Erick Fedde used his cutter to pitch his way out of trouble. That’s progress.
“The first three batters, my fastball was just kind of all over the place,” Fedde said, referring to his sinker. “So I decided, with the catcher, to start mixing [the cutter] in more. I threw a lot that were successful, so I was very happy with that.”
Make no mistake: This was a subpar outing for Fedde, who allowed a run on one hit and two walks in his lone inning. He would tell you that. His manager, Dave Martinez, did tell reporters that. That is expected at this point of the calendar.
But there was something intriguing about the way he used his cutter to limit damage. Fedde’s sinker has long been the base of his arsenal, the pitch everything else builds off of. He often goes to it when behind and in trouble. That has mostly been the case regardless of whether he has a good feel for it. A sticking point in his career, one of the main reasons he is constantly in a roster battle, is his inability to command that pitch with consistency. So take Sunday while considering it was six batters in an exhibition that ended in a 4-4 tie.
Tommy Edman, the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter, singled on a well-placed sinker on the outer half. That came on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, all sinkers. Next, Fedde walked Matt Carpenter on four pitches (two sinkers and two cutters that were all down and in). After that, he threw Paul Goldschmidt a sinker, curve, sinker, sinker, sinker and sinker and walked him, too. Then star third baseman Nolan Arenado dug in.
Fedde started with a first-pitch sinker that skipped past catcher Blake Swihart and brought in a run. That’s when he and Swihart decided to see where the cutter would take them. Fedde responded by striking out Arenado with three of them in four pitches. The sequence after the wild pitch was cutter, sinker, cutter, cutter, with the last one clipping the low-and-outside corner as Arenado swung through it. And once he got Paul DeJong to ground into a fielder’s choice with a curve, Fedde used two more cutters to retire Yadier Molina on a flyout that ended the inning.
“I still want him to locate his sinker. His sinker is a good pitch,” said Martinez, who was not ready to hand Fedde’s fate to his cutter (and rightfully so). His cutter, of course, is that much better if the sinker is on and they’re darting in opposite directions after traveling in a similar path toward the plate. “But his cutter was good, and we’ve talked a lot about using it a little bit more.”
In total, seven of his 28 pitches were cutters Sunday. In 2020, he threw the pitch 16.6 percent of the time — his third-most-used pitch — and leaned heavily on his sinker when even with batters or fighting back in counts. His full mix is a sinker, curveball, cutter, four-seam fastball and change-up, in that order, according to Statcast. He learned the cutter from Mike Maddux, a former Nationals pitching coach, in 2017. Paul Menhart, the club’s most recent former pitching coach, would say it actually resembled a slider because it moves both right to left and down.
Pitch labeling has been a confusing endeavor with Fedde throughout his four-year career. So has the way he has bounced between the bullpen and rotation, the majors and minors, and seemed to compete for the fifth starter spot every spring.
Fedde, 28, can’t break from the cycle of having to earn a chance. Martinez is again choosing among him, Joe Ross and Austin Voth to round out his staff, and Ross is the supposed front-runner. Fedde’s case is hurt by his remaining minor league option, allowing the Nationals to swing him from the majors to the minors without the risk of losing him on waivers. But increased confidence in his cutter, as briefly shown Sunday, could be a step toward really sticking with the Nationals. Last summer, in place of an injured Stephen Strasburg, Fedde finished with a 4.29 ERA in 50⅓ innings.
“I feel like it’s been my story line for as long as I can remember. I guess it’s kind of become normal,” Fedde said of vying to be the fifth starter. “But I’m rooting for all the guys with me, and I know they’re cheering me on. I realize, too, that not everyone stays healthy all year. Sometimes you need to pick each other up.
“I’m trying to always focus on wanting that position and wanting to be the guy they call on to start the year. But if they need me later, I’m going to be that guy.”
Make no mistake here, either: He would rather be in the rotation than not. Charter flights are better than minor league bus rides. Pay is better at the top.
But there is truth in how Fedde described his immediate future. It is inevitable that he’ll get a shot to start in 2021. He has in the past four seasons, which were four seasons that didn’t start with him “winning” the job. Sunday brought an early challenge that forced him out of his comfort zone. He didn’t just pound the sinker until something gave. He flipped to the cutter — even relied on it for a moment — and maybe learned about himself.
