‘That’s as good as I’ve seen Justus.’ Mariners’ Sheffield adds 2-seamer, gets results

Tom Murphy wasn’t shy about the declaration — Sunday afternoon’s Cactus League game at Scottsdale Stadium was the best Justus Sheffield outing he’s ever caught.

It was a sentiment shared throughout the dugout.

Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais could see the rookie pitcher’s confidence soaring as he wiped out five batters in three innings. Pitching coach Pete Woodworth could see the conviction in Sheffield’s pitches.

“The highlight today was Sheff really solidifying himself as that guy that we hoped he would be,” Servais said.

Sheffield, 23, has appeared self-assured and relaxed on the mound all spring, and has matched up with big league hitters well after making just a handful of starts for Seattle last season.

That has been enough to keep the Mariners intrigued this spring, as he prepares to take on a regular rotation role.

But, against the Giants, Sheffield added a wrinkle that could make him Seattle’s most exciting pitcher to watch this season — he swapped out his usual four-seam fastball for a two-seamer with impressive early returns.

“He threw his two-seamer exclusively,” Murphy said. “That’s something he wanted to do, he put it on himself, and it was the most natural I’ve seen his fastball move.”

“Something new for me,” Sheffield said. “I started working on it last week, and threw it in a few bullpens, and today I finally brought it out. It felt like I had really good control with that, and I just worked off that.”

Murphy and Woodworth talked about the idea of Sheffield emphasizing a two-seam fastball after he threw his first bullpen this spring, thinking it could be a more beneficial pitch than his four-seamer, which has a lower spin rate and has behaved erratically at times in the past.

“If a four-seam isn’t necessarily at the upper echelon, then why keep pushing something that’s not going to be a great pitch when you can make it a two-seamer and now all the sudden that low spin rate plays to his advantage,” Murphy said. “It was introduced to Justus kind of gradually, and now he’s taken it upon himself to use it every time. It was phenomenal.”

Woodworth said it didn’t take much to sell Sheffield on the idea of switching up his fastball. The four-seamer is what Sheffield has thrown throughout his career, but his secondary pitches are off his two-seam grip, making for a relatively easy transition.

“He just trusted something that really he can do naturally, and he’s been working on it the past couple weeks,” Woodworth said. “Today was the first game that he said, ‘You know what, let’s do it. Let’s see what it looks like.’ Him and Murph had full conviction and trust in it, and that was the best fastballs and fastball command I’ve seen him have.”

Sheffield worked three complete innings, struck out five of the 11 batters he faced, and allowed just one run on three hits.

His new two-seamer played well with his secondary pitches, and the feedback from Murphy behind the plate was all positive.

“He loved it,” Sheffield said. “He really loved it in the bullpen, and then out there in the game in transition. I really felt like I had some good inside pitches to move some guys off the plate and even some good misses in. So, I’ve just got to keep working on throwing it.

“I’m going to start throwing the two-seam a lot, just for more movement, give a different look for the hitters. My four-seam gets run already, so why not change to a two-seam grip to get some more run? Definitely going to keep the four-seam for getting that spin rate, trying to throw at it at the top of the zone, but that’s for a little bit later down the road.”

Sheffield said he’s never been able to add a pitch as quickly as he’s added the two-seamer, and knows spring is the perfect time to try to implement something new.

“It’s got me excited, learning a pitch that quick and being able to throw it out there,” he said.

“It is an outstanding pitch,” Servais said. “His ability to locate it is huge at the bottom of the zone. It plays really well there.”

And it sets up his slider well.

“It’s huge,” Murphy said. “Being able to do that against a righty makes the plate probably 20 inches wide as opposed to 17, and by that I mean he can kind of get three inches inside to a righty, run that two-seamer back, and now the right-hander has to respect the larger portion of the inner half, and then that slider can play off even deeper inside there.”

It sets up his changeup well for swings and misses, too.

“The movement profile is very similar now,” Murphy said. “Now you’re getting 5, 6, 7 mph difference, more depth on the changeup. He’s in a great spot. That pitch was moving well today. He’s throwing it on the plate. He’s being aggressive with it. That’s as good as I’ve seen Justus.”

Sheffield has now appeared in three spring training games (two starts), allowing two runs on five hits across eight innings with a team-high 12 strikeouts and no walks.

Murphy and Servais have both noted Sheffield has calmed down significantly on the mound after making eight rather hyped-up appearances (seven starts) with the Mariners last season.

“I feel good,” Sheffield said. “Still got three weeks left of spring training, and then the regular season, so my sights are set on day to day, getting better every day, especially in between my starts and working day to day up to the regular season.”

Sunday’s start was just another example of how much the young left-hander has matured in the past year.

“I had a conversation with him last year, his start against the Yankees when he came back up, and you could just tell the day before he was kind of like a caged animal,” Murphy said.

“Where he was then compared to now emotionally, and how he’s handling himself on the mound, it seems almost like he has a veteran presence in a way.”

This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 6:53 PM.

Lauren Smith

The News Tribune

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Lauren Smith is a sports reporter at The News Tribune. She has covered high school sports for TNT and The Olympian, as well as the Seattle Mariners and Washington Huskies. She is a graduate of UW and Emerald Ridge High School.