JUPITER, Fla. — When Cardinals reflected on the year of yo-yoing back-and-forth between the major leagues and minor leagues as well as from the bullpen to the starting rotation last season, he realized he’d wasted part of the season “chasing†too many things.
Thompson, who began last season on the major-league roster as a reliever, went down to the minors in May in order to stretch out as a starter. That’s the period Thompson now looks back on as learning experience.
“I was trying to add in the changeup and the slider and build up at the same time and add all the workload, and that was too many to focus on at once,†Thompson said in the Cardinals clubhouse at their spring training facility.
“You can only really knock out one or two things at a time and go from there. But I was trying to add pitch count, add workload, add more throwing, add longer bullpens, add two new pitches. So it was just a lot of adding and not much simplification until I got back up here.â€
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Once the season ended, the chase was back on for Thompson. That chase took him to a training facility just outside of Charlotte, N.C. As part of his offseason program, he discovered a new grip on an old pitch and added a new pitch to his arsenal in pursuit of a goal to be a major-league starter.
“I worked on a multitude of things, but it was more one at a time,†Thompson said of his offseason. “By the time I got on the mound, it was starting to refine feel on a couple of pitches I’ve been working all offseason on. Mechanically, by the time I got on the mound I felt like I was in a good spot and had some things ironed out there.â€
Thompson will start Saturday’s split squad game against the New York Mets in one of two Grapefruit League openers for the Cardinals that afternoon.
That will be Thompson’s first chance in a game setting to show that his offseason pursuits weren’t in vain, even though the Cardinals have five experienced veteran starters projected to fill out their rotation this season.
“I think it’s just running with opportunities,†Thompson said of his approach entering camp. “You never know what’s going to happen in spring training at the start of the year. Just take it a day at a time and focus on my process and just trying to be consistently good every single day.â€
The Cardinals will stretch Thompson out as a starter during spring training, but they’ve left the door open as far as possibly utilizing him in the bullpen.
However, Thompson remains one of the most intriguing depth options for a major-league rotation featuring five pitchers 32 or older. The schedule will also force the Cardinals to at least consider a six-man rotation at the start of this season.
“We weren’t in a position to (keep him in one role) last year with some of the injuries and things that were going on,†Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Thompson. “But there’s some things during the offseason that he was able to pinpoint that are going to allow for more consistency.
“There was a lot of variance between his fastball and how his lower half was moving and how that correlates. There are some things he’s working on in his pens and the lives that should lead to a more consistent Thompson.â€
Building a starter’s repertoire
The results Thompson had as a starter in the minors when he initially went down in May were not awe-inspiring. He posted an 8.65 ERA, a WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) of 2.36 and a walk rate of 10.22 per 9 innings in 11 games (nine starts).
In July, he returned to the majors as a reliever. In that role, he’d leaned heavily on a fastball-curveball combination.
Thompson has pointed to as a turning point for him in terms of “trusting†that he could have success by challenging hitters in the strike zone.
Thompson entered in relief of Miles Mikolas to start the sixth inning with a one-run lead at Wrigley Field. Thompson struck out the first batter he faced, but then gave up a single, followed by back-to-back walks and a bases-loaded two-run single by Cody Bellinger. Thompson’s outing proved pivotal in a Cardinals loss.
The next day, Thompson bounced back with two scoreless innings of relief against the Cubs. He also mixed in a pitch he hadn’t used in his previous outing, his slider/cutter.
When Thompson got pressed into duty as a starter again, he continued to use the slider/cutter regularly. In nine starts late last season (45 1/3 innings), Thompson was 3-4 with a 4.57 ERA, 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings, a 1.32 WHIP and a 3.29-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Opposing hitters slashed .264/.323/.437 against him as a starter in the majors.
After the season ended, Thompson drove directly to North Carolina. He spent his offseason working with the pitching performance specialists at Tread Athletics in Pineville, N.C.
Thompson had worked with Tread dating back to the offseason between the end of the 2021 season and the start of the 2022 season. Though he’d worked with them remotely via video and shared data.
This winter, .
“I kind of come in with what I want to accomplish for the offseason, what I think my weaknesses are and then a guy I’ve been working with for three years can say, ‘I’ve also seen this,’†Thompson said of the dynamic.
The “guy†Thompson trusted was performance coach Matt Marsili, a former independent league pitcher who also spent time in the Kansas City Royals organization in 2021.
