A look at Aaron Slegers Spot Start for the Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins recalled towering righty Aaron Slegers yesterday and he put up great numbers. How did he look?

The Minnesota Twins brought up Aaron Slegers to make his major league debut in the second half of the double header on Thursday.

Background

Aaron Allan Slegers was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 5th round of the 2013 draft out of Indiana University.

Born September 4th of 1992, Slegers is the son of a Minnesota native, as his mother is from Hinckley and went to Hamline University in St. Paul.

In his draft season, Slegers was sent to Elizabethton, and after a full season of pitching in college, he threw out of the bullpen in the Appalachian League, posting very good numbers, with a 0.47 ERA and 0.95 WHIP over 9 games and 19 innings, posting a 2/18 BB/K ratio.

Slegers opened the 2014 season with Cedar Rapids, and while his numbers weren’t amazing, the Twins bumped him up to Fort Myers, and his numbers were solid there. He finished combined with 23 starts, 132 innings, a 4.36 ERA, a 1.18 WHIP, and a 24/102 BB/K ratio.

Slegers opened 2015 with high-A Fort Myers and worked to AA Chattanooga in the second half of the season, combining for 25 starts, 156 innings, a 3.35 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and a 33/104 BB/K ratio.

In 2016, Slegers spent the full season at AA Chattanooga, making 25 starts, with 145 1/3 innings, posting a 3.41 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, and a 46/104 BB/K ratio.

This season in AAA, Slegers has been the best pitcher in Rochester’s rotation all season. He leads the International League in wins with 13, making 21 starts, throwing 130 1/3 innings, with a 3.18 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, and a 27/97 BB/K ratio.

Next: Slegers Scouting Report

https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/898325020115587072

Scouting Report

Size/Delivery/Control

Size – The first thing everyone notices is Slegers’ height. He is 6’10” tall, and stands every bit of that. He’s listed at 245 pounds, and that’s likely quite accurate, as he’s filled out well, but not overly bulky or lean in his build.

Delivery – Slegers is an incredible rarity among guys over roughly 6’6″ in height in one facet of his delivery – he repeats it with precision. When you watch a start of Slegers, you’ll note on the mound that his landing spot is almost a perfect image of his shoe by the end of 3-4 innings as he hits the spot so consistently.

Slegers does nothing really deceptive or even notable in his delivery. He has a pretty standard step-back, knee lift, and then drive sort of combination. His release point, however, does add another level of difficulty for hitters as a 6’10” guy on top of a pitcher’s mound that elevates that pitcher 10 more inches off the ground then throws the ball from almost a pure overhand release point, typically throwing with a high 3/4 arm slot, now and then throwing in a traditional 3/4 arm slot with his fastball and change to keep hitters off balance – especially against lefty hitters. For perspective, with just average arm length ratios (I don’t have any specifics on Slegers’ actual arm measurements), Slegers would be releasing the ball from roughly 8 1/2 feet above the height of the plate when he releases the ball. While not deceptive, that’s a unique and difficult perspective to pick up for sure!

Control (60) – Slegers has produced some of the most impressive control/command numbers from a tall pitcher that I can recall seeing. He’s never had a walk rate above 8% at any minor league stop, even in a brief stop, and his numbers with AAA Rochester were a 5% walk rate this season. The control is one thing, though. The command is another. With his consistent delivery and mechanics, Slegers is able to hit the webbing of the mitt of the catcher on most pitches, and rarely does the catcher even move his hand when Slegers is on. During his hot streak in June of this season, it was a thing of beauty to watch the catcher simply crouch, put up a target and then not have to move again until the pitch was in his glove.

This is where Slegers does run into any issues, however. While he will always be around the zone, he relies on excellent movement of his pitches and that elite command to be successful. If he is missing the command portion even a bit, he can be hit well as his raw stuff is not such that he’d still be able to overpower a hitter.

Pitches

Fastball (55) – Slegers will work typically around the 90 MPH mark with his fastball, usually working 90-92, touching 94. What makes his fastball effective is the plane he gets from his 6’10” height and the tremendous late vertical movement he gets on the pitch, with a bit of arm side sink. When he “dips” to a traditional 3/4 arm slot, he can get a touch of cut on his fastball as it moves in on lefty hitters.

Change Up (50) – Slegers does not get the same sort of movement on his change as he does on his fastball, which does make the pitch easier to distinguish, but he has excellent arm deception on the pitch. If he struggles in location on a pitch, it seems as if this is the pitch he struggles most on, however, and the more “straight” movement on the pitch allows the ball to get driven hard.

Slider (45) – Many guys get a “sweeping” slider from a tall angle, but Slegers typically has more of a slurvy slider that has a short horizontal break as well as vertical break. While the pitch would be an excellent ground ball pitch in the lower third of the zone, he seems to get better break on the pitch when he works the ball roughly thigh-high to belt-high. Slegers also can get more of a sweeping movement to lefties by “dipping” to a traditional 3/4 arm slot. The fact that the pitch’s movement is fairly gradual and not exceptionally sharp is what keeps the pitch from rating higher.

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MLB Player Comp

While their prospect profiles are really not comparable at all, Slegers reminds me quite a bit in physical build and pitch type of Chris Volstad, who was a hot prospect once upon a time for the Miami Marlins. Volstad was a guy who could touch up to mid-90s as a young prospect but his development of his change and curve as a high school draft pick never materialized Volstad into a top pitcher, rather developing Volstad more into the type of pitcher that Slegers is more known for.

