Reliever Mlodzinski looks to get back to form

Last week, as the Pittsburgh Pirates prepared to welcome the Atlanta Braves to PNC Park for three games, manager Derek Shelton offered some thoughts on the club’s bullpen.

Shelton had much to reflect on, as the Pirates had just lost two straight games to the San Francisco Giants in which their bullpen melted down, surrendering big leads.

“I think the one thing we do have to realize with bullpens (is) bullpens can be volatile at times,” he said. “We just had back-to-back games where it wasn’t very good and as I said postgame, it was frustrating.

“The second thing we have to remember is we got some guys in the bullpen that are trying to find their footing. They are very young. Sometimes that comes by trial by fire. Sometimes it looks really good and then sometimes it doesn’t look so good. The times it doesn’t look good, when you lose games at the end of the games, you get extremely frustrated.”

The Pirates’ bullpen has left much to be desired this year, with the fourth-worst ERA (4.68) and WHIP (1.40) in baseball.

Both personifying the struggles of Pittsburgh’s bullpen as well as falling into the bag of younger pitchers searching for direction that Shelton mentioned has been Carmen Mlodzinski.

The 25-year-old righty was electric last year, going 3-3 with a 2.25 ERA in 36 innings over 35 games in his first taste of MLB action.

But so far in 2024, Mlodzinski (0-2, 12.71 ERA) has been unable to find a level of success anywhere near what he did a year ago.

His ERA is a team-worst, with eight earned runs allowed in only 5⅔ innings.

Mlodzinski’s .400 batting average against and 2.47 WHIP are also highest Pirates relievers.

After beginning the season on the injured list due to right elbow inflammation, Mlodzinski was assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis, where he didn’t look particularly sharp, compiling a 6.43 ERA in 12 appearances.

Recalled by the Pirates in mid-May, Mlodzinski figures a major key moving forward will be simply to throw more strikes.

“I feel like right now, I just have to fill up the strike zone a little bit,” he said. “I think I’ve made some adjustments to my overall package that I’m bringing into this season that’s going to help me in the long run, but just filling it up and increasing the strike percentage is going to help me a lot.”

So far, consistently throwing strikes has been a challenge for Mlodsinski, who’s managed to do so on 60% of his pitches (81 out of 134 total).

Only one of his appearances has been scoreless, when Mlodzinski pitched a clean inning May 21 against San Francisco.

The other three have featured him allowing multiple runs with high pitch counts, one of which came May 22, when he got shelled for four hits and three runs against the Giants in the decisive 10th inning, taking the loss as a result.

Mlodzinski relies chiefly on his fastballs, a four-seamer that averages 96 mph and a cutter in the 91 mph range, both of which account for roughly 79% of his pitches, per Statcast.

Recently, Mlodzinski has been experimenting with his off-speed approach, incorporating a gyro slider, a variation usually thrown faster than the traditional pitch but without the trademark horizontal break.

Mlodzinski hopes the pitch, when properly executed, will offer him more swings and misses lower in the zone as the pitch drops vertically upon reaching batters.

“It was an adjustment I made off the cutter I was throwing last year, so it’s a different look from both sides of the plate,” Mlodzinski said. “Something a little bit more – taking away vertically on the ball when it’s coming. So, something that misses underneath the bat.

“I have a lot of stuff that I try to be above. With just the way I throw, I always try to be above guys’ bats, so having that pitch to go underneath is the adjustment.”

Analytics have been a bit kinder to Mlodzinski this year than his actual numbers, as his expected ERA is 6.64 and expected batting average against is .341.

As he admitted, part of his problem has been missing the strike zone, which creates a snowball effect for any pitcher trying to work from behind in counts, leading often to more contact being made.

As for his repertoire, Mlodzinski remains confident.

His first order of business, whenever Shelton next gives him the call, will be refining his accuracy.

“My stuff is better than last year,” he said. “I just have to put it in the strike zone. … Just getting back to that and making small adjustments with the strike percentage – the rest will take care of itself.”