Newest Blue Jay enthusiastic to bring distinctive sidearm look to bullpen.
Toronto Blue Jays newest bullpen addition Nick Sandlin is eager to bring his unique sidearm look to an otherwise beleaguered bullpen.
Sandlin's delivery starts hunched at the waist, hands behind his hip, dropping-and-driving with long extension towards the plate as he sticks his arm straight out horizontally and releases the ball two-and-a-half feet from his core.
In an interview with Sportsnet's Arden Zwelling, Sandlin talked about his past road trips to Toronto and his thoughts on the city.
«We've always enjoyed our road trips up in Toronto. It's definitely a very nice city,» Sandlin says. «I'm learning about it right now, doing a little bit of research. It's a lot bigger than I realized.»
He also expressed his thoughts on getting traded from the Cleveland Guardians to the Toronto Blue Jays.
«Getting traded, it's something that I'm sure almost every player goes through at some point in their career.
But it is weird at first. There's a lot of people and things that you'll miss after being in one place for a long time.»
«But Toronto's always had awesome teams. And it's a really competitive division. I'm looking forward to that part of it. I'm just excited to meet everyone and start working with a new staff and get their perspective on things.»
Most of Sandlin's swing-and-miss comes with his slider and splitter, which he used to finish nearly three-quarters of his strikeouts in 2024.
Sandlin has used his slider as his primary pitch in each of his four MLB seasons, adding or subtracting from its velocity and shape.
«My slider's always been my best pitch. That's something that I feel like I can throw to anyone in any count,» Sandlin says. «I can do different things with different hitters.»
With various sidearm angles he's produced a 3.27 ERA over 209 appearances across the last four years.
He pitched to contact in 2022, running a top-20 groundball rate among relievers, but he's missed more bats since, posting identical 27.6 per cent strikeout rates each of the last two seasons with whiff rates ranking within the top 15 per cent of MLB pitchers.
There is no doubt that Nick Sandlin definitely has something to contribute to the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen with his definitive pitching style.
Hopefully he keeps trending upward as he joins the Blue Jays in 2025.
«I'm excited to get started on continuing to learn new things with a new staff and getting my pitches in a good spot."
«It'll be cool to be in a new place. I want to settle in as quickly as possible and be as consistent as possible to help Toronto win a lot of games."
That's the goal to be a really good contributor on this team.»
SOURCE: Sportsnet
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