Garza 'like two different pitchers' in one

BOSTON -- When the Twins called Ralph Garza Jr. up from Triple-A St. Paul on Aug. 14, manager Rocco Baldelli's report to the media on the right-hander noted that Garza had "some different techniques and arm angles and things like that."

Now, it's not unusual for a pitcher to occasionally change arm angles, and the Twins saw that firsthand last season, when Rich Hill would occasionally drop down to throw a sidearm curveball to keep hitters off-balance. But that's not what Garza does.

For the 27-year-old, changing arm angles isn't a gimmick; it's fundamental to who he is as a pitcher. In fact, it might not be totally inaccurate to describe him as two different pitchers packaged into one. Against left-handed batters, he mostly throws from a more conventional three-quarters arm angle. But against right-handed hitters, he's almost always a sidearm pitcher.

"Initially, [my teammates] didn't know that I did that," Garza said. "It was always funny seeing, like, 'I saw you throwing from the side. Are you messing around?'"

"No, that's what I do," he would reply.

It's not just that he's throwing the same stuff from two different arm angles, either -- he really might as well be two totally distinct players in one body. From his three-quarters arm angle, he throws a four-seam fastball, cutter, slider and changeup, mostly relying on the fastball and changeup to neutralize lefties.

And when he drops down to become a true sidearmer against righties, he morphs into a sinker-curveball pitcher -- and Garza said that when he was in the Astros organization, they made sure to keep nurturing that delivery because they liked the action they saw in those pitches.

"I haven't seen too many guys, and I really can't think of anyone off the top of my head, where it's that distinct, where it's over-the-top, it's kind of a certain number of pitches you throw from there, and then a completely different look," Baldelli said. "It's like two different pitchers, really."

Garza said that his Jekyll-Hyde routine began as an experiment in 2015, when he was a junior at the University of Oklahoma. At that point, he threw exclusively from the three-quarters arm angle, but as he was messing around with his pitching coach in the infield one day, the idea came up of trying to drop down with his sinker to give him an occasional change-of-pace weapon against lefties.

When he was picked by the Astros in the 26th round of the 2015 Draft, Houston encouraged him to stick with it. Garza said he almost gave up on the experiment in his first week throwing sidearm, as his arm got worn down from throwing bullpens. But he stuck with it and eventually found his rhythm with his new split pitching personality nearly two years later, he said.

"I kind of shied away from it," Garza said. "But then the more I talked to hitters, the more they're like, 'Dude, it's almost impossible to pick it up.' And this and that, and the confidence through that."

He's not exactly a unicorn like switch-pitcher Pat Venditte, as there is precedent for other pitchers throwing like this. Garza noted that when he was in Triple-A in the Astros organization, he had a similar teammate named Brendan McCurry who helped him develop the sidearm curveball and better differentiate his arm angles. Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson pointed out that DJ Baxendale, a former hurler in the Minnesota organization, also did something similar.

But unlike those two, Garza is in the big leagues -- and he’s started his big league career with a 3.32 ERA through 14 appearances this season for the Astros and Twins, including an inning to close out Minnesota’s 9-6, 10-inning win over the Red Sox on Wednesday. Garza noted, too, that he was helped along the way by Joe Smith, a veteran sidearmer who began the season with Houston and helped mentor Garza in his unique big league transition.

"I just think it helps him," Johnson said. "When you find that guy who can do that, it does make him unique in the aspect of, obviously, we know sub guys to lefties typically get hit or are more susceptible to injuries. So when we saw that profile, it was interesting to us."

So, why don't more pitchers try something like this?

Much like how switch-hitters have two different swings to worry about, Garza said that it's tough to find consistency in both arm angles while maintaining different pitches from each and trying to make sure that the different angles didn't bleed into each other, where each could impact the other. Johnson said that he's also had to really emphasize to Garza the importance of the different directional paths on the mound for each of his deliveries.

"The one thing I've seen is that to be a consistent feel from there, from both sides, it's so hard," Garza said. "It's hard enough to do it from one. That's probably the biggest thing. For like three years, I was kicking myself. 'Why am I doing this?' You put enough hard work in, it'll all come together."

Though Garza was exclusively the three-quarters pitcher when this journey began, he said he's now at a point where the sidearm feels just as comfortable to him -- and, well, considering he's a big leaguer, he kind of has to be.

Just don't ask him to dip all the way down to a submarine angle, Tyler Rogers-style, because he's fairly confident that his arm can't handle that.

"It's like a first language, and the sidearm's kind of like a second language," Garza said. "It's definitely different, but I'm here."