Pirates' Trevor Williams works on building strong foundation, adds new pitch
BRADENTON, Fla. — Trevor Williams dropped weight and got a new delivery in the offseason, a development he deadpanned had nothing to do with baseball.
Instead, it was pure exhaustion.
“It’s stress that’s taking the pounds off,” Williams said with a laugh, as his family expanded from three (wife Jackie and son Isaac, 4) to five in a six-month span with the July adoption of daughter Josephine and the birth of son Jude last month. “I’ve taken some pounds off, but I’m as strong as I can be and I’m excited to see that work I put in in the offseason come to fruition.”
The baby boy wasn’t the only delivery on the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander’s mind this winter. The weight loss was intentional, as he worked on building a stronger core and foundation after an oblique injury affected his form last season. Williams was 14-10 with a 3.11 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 31 starts in 2018, but the discomfort caused his delivery to be out of whack last season. He finished 7-9, with a 5.38 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in 26 starts, allowing a team-high 27 home runs.
“That it was an oblique injury, he’s very special in those regards, with the torque he builds up,” said Pirates bullpen coach Justin Meccage, an assistant pitching coach last season. “So he had to generate it another way, with the leg swing. It became a momentum delivery instead of a foundation delivery.”
Williams did what he calls an “honest self-evaluation” and discovered using the leg swing to compensate affected his ability to consistently repeat his delivery.
“If you can’t repeat your delivery, it’s going to be hard to repeat your arm action and hard to repeat pitches,” Williams said. “So, it starts from one thing, and if you don’t stay on top of it, it escalates to other things.”
Rather than reconstruct his arm action, Williams worked on his lower body. His intention is to simplify and stay compact, keeping his left leg inside his body and stay over the pitching rubber rather than trying to fly out and swing upwards.
“I’m excited to see how that translates to the mound and to the game,” Williams said.
Meccage is excited to see the other thing Williams was tinkering with this winter, adding a curveball for a five-pitch repertoire. Where Williams relies heavily on throwing his four-seam fastball while mixing his slider, sinker and changeup, the curveball could have batters chasing pitches low and away.
Meccage said he was “intrigued” by the new pitch, which Williams threw only 21 times last season. He experimented with it in spring training but didn’t feel confident until late in the season, when Williams had nothing to lose.
“His strength is pitching up in the zone,” Meccage said. “Having a curveball play off that top-of-the-zone stuff is really important.”
Williams plans on implementing it more this season.
“It was effective for me, so this offseason going into bullpens we were just enhancing grips, what works best – the finger pressure, throwing it with the horseshoe or without the horseshoe,” Williams said. “We’re still experimenting with it but so far it’s been something that’s looked good.”
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Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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