Clayton Kershaw is tinkering with a changeup again. Is this the year he sticks with it?

It’s turn into an virtually annual custom round Dodgers spring coaching.

Clayton Kershaw will tinker with a changeup, trace at the potential of incorporating it full time into his arsenal, then abandon the pitch as soon as the video games rely.

“Each spring I’ve been round, he’s at all times tried to at the very least get a really feel for it so it’s an possibility,” third-year pitching coach Mark Prior stated. “Normally it runs its course.”

Echoed supervisor Dave Roberts: “It’s simply form of been a piece in progress, so far as getting that really feel. … So yeah, we’ve seen this film earlier than.”

This spring, nevertheless, there are indicators Kershaw may be scripting a unique consequence for the elusive off-speed pitch.

In the course of the left-hander’s second Cactus League begin Wednesday, he broke out the changeup a number of occasions. One specifically induced a swing-and-miss from Cleveland Guardians outfielder Franmil Reyes and was praised on social media after being shared by the favored Pitching Ninja Twitter account. And after the sport, Kershaw struck an optimistic tone when requested about his really feel for the changeup.

“They had been OK, I believe,” he stated — hardly a ringing endorsement however nonetheless a step up from years previous.

“Work in progress nonetheless, however general I threw some good ones, which is greater than final yr. In order that’s good.”

The changeup has largely been a superfluous weapon for the three-time Cy Younger Award winner. For many of his profession, he has caught with three bread-and-butter pitches: a agency four-seam fastball he continues to find with precision; a trademark slider he can throw in virtually any scenario; and a looping curveball to maintain batters off stability.

The changeup has been a hardly ever used various. Since 2014, he has by no means thrown it greater than 25 occasions in a season. Solely in his rookie yr of 2008 did it account for greater than 5% of his pitches.

“There hasn’t been a grip that he’s trusted to take into the season,” Roberts defined, “that he can use in any leverage at-bat.”

However this spring, Kershaw has a brand new changeup grip he labored on with Prior and assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness, Roberts stated. Even earlier than his Cactus League begins, Kershaw broke it out throughout reside backfield at-bats in opposition to his teammates.

And whereas the clock is ticking once more towards the beginning of the season, particularly throughout this yr’s shortened spring coaching, there are indicators that Kershaw’s progress with the changeup is tangible, that he might need it in his again pocket when actual video games begin in lower than two weeks.

“This yr, he appears to have a bit of bit extra consolation with it,” Prior stated. “He bought some good suggestions from a few of the hitters the opposite day. There’s some potential there. Normally, it by no means actually will get to some extent the place he has a really feel for it. After which the season is beginning so that you simply form of go on [without it]. However the early indications are there’s some optimistic stuff popping out of it.”

The changeup may very well be a key late-career addition for the 34-year-old Kershaw, who re-signed with the Dodgers on a one-year contract this month and is coming off a big elbow harm that derailed his 2021 marketing campaign.

His fastball, which as soon as sat round 95 mph, final season averaged simply over 90 mph. And whereas his slider remains to be a dominant pitch, he has needed to more and more depend on it, throwing it extra usually than his fastball final season for the primary time.

Roberts thinks the changeup may give the longer term Corridor of Famer one other dimension on the mound.

“With Clayton, I simply actually commend him for persevering with to attempt to get higher,” Roberts stated. “How do you try this? There’s a sequencing part that I believe he’s been open to the final couple of years. After which additionally now, you’re speaking concerning the changeup that he bought swing-and-miss, and to be open to that’s solely going to make him higher and his different weapons play up.”

However first, he must grasp his really feel for the pitch. And even when Kershaw wasn’t letting on within the dugout, final week was an encouraging step.

“[He was] as excited as you would possibly count on in an outing,” Roberts stated with amusing when requested whether or not Kershaw was excited by the changeup. “However I believe afterward, him and Mark and Connor, I believe that they had been fairly happy with it.”