As Cardinals prospect Gordon Graceffo’s innings have built up during his first three months of the Class AAA season with Memphis, so too has the fastball velocity that helped him climb the Cardinals system in his breakout 2022 season.
It’s taken some adjusting to get there.
“It’s just a factor of me feeling better. My mechanics feeling better. My arm feeling better,†Graceffo told the Post-Dispatch during a recent interview in Memphis, Tennessee. “I tried some things in the offseason and during spring training that I ended up switching up once I got here and I’m just kind of getting used to those things. Since I’ve gotten used to those things, I’ve been feeling better velo-wise.â€
The 24-year-old righty, who flashed upwards of 99 mph during his breakout 2022 and in his injury-limited year in Triple-A in 2023, has averaged 92.4 mph on his fastball through 14 starts this year and has posted a 3.84 ERA in 75 innings. He averaged 94.1 mph with the fastball last year, a year which was limited to 86 innings for Memphis because of shoulder inflammation.
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In his most recent start on Wednesday, Graceffo’s fastball sat at 93 mph and touched 96 mph in the fifth and final inning of his scoreless performance. Three of the four strikeouts he notched in the outing came on swinging strikes on fastballs clocked at or above 94 mph.
The outing was Graceffo’s fourth this year where he’s thrown 10 or more fastballs at or above 94 mph, per Statcast. Three of those four outings have come since May 21.
“It feels really good,†Graceffo said at the end of May when asked about the flashes of velocity in his recent starts. “I think if my velo is there like that, it makes all my other stuff better, and I think it puts you in a really good spot.â€
Graceffo pointed to a shift in mechanics and his time adjusting to them as a reason for the buildup of his fastball.
During his first two starts of the season, Graceffo began his windup with his left foot set on the pitching rubber and pointed toward home plate. The 24-year-old had his right foot planted on the rubber and pointed toward third base as if to establish the spot where he’d push off from on his delivery. He utilized a shorter step back with his left leg at the start of his windup and kept his right foot planted where he set it.
In years past, Graceffo would have both feet planted on the rubber and pointed toward home plate when he’d step on the pitching rubber. He utilized a more emphatic step-back motion with his left leg at the start of his windup that was followed by a toe-tap of the pitching rubber with his right foot before planting his right foot back on the pitching rubber and pushing off for his delivery.
He switched back to his previous delivery in his third start of the year and stuck to it since.
“Going back to what I’ve originally done with the step back, I’ve felt really good,†said Graceffo, who has a 3.12 ERA and an 8-3 record in 12 starts after switching back to his previous windup. “Once I started doing that, and once I got the rhythm with it back and kind of the speed and the rhythm of it, it’s felt really good.â€
After he began the year with a 4.93 ERA and a .271 batting average allowed in his first seven starts, Graceffo has posted a 2.90 ERA and kept hitters to a .224 average in his previous seven. His success in his last seven starts includes a 4-0 record over four starts in June and a 2.05 ERA since the start of this month.
Graceffo, who spent over seven weeks on the injured list and held a 4.92 ERA a season ago, has improved his strikeout-to-walk rate from 9.3% a year ago to 12.5% as the minor league season reaches its mid-point.
“I just think more and more you see that your stuff plays like you belong here,†Graceffo said of his takeaways from getting a setback-free workload to begin 2024. “I think that I can have success at this level and at the next level.â€
Include an improved changeup to his signs of success for the former 2021 fourth-round draft pick.
The righty toyed with the grip on his changeup this offseason until he found one that suited him and developed a feel for what he felt was right. When throwing his changeup this year, Graceffo has generated a 36.75% whiff rate. Opposing batters have two hits on that pitch for a .091 average after they hit it for a .267 average and swung and missed on it 25% of the time in 2023, per Statcast.
“I try not to pay attention too much to all the numbers and stuff because, at the end of the day, the hitters are going to tell you if your stuff is good or not,†Graceffo said. “And I feel like I’ve had success with it and I’m just going to keep riding with it.â€
Taking a step forward with his changeup was one of the 24-year-old’s offseason goals as he entered his third full season in the minors. Graceffo, the Cardinals minor league pitcher of the year in 2022, is striving for consistency each day he takes the mound.
“It’s just being able to show up that one day a week, two days a week, whatever it is, and just put your best self forward,†Graceffo said. “… I feel like when I can put my best self forward and I feel great, then I feel like that’s when I’m going to have success. It’s just being able to find that every week and do my work throughout the week and trust on my start that I can get it done.â€
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