' pitcher development efforts.

One thing I'm hopeful for is that this can be templatized a bit.  I know Wesneski isn't exactly the same (there's that release point/pitch tipping angle), but they're fairly analogous situations.  You also think about guys like Almonte and Hodge who have fastball/sweeper combos that are the goods but haven't had quite the success you'd hope for yet.

[Matthew Trueblood]

25 minutes ago, Bertz said:

It was really great to see Alzolay finally have that sustained success last year.  He seems like a good dude and has definitely grinded and to finally produce and stay mostly healthy was awesome.  He also seems like a good evangelist for a lot of the Cubs' pitcher development efforts.

One thing I'm hopeful for is that this can be templatized a bit.  I know Wesneski isn't exactly the same (there's that release point/pitch tipping angle), but they're fairly analogous situations.  You also think about guys like Almonte and Hodge who have fastball/sweeper combos that are the goods but haven't had quite the success you'd hope for yet.

Yeah, now that (I think) they've gotten much better on the scouting side and are routinely getting guys with real upside, the next step is to consistently convert that--and you're right, Alzolay is a great exemplar for that.