CHARLESTON, WV – The Pirates drafted Seth McGarry in the eighth round of the 2015 draft, the third-highest right-handed pitcher selected by the team. The young reliever from Florida Atlantic University reportedly boasted a promising fastball that topped out at 97 MPH and showed late movement.
A year later, McGarry has been overshadowed by late-round picks Tanner Anderson and Tate Scioneaux, who both have stuff far less impressive than McGarry’s fireballing arm. The reason for the stark contrast? McGarry’s inconsistency.
Coming into 2015, McGarry had pitched a mere 21.1 innings in college due to injuries, so the Pirates chose to work McGarry as a starter with the GCL Pirates and the Morgantown Black Bears. He struggled with control at both levels, throwing only 61 percent of his pitches for strikes in the six Morgantown starts tracked by Minor League Baseball. He finished his season with a rate of 4.2 walks per nine innings.
Despite his first-year struggles, McGarry got the call up to West Virginia for the 2016 season, alongside fellow 2015 draftees Anderson and Scioneaux. Scioneaux moved on to Bradenton three weeks later, followed by Anderson in mid-July.
McGarry, on the other hand, adjusted his approach to the higher level to compete against the more advanced hitters, and the additional development time kept him in Low-A. Instead of the flashy four-seam fastball, McGarry has been relying on a two-seamer with more deceptive movement and lower velocity.
McGarry spoke highly of the new two-seam addition, “Hitters now are a little more advanced so when the ball’s crossing two planes, it’s a little tougher to hit, and I can still throw it with a decent velocity. It also helps as well with pitch count. Hopefully using that to get early groundball outs.”
On that front, the two-seam fastball seems to have worked fairly well. Even against the advanced hitters, McGarry has maintained his performance. In both 2015 and 2016, 56 percent of the batters that McGarry faced either struck out or grounded out.
Unfortunately, McGarry’s walk rate has also stagnated. He still averages four walks per nine innings, something West Virginia pitching coach Matt Ford would like to see decrease.
“The main thing we preach to him [is] just to let it be,” said Ford. “You know, don’t be so worried about spotting up. Don’t be so fine. We want you to initiate contact, challenge bats.”
Alongside the developing two-seam fastball, McGarry tackled his curveball and changeup in 2016.
“Coming out of the ‘pen, usually not as many guys have a three-pitch mix,” McGarry explained. So he’s been trying to develop his secondary pitches to give him a leg up against the competition.
However, he has had mixed results with those pitches. When McGarry is able to land the curveball, it looks above average and features a sharp bite, but consistency has been the big flaw throughout his career.
“My biggest thing, it’s mechanical but not really mechanical,” said McGarry. “It’s just being more consistent with my delivery on each pitch instead of having those lapses and misfires.”
The changeup, likewise, has developed in 2016. In 2015, McGarry struggled against left-handers, but the changeup has reversed that challenge. In 2016, right-handers hit .280/.355/.440 against McGarry while lefties hit .235/.339/.337, thanks partly to the stronger changeup, according to Ford.
Overall, Ford has been pleased with McGarry’s development in 2016. “I think he’s done some good things this year. He’s made definitely some progress,” he said.
Any improvement could be attributed to McGarry’s familiarity with the bullpen role, which he played in college as well. He enjoys coming into late-inning games and being a difference maker.
“Pretty much any opportunity to get to throw and get innings on the mound is to me an equal chance to focus and use what I’ve been working on in my throwing program and see how it’s developing,” said McGarry. “Games are kind of like results. So each game or opportunity where I get to throw, whether it’s close or a blow out, is kind of approached the same way by me.”
McGarry still has a long way to go. His two-seam/four-seam mix could work to his advantage, but his consistency and walk rate need to come down. The development of his off-speed pitches will certainly help him if he makes the jump to Bradenton’s pen next year.
Until then, McGarry has some time to put in more work in the off-season. He’s headed back to his roots at Florida Atlantic to work on his degree in exercise science and health promotion. Hopefully, he’ll continue to work on his consistency start to move toward his full potential in 2017.
