Mets' Paul Blackburn changing his pitching DNA under team's microscope
Paul Blackburn of the New York Mets pitches against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on Aug. 7, 2024. Credit: Getty Images/Dustin Bradford
Eleven days and two games into his new life with the Mets, Paul Blackburn is impressed — with pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, with catcher Francisco Alvarez, with the pitching infrastructure that the organization has spent years modernizing.
So as he readies for his third start, Tuesday night at Citi Field against the Athletics, his longtime team that traded him to the Mets last month, Blackburn feels ready. In his short time with the Mets, they have helped him be a better version of himself, mixing the art and science of pitching so he can make more informed decisions on what pitch to throw when.
“There’s a little more freedom over here,” said Blackburn, a 30-year-old righthander. “You get a bunch of new eyes on you, new organization, new everything, new philosophy — all of it. It gives you the freedom to be able to come in and show what you do, more so than essentially being in an organization and coming up with an organization and them telling you what they want you to do. I’m trying to phrase this as best you can.”
With Oakland, Blackburn said, he felt “stuck in a development circle” and “handcuffed” by set ideas on his ability and pitch mix and how often he was supposed to throw certain offerings.
As the new guy with the Mets, conversely, he and the team have shared thoughts on how to do things differently.
“Whenever you get a new player, what’s the lowest-hanging fruit?” Hefner said. “And I don’t really love that term. But it’s real in this instance.”
Blackburn has made a strong first impression, allowing one earned run in six innings in each of his first two outings.
Here’s an overview of their changes so far.
They’re totally revamping his slider
This is the “main focus,” Blackburn said. All season, he hasn’t liked how his slider has worked. The Mets determined it was too similar to his curveball, which limited the effectiveness of both pitches.
So Blackburn has been toying with a couple of new grips, which alter the way the ball moves — its shape, in the pitching parlance. The goal is to turn it into a sweeper or sweeping slider. If they’re successful, it will basically be a different pitch.
“Something new for a pitcher is always fun, to sit out there and mess with it,” Blackburn said. “I feel like I’ve thrown some pretty good ones since I’ve been here. I didn’t feel like that was the case all year.”
Blackburn is throwing his cutter way more and four-seam fastball way less
This felt like a natural tweak for Blackburn, who said his cutter “has always been one of my better pitches.”
It sounds simple but sometimes takes some convincing: If a pitch is good, throw it more. A regular fastball doesn’t need to be your primary pitch just because baseball historically has worked that way.
“We brought it to him,” Hefner said. “Hey, this is what we see. This is how your pitches are performing, what the hitters are telling us. How do you feel about that? Let’s start with that.”
Blackburn said: “I love throwing my cutter, so the more I can throw it, the better.”
In nine starts with the A’s, Blackburn threw his fastball (22%) and cutter (20%) at about the same frequency. In two starts with the Mets, Blackburn is at 10% fastball and 34% cutter.
Some of that is based on how he happened to feel those days, as well as the opposing batters he happened to face, but it’s a huge swing. Alvarez kept calling it, so Blackburn kept throwing it.
“Fastball has never been my pitch, ever,” he said. “I throw 92 [mph] on a good day. Let’s be honest.
“I feel like over here it’s more about, we’re going to pitch to my strengths, hitters’ weaknesses. If something is working, then just keep abusing it. Get outs.”
There is more to come
Hefner mentioned that there is “opportunity” — room for improvement — with Blackburn’s changeup, which already is a decent pitch. Blackburn said he has ideas on how to throw his sinker more consistently. But they want to take this one step at a time, try not to do too much too fast.
Blackburn is under team control for 2025, too, which was part of the appeal in acquiring him.
“We want our guys to be a part of the process. There’s more buy-in that way. It’s been the same with Paul,” Hefner said. “We got this guy for a reason. I gotta build a relationship and help that player get folded into what we try to do here.”
What the Mets try to do here extends from the major-league club down through the farm system — with vice president of pitching Eric Jagers and the pitching lab opened last year — to a performance staff that includes athletic trainers, biomechanical engineers and sports scientists. Those are the folks, Hefner said, who are the true experts on how the human body works.
All that is part of the pitching operation that has helped the Mets turn previously unheralded minor leaguers Dedniel Nunez and Reed Garrett into bullpen contributors, for example, and squeeze solid seasons out of the likes of Luis Severino and Sean Manaea — and maybe now Blackburn.
“I don’t think there’s a perfect system,” Hefner said. “But I think we have a really good system and it works for the people who are here. We’ve had some players respond well to that system.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
