INDIANAPOLIS – On Monday, I got a chance to see an absolute gem from Chad Kuhl. I don’t like to base too much off one start, or even the stats in Triple-A. Both would have been strong indicators that Chad Kuhl can eventually be a Major League starting pitcher, which is where we projected him at the start of the season. Around the sixth inning, I decided to start texting around to different scouts, seeing if they’ve seen Kuhl this year, and getting thoughts on their upside.
One NL scout responded immediately: “I’m here tonight. He looks great!”
I was able to touch base with that scout after the game, getting some thoughts on where he saw Kuhl. There was no hesitation with the “yes” I got when I asked if he could be a starter in the big leagues. The scout said he had him as a “high probability number four starter” heading into the year, and he might be a bit more than that now.
This was consistent with the other responses I received. An AL scout hadn’t seen him this year, but had him as a number four starter upside based on last year. The other two scouts I talked with had him as a starter, with one saying he might do better than number four, and another saying he might be more of a reliever.
Scouts raving about Kuhl is nothing new to me. During his breakout season last year, I talked with several scouts who were really impressed by him. A few mentioned that the Pirates made him unavailable in trade talks. They certainly weren’t shy trading prospects, as they sent out Adrian Sampson and JaCoby Jones in separate deals.
Kuhl is over-shadowed at this level by Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon, since he doesn’t have the upside those two have. He gets lumped in with Steven Brault and Trevor Williams, who both rely more on deception and command, rather than power. But Kuhl is a guy who has some velocity, and is more of a power pitcher than a guy who relies on command and control, which actually puts him between the two sets of pitchers.
The biggest thing that stood out last year was that Kuhl was throwing his sinker consistently in the 93-95 MPH range, touching as high as 97 with the pitch, and doing so on a consistent basis by the end of the year. Kuhl’s sinker has late movement, generating a lot of swings and misses, and an extreme amount of ground balls. But his secondary stuff has fallen behind the sinker in the past, and that has been a big area of improvement for him this year.
When I saw him on Monday, he was using his slider for strikes early in the count, and using it as a strikeout pitch late. It was the best I’ve seen the slider throughout his career, and Kuhl mentioned that this has been big for him this year.
“Being able to throw that slider, and throwing it for a strike, and having that strikeout breaking ball that I’ve needed has been huge,” Kuhl said. “You read about ‘Does he have a strikeout pitch?’ It’s just because I’m a pitch to contact kind of guy. 88 pitches through seven innings. That’s what I want. I want to be able to go long and have those outings, but it’s nice that we’re working on that strikeout pitch, so when we have those situations, I can get a strikeout.”
The key to the slider improvement has been getting used to the pitch, and getting used to where it is going. That has changed for Kuhl in recent years.
“When I started out, I really didn’t know when to start it,” Kuhl said. “It was kind of inconsistent in itself. Plus, I didn’t know where to start it to get it where I wanted it. Just being able to pick a spot, and having that consistency, and knowing where I want to throw it, instead of guessing where I want it to end up. It’s just become an aggressive pitch and an aggressive mindset when I throw it.”
Jacob Stallings has caught Kuhl at every step of the way throughout their minor league careers. Stallings said that Kuhl always used the pitch in the past, but is getting more of a feel for the pitch now.
“It’s always been a go-to pitch for him. Always a pitch that he’s been confident in,” Stallings said. “I would just say getting the reps, and throwing it a lot. He’s kind of getting the feel of when to throw it harder, more cutterish, or more depth with it. We’ve gotten broken bats on lefties on sliders a number of times this year.”
While the slider has improved in terms of effectiveness, the real improvement has come with the changeup, which Stallings feels is the bigger factor in Kuhl’s numbers.
“The thing that has helped him the most has been his changeup,” Stallings said. “He’s really learned to throw that pitch to both sides of the plate. Being able to add that third pitch just puts something else in the hitter’s minds, and it’s made him extremely effective.”
Kuhl has thrown the changeup before, but is seeing better results with it this year, and learning when and how to use the pitch.
“This year has been nice, just because I’ve added that changeup, and I feel like that gets them off the fastball/slider combo,” Kuhl said. “It gives them another thing to consider. Just having that third pitch really helps out, even when I’m not throwing it a ton.”
A big thing Kuhl is working on with all of his pitches is his arm speed. Indianapolis pitching coach Stan Kyles has that as a priority for him, making sure the arm speed is the same for all of his pitches, to help disguise what is coming to the batter. That’s key for his fastball/slider combo, since the sinker breaks one way, and the slider breaks the opposite way, while both coming in looking similar if you’ve got the same arm speed.
“You want them coming out of the same slot,” Kuhl said. “One goes one way, one goes the other, one has a little bit more depth. It’s huge to have that same arm speed, because you want them all looking the same, and just drop off whichever way you want.”
All of this is just part of the process of learning how to pitch, rather than relying on stuff. Last year, Kuhl had a lot of success working off his fastball and pitching to contact, but that approach doesn’t work in the big leagues without having good secondary stuff, and knowing how to use that stuff.
“He pitches off of his fastball, which he is going to have to do, but I think with him mixing it up, and throwing [the slider] for a first pitch, throwing it to get back in the count, that’s huge,” Indianapolis Manager Dean Treanor said. “He’s going to have to do that at the next level, and learning to do it here is only going to help him down the road.”
Kuhl doesn’t have the upside that Taillon or Glasnow have, but he does have the upside to be a starter in the majors. Based on what I’ve seen so far this week, he might be ready to go up before Glasnow, since his stuff is closer to being big league ready. Glasnow will have much better stuff when he is finally ready, but he doesn’t look ready right now. Kuhl does look ready, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Pirates turn to him as a starting option at some point this year.
As we reported last week, Kuhl is still getting stretched out, after starting the season late from forearm soreness. He just pitched seven innings for the first time on Monday, and should extend out to 100 pitches soon. He would need to do that before being called up. At that point, Pirates fans might finally see what the scouts have been raving about the last two years.
