New pitches and mechanical adjustments
Slade Cecconi is a 25 year old SP/LRP that the Guardians acquired alongside a competitive balance pick this offseason in the Josh Naylor trade. Though it was a heartbreaking trade, seeing fan favorite Naylor go, I was very happen with Slade Cecconi as the return. Before he came to the Guardians Cecconi did not performing well, a 6.66 ERA in 74IP, despite being rated as a top prospect within the Diamondbacks organization. This made him a classic buy-low target for the Guardians, whose pitching development team seems to always know what a pitcher needs to unlock their talent.
Cecconi is a type of pitcher the Guardians have had tons of success developing, and from the very small sample so far in Spring Training it looks like they have done it again. Cecconi has a great feel for the strike zone and had an elite BB/9 of 1.99, as well as slightly above average velocity, and a solid feel for spin. These strengths allowed Cecconi to pitch very well on his first time through the order (1st TTO*) with an ERA 1.67 in a 32IP sample. All of his issues came on his second meeting with hitters when they started to square up his pitches. His HR/9 jumped from 0.28 to a staggering 2.86 during his 2nd TTO.
It was clear when he came to Cleveland that he need to miss more barrels, and the Guardians solution to that was to upgrade and add to his pitch mix. In his first outing of 2025 Cecconi showed off two new pitches: a sinker and cutter. These two pitches will help Cecconi bridge the gaps between his established pitches and induce more weak contact, and hopefully more groundballs. The sinker will primarily be used against righties, and the cutter against lefties. This has also allowed Cecconi to change his fastball and his slider into even better weapons than they were before.
In 2024 Cecconi’s fastball was what is called a “deadzone” fastball. This means it moved around the same amount vertically and horizontally, which hitters tend hit hard than other fastballs. With the introduction of a sinker, his fastball now has escaped the “deadzone” and now has a higher IVB*, while the sinker has more horizontal run. This has boosted the fastball to be rated above average, whereas before it was below average.
Cecconi’s slider graded above average in 2024, but the results were still poor for a few reasons. The biggest reason was the distinct shape compared to his other offerings that allowed hitters to pick it up better than expected. The Guardians pitching team has effectively “split” Cecconi’s slider into a hard cutter and a slower slider intended more for swing and miss. The slider becoming a primarily swing and miss pitch has now made it Cecconi’s best put-away pitch.
To fully illustrate the changes Cecconi has made, take a look at these two graphics provided by Thomas Nestico (@TJstats).
Ignore the stray cutter and sinker on the 2024 graph
2024
Thomas Nestico
2025 Spring Training
Thomas Nestico
It’s exciting to see Cecconi begin to experiment with the new pitch mix and we should follow his progress this season with great interest as the Guardians try to transform him into a viable major league starter.
Glossary of Terms:
*IVB/Induced Vertical Break: A measure of a pitches vertical movement independent of gravity i.e. how much rise/drop a pitcher induces onto the ball.
*TTO: Time Through Order.
*Stuff+: A metric designed to grade out pitches movement profiles; based on expected run values gathered from other similar pitches. An average pitch is graded at 100. Originally designed by Eno Sarris.
*tjStuff+: Thomas Nestico’s own interpretation of Stuff+.