In the previous two offseasons, Marsili oversaw a program for Thompson focused on cleaning up Thompson’s pitching mechanics in order to make his delivery more repeatable and give him more consistent velocity.
“This offseason was a lot more pitch data, pitch design, trying to kind of add a different changeup and add a tighter curveball,†Marsili said in a phone interview.
Thompson has kept in touch with Marsili and given him access to his pitch data over the past two seasons. So they hit the ground running when Thompson arrived. Before the season ended, they’d already began considering how to build out an pitching arsenal that would allow him to compete for a starting rotation spot.
“When we first started the offseason, the main goal was we need to add a better changeup, because we already had the fastball, the slider and the curve,†Marsili said. “We need to add a better changeup. So that was our first goal.â€
Thompson found early success with one grip in his first offseason bullpen session, but ultimately got the most consistency and effectiveness with a “kick change.â€
“It’s a really weird unconventional grip where it’s almost got splitter-like spin, but it’s kind of like a spiked changeup grip,†Marsili said. “It’s got really weird spin to the hitter, and it dives really hard. We kind of found that and were like, ‘Damn. This looks really good.’ The data is really good. The catchers’ reactions were really good.â€
The next item on the agenda for Thompson, Marsili and the data analysts at Tread was adding another curveball that could generate swing-and-miss.
Marsili had jokingly jabbed Thompson over the last couple years about having a big, slow, loopy curveball.
“We know when I look at a curveball, the actual break on a curveball — how much it goes down — does not matter at all when we’re looking at whiff percentage and damage against,†Marsili said. “The biggest inflection point we see where we start to see actual return on the pitch is how hard can we throw it.â€
The data shows that when a curveball travels 80 miles per hour or harder, swing-and-miss rates go up and the “damage†against goes down, according to Marsili. That’s why a “baby curve†became a new weapon in Thompson’s arsenal.
It turned out that Thompson’s former teammate and another pitcher who has worked with Tread, left-hander Jordan Montgomery, provided a template for Thompson’s new baby curveball.
Thompson and Montgomery share a high arm slot and throwing posture that makes them a close match biomechanically.
Montgomery’s curveball, which averaged 80.5 mph this season, became a key element of the Texas Rangers’ run to the World Series championship, particularly in the ALCS when .
The early results from the Thompson “baby curve†have encouraged Marsili. In live at-bats during the winter, hitters weren’t picking up the spin very well. Thompson has continued to use it in live batting practice sessions in camp.
“My thought process is if we can throw a harder curveball that’s 80-plus (miles per hour) with still getting depth on it,†Marsili said. “It’s going to mirror really well between his fastball to a tighter curveball with a little bit of depth and then a slower one too. It actually will probably make the slower one even better.â€
Cardinals spring training broadcast schedule
DATE | TIME | OPPONENT | OUTLETS |
---|---|---|---|
Saturday | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Marlins | BSM, KMOX, WIJR |
Sunday | 12:05 p.m. | at Astros | KMOX, WIJR |
Monday | 12:10 p.m. | at Marlins | |
Tuesday | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Red Sox | Cards radio network |
Wednesday | 12:10 p.m. | at Mets | |
Thursday | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Nationals | BSM, Cards radio network |
March 1 | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Mets | BSM, |
March 2 | 12:05 p.m. | at Astros | KMOX |
March 3 | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Marlins | BSM, KMOX |
March 4 | 12:05 p.m. | at Nationals | |
March 5 | 12:05 | vs. Twins | |
March 7 | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Astros | |
March 8 | 5:05 p.m. | at Nationals | KMOX |
March 9 | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Mets | BSM, KMOX |
March 10 | 12:10 p.m. | at Marlins | BSM, KMOX |
March 11 | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Nationals | BSM, |
March 14 | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Mets | BSM, |
March 15 | 5:05 p.m. | vs. Marlins | BSM, KMOX |
March 16 | 11:05 a.m. | at Nationals | KMOX |
March 17 | 12:10 p.m. | vs. Astros | BSM, KMOX |
March 19 | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Marlins | KMOX |
March 20 | 5:05 p.m. | at Nationals | KMOX |
March 21 | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Astros | BSM, |
March 22 | 5:40 p.m. | at Marlins | BSM, KMOX |
March 23 | 12:05 p.m. | vs. Nationals | KMOX |
March 24 | 11:05 a.m. | at Astros | KMOX |
March 25 | 3:05 p.m. | at Cubs | MLB Network, KMOX |