What Is Zebby Matthews Working On At Triple-A?

St. Paul – Zebby Matthews will make his fourth start of the season Friday night against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Although the numbers don’t look great, his early-season slump is trending in the right direction.

Matthews was solid through his first four innings of work during his last outing in Toledo. He allowed three hits, including a triple in that span, but no runners scored as he racked up four strikeouts through the first turn and a half through the Mud Hens' lineup.

The Mud Hens forced him out after five innings, as he allowed four singles in the fifth, which eventually led to three runs. While not ideal, it was promising that he had only allowed one hit on hard contact. It came on the last hit of the game off him by Toledo’s third baseman, Gage Workman, which had a 99.2 MPH exit velo.

“Spring training was a lot of, not experimentation, but trying to do a lot of seeing how much better we could get with executing the pitches,” Matthews said. “It’s always been a big thing for me. So it’s still trying to work on that, but we’re trending in the right direction.”

Matthews' stats don’t entirely reflect that progression on his player page. He owns an 8.76 ERA, a .375 opponents average, a 2.03 WHIP, 10 strikeouts, and 4 walks through 12 ⅓ innings of work. However, the outcome of his last start shows that, even with weak contact induced throughout the fifth inning, he’s building his confidence to get back to where he’s been many times before in Triple-A.

“I think the stat line is not what he wants to see to start the year,” said Saints pitching coach Ryan Ricci. “But I would much rather see him work through these things in April and identify some things he can work on to hopefully go help the big league team later in the year.”

So what exactly is Zebby Matthews working on for the time being until the Twins need to call him back up? Building his velo back up after some decline in spring training, and pitch location execution, so not everything is in the zone constantly. He’s also trying to avoid pitching something too far outside to get hitters to chase.

Of his 246 pitches thrown so far this year, Matthews has only induced 29 swings and misses, getting hitters to chase just 11.7% of the time. Part of that has been a dip in velo early in the season, which many Twins pitchers have also experienced, due to the cold April weather.

In Matthews’ case, that’s part of the reason. However, some of it also involved his pitch mechanics.

“Velo has been down a little bit to start the year, but feeling a lot better,” Matthews said. “Mechanics are feeling better on the mound. Again, just trying to work through some things, but definitely trending in the right direction.”

Ricci agreed that the cold weather and Matthews’ mechanics affected his velo.

“I definitely think that’s a factor, and I will say that was what we were reminding him of. That second start here at home, that was the positive takeaway,” said Ricci. “The delivery looked good, and he was up to 97, 98 in the snow. So I think that was a testament to some of the strides you’ve been making with your delivery work are helping.”

While mechanics and execution are improving, the actual pitches themselves for Zebby Matthews, aside from his fastball, have all been moving well upon delivery.

“Changeup and curveball have been really good so far to start the year, both in terms of execution and shape,” said Matthews. “So continue to throw those and continue to pound fastballs in the strike zone, through the cutter, slider there as well. But everything is good.”

Despite injuries to David Festa and Pablo López, Minnesota's starting rotation has been one of the team’s greatest strengths to start the season. They’re 12th in the league in ERA (3.77), fifth in FIP (3.38), and third in fWAR (2.5). Given how well everyone is performing to start the year, it allows Zebby Matthews more time to set things right with his mechanics and velo. Once the Twins need him, he’ll be much better suited to help them than he was coming out of spring training.

“Again, [i’m] trying to still, regardless of the weather, be able to go out there and get outs, and pitch well,” said Matthews. “Again, I wasn’t able to do that against the Red Sox, but bounced back pretty good against the Tigers there in Toledo. We’ll just look to keep stacking starts and be ready whenever they need me.”

“You’re not seeing the immediate results, but it’s been a little better each week,” said Ricci. “We’re hoping to continue to progress, and we just like where the progress is at. I think we’re heading in the right direction, he’s got a good process, and he works as hard as anybody. So we’re pumped for him.”