FORT MYERS, Fla. — Red Sox righty Josh Winckowski pitched the third most innings (83 ⅓ innings) among major league relievers in 2023.
But the 2024 season didn’t go as well. His ERA jumped from 2.88 ERA to 4.14. He got optioned to Triple-A Worcester twice, including a stint there from May 12 through June 24. He also finished the season in Triple A after being optioned Aug. 27.
“You can pout and complain and say, ‘Why me?’ or ‘Boohoo,’” Winckowski said. “But the way I look at it is unless you’ve got a 0.00 ERA or not, there’s always a chance you could be the one going down, especially when you have options. Do I think that some of the send downs last year I was throwing that bad? No. But obviously you can always be throwing better admittedly.
“So try to take it in stride,” he added. “And like I said, you can whine and be really sad about it or you can just keep going and try to work hard and get better.”
Winckowski has struggled here in spring training. He has allowed 10 earned runs on 11 hits and five walks in five innings. But he’s also working on some new things.
“We identified a few things from last year that weren’t really where I’m normally at,” he said. “Trying a few things. I had a couple rough ones in spring. So trying to make sure that doesn’t continue.”
Winckowski said a “downer slider” is one of the pitches he’s experimenting with.
“(Richard) Fitts has been throwing something very similar to that — like a smaller, harder curveball type thing,” Winckowski said. “At different times in the minor leagues, I threw it, had it, got away from it a little bit. So I think we’re looking at bringing that back. I think it might help the sinker and four-seam.”
He said he also needs to throw his cutter, his most often used pitch last year, in better locations.
“I think in ’23 the cutter got more down,” he said. “Had less vertical movement. Last year it lifted a little bit more. And I think you saw lefties were able to do something with it. A bunch of the cutters that I used to throw in to lefties that were ground balls to first or swings and misses were getting lifted a little bit, Homer here and there and whatnot. So just trying to get back to the old cutter and that kind of a deep, down slider.”
In 2023, Winckowski finished in relief innings behind only Colorado’s Jake Bird and Detroit’s Tyler Holton who each threw 84 ⅓ innings.
Winckowski actually totaled 84 ⅓ innings. But he opened one game. So one of the innings was considered as a starter.
Winckowski’s velo dropped in 2024. His sinker average 95.1 mph, down from 96.3 mph in 2023. His four-seam fastball also averaged 95.1 mph, down from 96.0 mph in 2023.
“Personally I don’t even think it’s really increasing velocity. It’s kind of just maybe returning to where I’ve been at times,” he said. “In ’23, the average heater was like mid 96 or 97-ish, give or take. For me, I think it’s just trying to get back to that. And I think like I said, a couple mechanical things that got out of whack last year compared to ’23. So trying to get more back in line with when I felt the best and was helping the team the most.”
Is it more about the process at this point than the results?
“I do think the process is really important,” Winckowski said. “There’s been a couple things I’ve really liked. I think the velo has been good this spring. I think obviously last Saturday was my worst one but I think I sat 96 (mph). I was excited about that. A couple of shapes were overall pretty solid.
“It goes both ways,” he added. “There are some days I think you can maybe not throw as well as you should have or wanted and have a good clean box score and then some days are a reverse. Obviously something you don’t want to continue with. Obviously you can’t throw bad forever. But yeah, there’s been some underlying things I’ve been pretty happy with.“
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