Kyle Harrison turns into a different pitcher than the one who has acquired the Red Sox of the Giants as part of the breathtaking June Rafael Devers Agreement. That was the plan when Boston brought him on board, as evidenced by the 24-year-old Southpaws who had spent almost three months in Triple-A after the Swap. With 182 2/3 Main class ininings under his belt, the former top perspective in the San Francisco system was sent to Worcester to have his repertoire configured.
His primary weapons remain largely the same. Harrison still attacks Hitters with a one -off combination that Eric Longenhagen called “An OpenHill Fastball” and “A Big Bending Breaking Ball”. The first is a heating of 94.8 MPH, while the latter is an offer of 84.2 mph that is categorized as a slurve.
And then there are the new additions.
“First and foremost there is the cutter,” said Harrison, who made two performances and allowed one run about nine innings since he made his Red Sox debut on 10 September. “There is also a zinc shed that I can mix in the left. It.”
Harrison said he added a cutter when I spoke to him early last season, but the field was never really held. For each baseball Savant, he only threw six of them in 2024. With regard to the change, there have been several iterations. After having adjusted his original grip last year, he is now a member of the Kick Change Generation.
“It used to be comparable with Logan WebbThe way he throws his own with a one-seam orientation but I switched to a kick, “Harrison explained. “That’s what I’m trying to use. It is a bit harder to get an idea. Throwing a kick takes away a bit that is perfect, trying to pronounce a pitch and reach a place. Now it is, “Throw the field and let the kick take care of it.” ‘
The early results are promising, especially in terms of movement profile.
“With the old change I was usually positive vert-positive-one, positive-two and then negative two at its best,” said Harrison, who has thrown 46 kick changes (8.8%) since his call. “I am consistently negative now, so this pitch can certainly be an eye-opener for me. I love how it feels so far; it’s just a matter of becoming more comfortable. I have to get it consistently about the plate, and I also have to be able to order it from the zone. When I was in the middle of the middle of the middle of the middle of the middle.”
Leaving its original organization – the Giants took him in the third round of the 2020 design from Concord, the La Salle High School in California – until the change.
“I never really tried new changing cherries there,” Harrison told me. “Then I came to Boston here. We tried one in Worcester who was a form of a splitter, but it didn’t really have the best shape, so we tried the kick change. Then I started to cut some negative fives, negative eight. Again, we just have to get it over the plate.”
Throwing his slurve on both sides of the plate is another post-San Francisco adjustment. While his old club mainly wanted the pitch side, gone to Righties, Red Sox Pitching Coach Andrew Bailey Spoke with the Lefty about having more a back-foot approach.
“With the Giants I felt that I was just going to Righties with it,” said Harrison. “Here it is cool that they want me to throw that thing under bats. I think that is the next step for that pitch – try to get some chase. If I get ahead with my other things, I can use it to get swings, especially against aggressive teams.”
The fact that Harrison’s arsenal and approach are undergoing adjustments is no surprise in many ways. His term of office in San Francisco, which included parts of three seasons, included an ERA of 4.48 and a 4.56 FIP about the above 182 2/3 innings. In general, he fell short of what high expectations had been.
What is somewhat surprising is that although the giants are generally considered a smart pitching organization, a change of environment was needed to make the adjustments happen. I asked Harrison for his thoughts about that.
“I think I would say I am not surprised,” Harrison said. “I was a kind of top perspective, so it was almost as I just came around with my things. They didn’t want to change me in a certain sense. When I came here, it was quite cool to get into a kind of development phase where I could certainly experiment with new pitches and I could see what I had.
And why wouldn’t he be? He is planned to start at home against the Tigers tonight. The magical number of his team is one. Just a few months after San Francisco sent him to Boston, Harrison has the chance to be the winning pitcher in a competition in Fenway that sends the Red Sox to the late season. Some chance, indeed.
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