Volstad had his depth curve changed to a spike curve when he was in AA, giving him a very similar arsenal to Slegers, but Slegers has put up better swing and miss rates, likely due to what I would say is a better command profile as Volstad was consistently around the plate, but he was more excellent in control than he was in command, keeping the ball near the plate, but often missing his spots.

Regardless, the role of someone like Volstad without being able to get some swing and miss is a quad-A starter. A good AAA starter that really struggles to be an effective major league starter. However, even a tick more strikeout ability would allow for that same profile to be a good inning-eater profile with league-average production at the back end of the rotation.

Next: Early Innings

Early innings

First inning

Could not have asked for a better first inning. In roughly 7 minutes of actual clock time, Slegers put down the Indians 1-2-3, using just 10 pitches.

That movement mentioned on the previous page came into play on the first hitter as he got Jason Kipnis to roll over the second pitch to shortstop on a moving fastball.

With Francisco Lindor, he stayed away for three pitches before coming down and low for pitch four, getting Lindor to foul off two of the first four pitches. He then returned to the outside, middle-up range on Lindor for two more pitches, one ball and one foul, before getting another foul on a another low ball up the middle. Lindor then lined another outside middle pitch to left field.

Jay Bruce lined the first pitch he saw right at left fielder Eddie Rosario.

Second inning

The sun came out strong between the first and second, and Slegers used his height to create good plane with the sky behind him, attacking the low zone against Encarnacion, getting him to pop up to Joe Mauer at first.

Slegers actually missed twice with Carlos Santana at the plate, and with his recent history against the Twins, that’s not what you want to do. He got ball one, and then missed his spot up and outside rather than low and outside, and Santana drove the ball well between Byron Buxton and Robbie Grossman, who collided as Buxton caught the ball in a bit of a scary moment.

Austin Jackson took a pair of pitches before getting poor wood on a well-thrown moving fastball, grounding it to the shortstop for a quick third out. Slegers had thrown just 19 pitches total in the first two innings.

Third inning

Slegers opened Almonte with a pair of breaking pitches before attacking him with fastballs, the third of which had tremendous movement as Slegers dipped down to a 3/4 arm angle and froze Almonte on a pitch right at the belt.

Slegers was getting heavy movement to his arm side in the 3rd inning, and he missed three times inside to the right-handed Roberto Perez before coming back go get to 3-1, then missing again to his arm side for his first walk.

The first pitch to Giovanny Urshela after the walk was a well-placed sinker that generated a ground ball double play 4-6-3 that got Slegers out of the inning facing the minimum through three innings.

Next: Final innings of start

Innings 4-7

Fourth inning

After getting Kipnis to roll over on a pitch in his first plate appearance, Slegers attacked the corners on him in his second at bat and got his second strikeout of the game.

His first pitch to Lindor was low and in the middle, drawing a foul into a sensitive spot of catcher Chris Gimenez. He returned to his strategy on Lindor, pounding the outside corner with fastballs before then coming low middle again with a change that drew a swing and miss. Lindor fouled three more balls off before again flying out to left fielder Eddie Rosario.

Against Jay Bruce, Slegers attacked high in the count with precision, but when he then came back down, he struggled to put the ball where he wanted exactly, missing his spots twice before missing toward the plate on a ball that was to be on the outside corner. Bruce deposited the ball in the right field seats for a solo home run, the first hit off of Slegers in the ball game.

Slegers continued to struggle with hitting his spot, and his arm slot was notably between his typical high 3/4 and a typical 3/4, sitting in a weird arm slot where he wasn’t getting the movement he was used to nor his typical pinpoint command. That led to a four-pitch walk of Encarnacion after the Bruce home run.

Catcher Gimenez came out to talk with Slegers as Encarnacion took his base, and the results were immediate. Slegers missed to “the pitcher’s side” on his location misses after that talk and jumped out in front of Carlos Santana with a first-pitch strike, allowing him to attempt to get Santana to chase a few pitcher’s pitches before Santana rolled over a heavy sinker to Mauer to end the inning.

Fifth inning

Slegers worked the high part of the zone on Jackson after getting a quick ground out on his first at bat. After a few foul balls, Jackson drove the ball right at Buxton for a first out.

Slegers got a perfect ground ball to Almonte that he grounded in a difficult spot, out of the extended reach of Slegers, but Brian Dozier made an INCREDIBLE play on, scooping it with his glove and flipping the ball with his glove to Mauer for the out by a half of a step.

Perez then smacked the first pitch he saw on a sharp ground ball to Miguel Sano, who grabbed the ball and set before firing across the infield for the out.

Sixth inning

After attacking Urshela with two well-placed fastballs (even though one was a ball, it was placed where the catcher wanted it), he got him to roll over on arguably his best slider of the night for a grounder to Dozier for the first out of the inning.

He attacked the top of the zone on Kipnis, and on a fastball with tremendous movement, he got a foul pop out that catcher Gimenez made an excellent play to get up the third base line and catch for out #2.

His sequencing with Lindor once again worked well, going low middle and then pounding the outside corner, as Lindor drove an 0-2 outside fastball to center fielder Byron Buxton in shallow center field.

Seventh Inning

His sequence with Jay Bruce to open the seventh was tremendous, going away with all of his pitches before coming straight low with a 91 MPH fastball to get his third strikeout of the game.

Encarnacion was locked on his fastball in his at bat, fouling off the first pitch strong before lacing the second pitch to left field on a sure single. Slegers was pulled after that hit.

Next: Evaluation