CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Self awareness is one of Spencer Arrighetti’s strengths. Some pitchers pay little attention to the avalanche of advanced metrics and statistics made available to them. Arrighetti is an outlier. The 23-year-old devours data and deciphers it for his own benefit.
“It’s instant feedback,” Arrighetti said last week at Whataburger Field, “and if you’re capable of being accountable in the moment instead of blaming the situation or looking for a reason why the stuff might not be as good that day, I think it’s really good for getting you back to where you’re supposed to be as a pitcher.”
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Arrighetti can articulate exactly what he’s supposed to be. This April, he failed to show it. Arrighetti got away from everything that allowed him to excel. He toned down his mound presence “in the interest of professionalism.” He walked 4.6 batters per nine innings last season and overcorrected in an attempt to remedy it. He focused too much on commanding the baseball and, as a result, started “unintentionally walking more people by trying to be too perfect.” Arrighetti’s numbers suffered, as did his demeanor.
“You could see where he was just getting a little too emotional,” said his teammate on the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks, Cesar Gomez. “He was letting the outing affect him. And that’s usually not him. He usually just goes out there, throws, whatever happens happens and then he just walks off. You could tell that there had already been some outings in a row that started getting to him.
“I see him every single day,” Gomez said. “I know how he is, like he knows how I am. So if I see something out of (character), we got to break this down.”
Gomez has lived with Arrighetti across the past two seasons: in spring training, on the road and, until recently, in a Corpus Christi apartment. One April evening, the two roommates started to talk. Arrighetti sported an 11.05 ERA after his first four starts. Gomez noticed a small mechanical flaw, but knew the biggest problem had nothing to do with pitching.
“It really is just here, man,” Gomez said, putting each of his index fingers on his temples. “You’re so good and you’re so pressed about everything else that’s going on around. There’s too much noise, you just need to lock it in, like a racehorse kind of deal.
“I told him, I was like, ‘Dude, you’re in the Kentucky Derby, bro. You’re the horse. Run the race.’”
Arrighetti already knew the issue. Hearing it out loud only confirmed his underlying suspicion and spurred change. Arrighetti stepped back and surveyed some of his habits. He altered some parts of his routine and rededicated himself to the weight room.
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“I was chasing being a pitcher that I wasn’t,” Arrighetti said. “And I’m not going to say I’m going out-stuff people for the rest of my life. Obviously in the big leagues, it’s going to be different. But for age-appropriate competition, I think I can go out there and try to throw it past people for the most part. And when I was trying to be perfect instead of trying to throw it past people, the results just weren’t good.”
Arrighetti struck out 37 and allowed two earned runs across 27 May innings. The Astros named him their Minor League Pitcher of the Month as a result. Opponents slashed .166/.253/.274 against him in nine starts since May 2. Arrighetti has a 1.96 ERA, 16 walks and is throwing 65 percent of his pitches for strikes during that stretch, which started after his conversation with Gomez.
“I have good stuff. I know I have good stuff. The Astros make that very evident to us by showing us the data compared to big leaguers and whatnot,” Arrighetti said. “The bigger picture is there. I think that the only reason that it wasn’t there in the beginning of the season was just a little loss of identity. I think that’s why being told like, ‘Hey, just be Spencer.’ I think that’s what made it all click.”
Arrighetti, a sixth-round pick in the 2021 draft who attended three different colleges, is perhaps the most ascendant starting pitching prospect in the Astros’ minor league system. The Athletic’s Keith Law tabbed Arrighetti No. 15 in his preseason ranking of Astros prospects, but his dominance at Double A is drawing attention from both inside and outside the organization. The Astros promoted him to Triple-A Sugar Land on Monday morning.
ON THE MOVE (06/26):
Spencer Arrighetti from CC ➡️ @SLSpaceCowboys 🤠
Ryan Gusto from @GoTourists to Corpus Christi pic.twitter.com/HwtObMAsIv
— Corpus Christi Hooks (@cchooks) June 26, 2023
Earlier this month, without prompt, general manager Dana Brown mentioned Arrighetti as a potential spot starter should the major-league team require one later this season.
“He’s really gifted on the mound. He’s got good stuff,” farm director Sara Goodrum said. “For him, more than anything, I think it was a mentality and going out there, trusting himself and being Spencer Arrighetti and really starting to grow into that and build the confidence to trust himself and go out there and be him.”
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Arrighetti’s arsenal is predicated around a deceptive four-seam fastball and a sweeper slider the Astros taught him early in his professional career. His fastball velocity is not overpowering — it sits between 92-95 mph and touches 96 — but Arrighetti gets such good extension in his delivery that it appears far harder.
Arrighetti stands 6-foot-2 but said he throws from what is effectively 7-foot-2, allowing his fastball to jump on hitters. His delivery features a “drop and drive,” too, which means Arrighetti’s release point is lower to the ground, creating even more deception.
“I’m a power fastball guy. I’m going to compete with my fastball in the zone a lot and I’m going to throw nasty stuff out of the zone and try to get people to chase,” Arrighetti said, noting that he’s never struck out fewer than 31 percent of hitters in pro ball. “I would say I’m a strikeout guy. I’m going to chase strikeouts. I’m going to try to get people to expand the zone and I’m going to compete in the zone when they’re not.”
Arrighetti’s 11.7 strikeouts per nine rank 11th among all qualified minor-league pitchers. Hitters have a .214 batting average against him. His sweeper slider, which the Astros taught him early in his professional career, has become one of his most trusted pitches against right-handed hitters. He spins a curveball against left-handed hitters, but has had trouble landing it in the strike zone.
In response, Arrighetti added an 88-90 mph cutter to his repertoire about two or three weeks ago. His changeup is performing better in the strike zone against left-handed hitters, even generating some strikeouts in some of his more recent starts.
“Up until this point in minor-league baseball, fastball and sweepers were good enough for righties, but you’re going to have to get more creative further up the ladder,” Arrighetti said. “Got another tool in the back pocket and I’d say they’re all getting sharper. So that’s exciting.”
Arrighetti’s climb up that ladder should continue this season. His promotion on Monday puts him on the precipice of a major-league call-up, just as Brown mentioned earlier this month. Arrighetti is well aware of where he stands in the hierarchy. Obsessing over it is a pitfall, the same kind that allowed his April to go so askew.
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“That was another little piece of it was maybe having too big of expectations for myself out of the gate and then feeling like where I was at the moment wasn’t the most important place that I could be, based on situational factors around me that I can’t control,” Arrighetti said. “ … My only goal is to just be the best version of Spencer that I can be in the meantime. If I keep throwing the ball that way, the phone rang one day and then it won’t really matter what day it is, it will just be that it’s happening.”
(Photo: Tony Farlow / Four Seam Images via AP)
