D-Backs’ Ian Kennedy hopes new splitter can balance out his repertoire

Diamondbacks reliever Ian Kennedy had run through his other options and discarded each. Looking for something to pair with his fastball, Kennedy had determined his current repertoire wasn’t cutting it. He needed something else. He thinks he might have found it.

With a splitter he fashioned on an off day last month, Kennedy is hopeful he has found the swing-and-miss offering he needs to keep hitters off his fastball. He is cautious — he does not feel fully confident with the pitch yet — but he thinks it has a chance to develop into a reliable weapon for him.

“I hope it does,” Kennedy said. “I need more swings and misses.”

Kennedy’s season has been an odd one. He has provided stability at the back of the bullpen for the Diamondbacks, generally protecting the leads he has been given late in games. A glance at his numbers — he has a 3.65 ERA in 24 2/3 innings — suggests his season is going all right.

But Kennedy’s walks are up, his strikeouts slightly down. And he has allowed loud contact at a rate that puts him near the bottom of the majors in categories like expected batting average, hard-hit rate and average exit velocity.

Kennedy said he does not especially care about those stats; he would happily allow a line drive so long as it is caught. But he thinks that by throwing his fastball a career-high 83 percent of the time, it has allowed hitters to sit on it more comfortably than they have in the past.

That is where the splitter comes in. Kennedy said he had never thrown one until this year. He felt he needed something new. He sees his slider as just an average pitch. He does not think his curveball is good enough to get swings and misses. His change-up had been that pitch for him last year, but he said that for whatever reason it has not been as effective this season.

Kennedy was watching how Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman throws his splitter, then watched Gausman describe how he threw it during a Pitching Ninja interview. Some of the things Gausman said rang true to Kennedy.

“He said for him to throw a slider and get on the side of the ball is always difficult,” Kennedy said. “But he said, ‘I can stay through a ball.’ That’s true for me, too. That’s when I was like, ‘I can do that.’ My fingers can spread out like that (pitch grip). So the next day I came in and started throwing it. I was like, ‘I think I can do that.’”

Kennedy sought out bullpen coach Mike Fetters, who threw a splitter during his career as a reliever. On the day after an off day last month, Kennedy showed Fetters what he thought could be his new secondary pitch.

“I started throwing one and he was like, ‘How long have you thrown that?’” Kennedy said. “I said, ‘Uh, today.’ He said, ‘Where has that been? You just found that on the off day?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, pretty much.’”

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Kennedy said he has been throwing the splitter in games for close to three weeks, though the pitchers are registering as change-ups according to the pitch-tracking cameras. In the first game he used it, he got a swing and miss from the Atlanta Braves’ Ozzie Albies. Most recently, he used it to strike out the Cincinnati Reds’ Matt Reynolds on Tuesday night. But Kennedy also almost hit a batter with the pitch earlier in the inning.

He said he just needs time to refine it, adding that it can be tricky to find the right moments to work on it during an outing when he often is pitching with the game on the line.

“I really do feel good about it,” Kennedy said. “I’ve seen it the last two or three outings, just what it does. Guys are so amped up for the fastball and I’m throwing (the splitter) in the zone and getting swings, so I’m thinking maybe I should throw this a little more. It feels good. But it’s hard to get reps in.”

Up next: Pitching matchups for Diamondbacks-Twins series at Chase Field

Short hops

Second baseman Ketel Marte was out of the lineup on Friday due to a left hamstring issue that first popped up in the eighth inning on Wednesday. Marte was scheduled to undergo an MRI exam on Friday afternoon. Marte said the injury felt far less severe than either of the hamstring strains that sent him to the injured list last season.

*Shortstop Nick Ahmed underwent shoulder surgery on Wednesday that he said had a six-month recovery timeline, thus bringing an end to his season. He said Los Angeles-based Dr. Neal ElAttrache repaired a labrum tear, “cleaned up” the bursa and rotator cuff tendons and addressed two bone spurs.

*The Diamondbacks selected the contract of infielder Buddy Kennedy and optioned outfielder Jake McCarthy. The club had been heavy on outfielders and left-handed bats and light on infielders and right-handed hitters. The move addressed both of those deficiencies with the right-handed-hitting Kennedy.

*To make room for Kennedy on the 40-man roster, the Diamondbacks transferred right-hander Humberto Castellanos to the 60-day injured list.

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: D-Backs’ Ian Kennedy hopes new splitter can balance out his repertoire