John Schreiber reports to Red Sox camp early, equipped with new pitch
Red Sox right-handed reliever John Schreiber has arrived to camp earlier down in Fort Myers, Fla., and has been working out in the area since Jan. 11.
The 29-year-old says that he is “fully healthy” after missing nearly two months last season with a right teres major strain.
“I'm fully healthy. I wanted to get down here early and get started building up,” Schreiber said in Fort Myers to the Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham.
Schreiber pitched in 46 games, posting a 2-1 record with a 3.86 ERA, two starts as an opener, with 53 strikeouts to 25 walks over 46 2/3 innings.
The righty is looking to add a cutter to his pitching arsenal for Opening Day. It would be his fifth pitch he would be able to offer to opposing hitters.
Last season, he relied on four pitches in his repotroire: a slider, a changeup, a four-seam fastball, and a changeup. Schreiber only used his changeup 8.3 percent of the time, according to Baseball Savant.
Schreiber relied heavily on his slider (37.5%), four-seam fastball (28.8%) and sinker (25.4%) last season. He held opponents to a .185 batting average and a .200 expected batting average with his slider. The addition to the cutter will offer him the luxury of setting of getting a pitch with movement in on the hands of opposing batters.
Schreiber has been working on the cutter while training at Driveline. He was featured in a video with former MLB pitcher Brandon Mann, who is working with the reliever on developing the cutter.
His slider averaged 80.9 mph last season, based off the video above, if he can build a strong cutter that can be in the 85 mph ballpark, he could change the whole complexity of his pitching arsenal
In the video featured on X (formerly Twitter), Schreiber is seen changing his grip on the new pitch, while working on getting the velocity up to 87 mph.
With spring training set to begin next week, the Red Sox will need a healthy Schreiber for the new season. With rumors swirling around that the club could trade All-Star closer Kenley Jansen, manager Alex Cora will need the veteran hurler to help anchor the late innings.
