Daniel Norris was in a jam.
It was the left-hander’s first start of the season and New York Yankees third baseman Chase Headley was batting with runners on second and third and just one out. With an amped-up rookie pitcher on the mound and a full count, Headley had reason to expect a fastball.
Yet that’s not what he saw from Norris, who threw him a slider that Headley fouled off before going to a change-up that froze him completely.
It’s that willingness to throw off-speed pitches at any time that distinguishes Norris from most 21-year-olds and hints at big things to come, potentially as soon as this year.
“I was just throwing him something different,” Norris says. “They’d been swinging early on the fastball, and I didn’t really have my good fastball that night, so I was just going with what was working.”
That wasn’t the only time Norris went to his off-speed pitches with a 3-2 count. In fact five of the nine pitches he threw in a full count were off-speed — three sliders and two change-ups.
Norris also mixed in his slow curveball against the Yankees, but his slider and change-up were clearly his go-to breaking pitches. Not only did he use them as out pitches — four of his five whiffs came on the slider and change — but he used them to start hitters off and throw them off-balance as early as possible. In his season debut nine of the 25 first pitches he threw were breaking balls.
“I can use them early in the count and I have,” Norris says. “Obviously I’ll do it during the game just to show them something different. Having those options to put guys away is very valuable.”
The pitching line for the top prospect’s season debut wasn’t particularly noteworthy: three runs, six hits, two walks and five strikeouts in 5.2 innings. But the Blue Jays should be encouraged by his willingness to use his breaking balls in just about any scenario, and his ability to execute those pitches when they’re needed.
If he can keep it up, it promises to be an effectively unpredictable mix.
