One of the New York Yankees’ top young relief pitchers this season has been Ron Marinaccio, who has made 17 appearances with the team.
Marinaccio previously spent the 2021 season in Triple-A with Scranton, posting a 2.36 ERA and 13.84 strikeouts per nine. Most of his success with Scranton has translated over to the Majors, hosting a 2.33 ERA this season with 10.71 strikeouts per nine.
However, the last time Marinaccio made an appearance was on July 2 against the Cleveland Guardians. He pitched one inning suffering through “dead arm,” which ultimately landed him on the injured list immediately after.
In his first four starts of the 2022 season, he allowed five earned runs over just 4.0 innings of action. He finished April with an 11.25 ERA, being sent back down to Scranton immediately. However, after being called back up on May 22 against the Chicago White Sox, Marinaccio hasn’t given up a single run.
With the bullpen facing a bit of adversity lately, Marinaccio is preparing to start another rehab assignment with Triple-A in the hopes of returning to the Yankees in the next few days. The team could use the reinforcements, especially with fatigue setting in among the starting rotation and several bullpen arms.
Taking a look at Marinaccio using advanced analytics, he primarily relies on his 4-seam fastball, throwing it 42% of the time. He also features a change-up at 35% and slider at 23%. Opposing hitters are batting just .136 against his 4-seam fastball and slugging .182. He’s generating a 46.9% WHIFF rate on his changeup and 27.6% WHIFF rate on his slider.
The 27-year-old rookie has been fantastic. His change-up is his primary put-away pitch. 31.6% of his strikeouts have come courtesy of his change-up, tallying 12 on the season. He is generating 20.8 inches of total movement on his fastball and 18.2 inches on his change-up, including a 99% and 96% active spin rate, respectively. Active spin is a statistic utilized to measure the positive movement of a pitch based on spin rate. This essentially means that his pitches are getting a ton of additional movement because of his spin, whereas his slider only has a 53% active spin rate.
Down the stretch, the Yankees anticipate Marinaccio being one of their more prevalent arms. Given he hasn’t allowed a run over the last four months combined, he’s clearly earned his spot in the bullpen.
This post was published on 2022-07-20 17:07
