The New York Yankees acquired starter Nathan Eovaldi from the Miami Marlins earlier in the offseason in hopes of improving their rotation and making their roster a bit younger. The right-hander arrived at spring training early this year.
The 25-year-old is working with pitching coach Larry Rothschild, as is starter Michael Pineda, who also arrived at spring training before pitchers and catchers are required to report. Both of these right-handers have the chance to save the Yankees' starting rotation and bolster their playoff chances if they have good campaigns in 2015. Eovaldi is looking to rebound from a down year with Miami.
In 2014, the former 11th round draft pick finished 6-14 with a 4.37 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 33 starts. He reached career milestones in games started (33), innings pitched (199 2/3) and strikeouts (142), but he gave up the most hits in the NL (223). After going 4-6 with a 3.39 ERA and 1.32 WHIP in 18 starts the previous year, it was a bit of a surprise Eovaldi dropped off as much as he did, especially in the offensively-anemic NL East. But he and Rothschild are targeting improvement.
"We've already begun to work on things," Eovaldi said, via Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News. "He's awesome. It's going to be a lot of fun working with him this year."
The former Marlin and Dodger told Dan Martin of the New York Post that he was working on his off-speed pitches with Rothschild. Martin writes the team is "attempting to turn an unpolished hard-thrower into something more." The right-hander's fastball averaged 95.5 mph last season and has hit 100 mph on the radar gun before, but it won't be of much use unless he can effectively develop his other pitches. He's working to improve his cutter, slider and curveball. Rothschild and the Yankees did something similar last season when they helped Brandon McCarthy utilize more of his pitches, and his second half success earned him a $48 million contract with the Dodgers.
Eovaldi said he's moving his fastball around and using his other pitches to his advantage because the "American League is going to be different." He'll have to work on his pitch selection and placement because he'll now be facing designated hitters instead of pitchers.
At only 25 years old, Eovaldi is under club control through the 2017 season and the Yankees hope they can develop him into a starter that can produce for years to come.