Pitcher List Conversations are transcripts of interviews with professional baseball players — and sometimes, players discuss topics other than baseball. This has been lightly edited for clarity.
★ ★ ★
It’s been a curious season for Zach Eflin.
He began 2024 with the Tampa Bay Rays in the second year of a three-year, $40 million contract. In 110.0 IP, he earned a 98 ERA+; since being traded to the Baltimore Orioles, Eflin has improved in almost every metric, and he currently has a 197 ERA+. As Nick Pollock wrote back in April, “Hey, Eflin, can you please get your command back in order? K, thx.”
Turns out, he did.
In addition, he found himself in the unusual position of being an AL pitcher visiting Coors Field twice during the regular season. Kevin Henry and I first spoke with him back in April — the Rays were in Denver for the Colorado Rockies home opener — and you May listen to a podcast of our conversation here.
Last weekend, I caught up with Eflin to find out about his new pitching life at Camden Yards and the pitch he’d steal if he could.
All photos are courtesy of Orioles Baseball Communications Manager Nate Rowan. Many thanks for his help with this.
★ ★ ★
Renee Dechert: You’ve seen a lot of Coors Field for an AL pitcher during the regular season. What’s it like to be back in a National League park like this?
Zach Eflin: It’s interesting. It’s always good to be back in Colorado. I do like the city, and the stadium’s awesome, but it’s a different place to pitch. I’m just happy to be here again, and twice in one year, it doesn’t really happen, so I’ll make the most of it.
[Eflin managed to tame Coors Field, throwing a perfect game for five innings and getting the win. Even though was just coming off the IL with a shoulder issue, he earned nine Ks, his highest total this season and extended his quality start streak to five games.]
RD: What are some of the differences that stand out for you in pitching at Camden Yards in comparison to The Trop?
ZE: That’s a great question because the parks, I feel, are totally different. The Trop I feel like is a more pitcher-friendly park than Baltimore, with right field being more hitter-friendly, and left field being more pitcher-friendly.
So it really all depends on the lineups that we’re facing.
Most of the lefties, I’m hoping that they try and hit opposite field against me because it’s so short in right field. So we’ll have a game plan tailored to that.
Tampa was more just attack everybody everywhere and kind of see what happens.
RD: Can you talk about more your game plan whenever you’re at Camden Yards because of those dimensions?
ZE: It’s more so make sure that your inside pitches are clearly inside. You’re not missing on any of the plate at all, staying away, whether it be backdoor cutters, sinkers, four-seamers. You’ve just got to really make sure that you’re on the black on both sides of the plate, so you just have to be stubborn about that.
RD: Your cutter usage has increased considerably since 2021. What are you finding in that pitch that works for you?
ZE: I think consistency. Throwing it where I want to, being able to run it inside to lefties, away to righties, back door to lefties and inside to righties.
Me being a field pitcher and having to live on the corners, it’s been a very comfortable pitch for me recently. And this year, I’ve kind of started to upshoot it a little bit — throw it up a little more. I think that kind of just benefits everything else because everything else, I try and throw down the zone, and I’ve never really had an “up” pitch. So I think that has helped me out a lot.
Zach Eflin’s Cutter Grip | Photo by Nate Rowan
RD: Your changeup has improved a lot from a movement standpoint in recent years. What are some of the changes that you’ve made to it because you’ve been throwing it more?
ZE: So I’ve kind of been back and forth in between a splitter and a changeup the past year and a half.
Sometimes I would feel the changeup, and I’d throw that. In other games, I’d feel a splitter, and I’d throw that. Right now, I’m pretty much all splitter. I found a comfortable grip that kind of mimics my sinker at a slower speed, so I feel like I’ve been getting better luck with it. But it’s more so about just being consistent with throwing it and trusting it and not shying away from it.
RD: Merrill Kelly told me that grips just kind of leave him. You were sort of hinting at that whenever you described that process. What do you think?
ZE: I think it’s just all the feel. Pitching is an art form. It’s a craft. There’s so much feel involved in it. Your arm slot’s going to change throughout the year. Your mechanics are going to change. So when that changes in your arm and your hand is in a different spot than it normally is, you have to make adjustments with the grip. So it’s always an ongoing puzzle.
RD: What’s your favorite pitch you’ve thrown this season?
ZE: That’s a great question. I would say probably one of my cutters inside to a righty because I don’t really do that too much.
RD: Can you take me through one of those?
ZE: Yeah, one of them was to Yandy Díaz. It’s more so kind of just aiming. It’s kind of like how I look at sinkers to left-handed hitters. I try and hit the rib cage with it, and it always comes back. So the thought process is the exact same, except for just moving the other direction with the cutter. So it’s moreso start it at the hitter, and let it come back.
RD: If you could take one pitch from any other pitcher, whose would you take and why?
ZE: Ooh . . . I would take, probably, nobody in particular, but I would take somebody’s 100-mile-an-hour, four-seam fastball [laughs].
RD: Why?
ZE: Because I don’t throw hard. It’d be nice to throw hard [laughs].