TJ Stuff: José Sinks, Jesús Sweeps
José Soriano, Jesús Luzardo
Let’s keep on celebrating Opening Day Weekend!
Welcome to “TJ Stuff”, a series which aims to highlight any intriguing MLB players and performances.
José Soriano
José Soriano started his 2025 on a strong note as efficiently shut down the White Sox over 7.0 IP on just 73 pitches. The flame throwing righty was a breakout candidate for me entering the season thanks to his fantastic sinker and electric curveball. My biggest gripe with Soriano was he seemingly unfounded use of his 4-Seam fastball. The offering was his worst in essentially every aspect, yet was his 3rd most used pitch. I mentioned that a reduction in fastball usage could spark a new level for Soriano, and it looked like we got a taste of that yesterday.
After throwing his 4-Seam ~15% last season, Soriano just threw 3 yesterday, effectively trading its usage for his sinker. This change seemed necessary as Soriano has always returned excellent damage suppression metrics with his sinker and its elite velocity helps it play up against both LHH and RHH.
Another interesting aspect of his start yesterday included his lack of splitter (splinker) usage. Last season his splitter returned average results and was utilized ahead in counts to lefties. Yesterday he tossed none to LHH as his upped his sinker usage to over 70%. This was a perplexing usage change as he didn’t struggle commanding the splitter last season.
The absence of his 4-Seam and Splitter effectively transformed Soraino’s arsenal into a 3-pitch mix. He tossed his sinker and curveball to both handedness and weaved in a revamped slider exclusively against RHH. Last season, his slider sat in the low 90s with gyro-to-cutter like movement and was similarly used only vs RHH. Yesterday’s rendition of the slider was drastically slower and exhibited 2-plane movement with pronounced drop.
I entered the season as a fan of Soriano and was pleased to witness notable changes to his arsenal and usage. The sinker, although slower, helped induce a lot of weak contact while his curveball and breaking ball were effective at generating whiffs and chases. With the raw talent Soriano possesses, he will be a name to watch this season!
Jesús Luzardo
Jesús Luzardo made a statement in his Phillies debut as he struck out 11 as he introduced a brand-new sweeping into his arsenal!
The crafty lefty looks healthy after an injury shortened 2024 which saw him tossed just 66.2 IP for Miami. His velocity was up nearly +2 MPH and he already eclipsed last season’s max velocity with a 98.9 MPH heater yesterday. The return of his high-powered velocity helped improve his stuff across the board, but the most important aspect of this start was his sweeper.
Luzardo struggled against LHH last season, allowing a poor .376 xwOBACON. His gyro-slider was an elite whiff generating option, but without an effective secondary option, LHH were able to punish the pitch. Enter his Luzardo’s new sweeper. Luzardo’s sweeper exhibits slider like characteristics, averaging 87 MPH with ~7” of glove-side and slight rising action. This introduction of this pitch helped expand Luzardo’s arsenal in the E-W direction and give him an offering that moves away from LHH. In yesterday’s outing, Luzardo tossed his sweeper 45.9% of the time against LHH while returning a 54.5 Chase% and 75.0 Whiff%. He effectively and consistently located the pitch low and away and made batters look foolish.
Luzardo looks 100% and has made an addition to his arsenal that makes him a more complete pitcher. Just to think that this guy entered the season as the Phillies #5 starter!
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