Boston Red Sox: Nathan Eovaldi has been sharp in spring training

Boston Red Sox right-handed pitcher Nathan Eovaldi has looked sharp through two spring training appearances, perhaps foreshadowing a bounce-back year.

Spring training results should be taken with a grain of salt but we’ll take any crumb of optimism we can find when it comes to Nathan Eovaldi. The Boston Red Sox are counting on the right-hander to help stabilize their thin rotation despite that he’s recovering from a season plagued by injury and poor performance. The early returns this spring have been encouraging with Eovaldi flashing the talent that made him appealing to begin with.

Eovaldi was sharp on Sunday, carving up the Atlanta Braves over three scoreless innings. The only base runner he allowed was a harmless infield single with two outs in the third and he struck out four batters.

Before we stamp this outing with the disclaimer that this was only spring training, it should be noted that the Braves had most of their regular bats in the lineup. Eovaldi induced a ground out from MVP candidate Ronald Acuña Jr. to lead off the game and later got him to fly out to left to end his outing in the third. Sliver Slugger Award-winner Ozzie Albies lined out to second and two-time All-Star Marcell Ozuna grounded out to the pitcher as Eovaldi made quick work of Atlanta’s top hitters in the opening frame.

The second inning was a masterpiece as Eovaldi struck out the side by getting all three batters to chase strike three. He punched out Yonder Alonso with a curveball, blew a fastball by Dansby Swanson, and got Ender Inciarte to swing through a splitter.

Eovaldi has been throwing gas this spring, sitting in the upper-90’s with his fastball with the ability to reach back for 100 mph. Throwing at that velocity this early in camp shows he’s healthy and when he combines it with successfully mixing in the other pitches in his arsenal he can be dominant.

He had all of his pitches working for him against the Braves but it was the slider that Eovaldi made a point of mentioning to reporters after the game, according to MLB.com’s Ian Browne.

"“I feel really good,” said Eovaldi. “Today I wanted to work on my slider a little bit more because they had more righties in the lineup, and [I] felt like I had consistent break with that. I tinkered around with the grip a little bit, but the command on my off-speed pitches has been really good and my mechanics are really good right now.”"

This quote is notable considering Eovaldi essentially abandoned the slider last year. Per Baseball Savant, Eovaldi threw his slider a mere 3.2 percent of the time, down from 11.1 percent in 2018. It was arguably his most effective pitch against right-handed hitters two years ago.

Temporarily moving to the bullpen might explain why he moved away from the slider since he could tighten his arsenal in shorter stints where he wouldn’t have to navigate the opponent’s batting order more than once. He’ll need to rediscover this weapon now that he’s expected to be in the rotation for the full season so it’s promising to see the bite on his slider as he works it back into the mix.

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Eovaldi has been brilliant through two appearances this spring. He’s tossed five shutout innings, allowing only three hits while striking out eight. Perhaps most importantly, he has yet to walk a batter. Eovaldi has historically been stingy with issuing free passes when he’s throwing well but his walk rate skyrocketed to 4.7 BB/9 during last year’s dismal campaign.

While he had a fairly solid camp in 2019, Eovaldi was limited to only two starts and seven innings last spring. The light workload left him woefully unprepared for the regular season and he was roughed up to the tune of a 6.00 ERA through four starts before landing on the injured list.

Eovaldi has nearly matched last spring’s innings total with plenty of time remaining to properly prepare his arm for the season. The velocity is already there so his remaining outings will focus on refining his mechanics and gradually building up his pitch count.

The Red Sox are counting on Eovaldi to be their No. 3 starter. He has the talent to exceed the expectations of that role, as we saw during the 2018 season and throughout the playoffs. He’s flashing that upside again this spring and if that carries over into the regular season then Nasty Nate will quickly make last year’s nightmare campaign a distant memory.