Buttrey motivated after disappointing season

Ty Buttrey has shown flashes of dominance and has the stuff of a future closer, but the right-hander had trouble with his consistency in the shortened 2020 season.

Buttrey entered the '20 season with a 3.86 ERA in two years with the Angels, but he posted a 5.81 ERA in 26 1/3 innings and saw his strikeout rate plummet. So, Buttrey made it his mission this offseason to look back at what transpired to see what he can do to get better going forward with a mix of data and video.

"I've worked to have a consistent routine,” Buttrey said. “Something I really worked hard over this offseason was just learning how to control my tempo, my rhythm, my conviction and just make a game out of it. Just every day try to go out there and be as consistent in my day-to-day work as I can."

Angels manager Joe Maddon believes some of those struggles are tied to pitch selection and playing to the hitter’s weaknesses instead of Buttrey’s strengths. With a fastball that has averaged more than 96 mph in his career -- to go along with a plus-breaking ball and changeup -- Buttrey has more than enough stuff to get hitters out.

“It’s just overall command of his pitches and having a specific plan and knowing what he has to utilize,” Maddon said. “Now, it’s up to Ty. It’s just that fastball command, and he has that changeup that’s really good and the slider-cutter. It’s all about execution. Don’t be a passenger in the car, be the driver.”

Buttrey is taking Maddon’s advice to heart and has worked closely with the club’s pitching coaches, as well as new front office hire Alex Tamin, to dig deeper into why he struggled last year and what he can do to improve.

Buttrey, 27, again figures to be one of the club’s primary setup relievers, but he knows he’ll have to pitch better than last year to stay in that role.

"I think there's always room for change whenever you come off a season that definitely wasn't ideal," Buttrey said. "I think the beauty of pitching in baseball is you're never down and out. You have a bad year, but you bounce back and it's our job to figure out how to have a good year.”

Buttrey declined to get into the specifics of what exactly he’s changing this year because he doesn’t want opposing clubs to know what’ll be different. But it’s fair to say he’s going to lean harder on throwing his best pitches with more conviction rather than trying to be too fine.

“The goal is to go out there and find my strengths and kind of hone in on my strengths, a little bit more consistently,” Buttrey said. “Learning analytics that can help with consistency is fun. I love doing this stuff, I love trying to get better every day.”

Buttrey admitted that he was more of a visual learner who leaned on watching video in high school and coming up through the Minor Leagues, but he has learned to better analyze data to help his cause. He believes his mechanics are in a better place than recent years and said the data can back that up without having to look at video.

Fellow reliever Mike Mayers has helped work with Buttrey on what kind of data is useful for getting opposing hitters out and how to filter through all of the numbers without too much of an information overload. Buttrey now looks at information such as the vertical break of his pitches and the spin rate to get a better feel for how the ball is coming out of his hand.

Buttrey also uses data to find out more about his own strengths and believes he’ll have more success as a result.

“I've been a victim of being stubborn and trying to prove to myself that I can hit a spot and have success with it,” Buttrey said. “And the odds sometimes with certain pitches are stacked against you. So, it's like, 'Why go down that path? Why not stick to the odds that are in your favor?' I'm trying to learn what makes me the best I can be, and what makes me more consistent."