Chicago Cubs: Why Kyle Hendricks’ curveball is most important pitch

Kyle Hendricks made a name for himself with the Chicago Cubs based on his changeup, but his curveball is going to lead to longevity.

Kyle Hendricks has been outstanding to watch since he was acquired from the Texas Rangers in 2012. He was instrumental in helping the Chicago Cubs win the World Series in 2016, prefaced by an NL-leading 2.13 ERA in the regular season. Pitchers of Hendricks’ caliber are truly masters of pitching because they cannot get their outs with overwhelming power.

Instead, Hendricks uses offspeed pitches and deception, and he’s been pretty darn good in doing so. MLB recognized the Cubs’ pitcher with its recent list of pitchers with the nastiest changeups.

Diving into the numbers, Hendrick’s utilized the changeup 28 percent of the time last season. It was, statistically, his worst year in terms of production off his changeup as batters were able to hit .265. Seven of the 19 home runs he allowed last year came off this pitch.

Still, he yielded the best exit velocity (82.3 MPH) and got batters to whiff 24.5 percent of the time.

Hendricks’ saw the most improvement in his curveball last year. He experienced a marginal uptick in curveball usage, going from 7.6 percent in 2018 to 9.9 percent last year. But the results were enormous as batters experienced a dramatic decrease in production.

In 2018, the opposition hit .483 and slugged .759 off his curveball, dropping to .213 batting average and .234 slugging percentage last year. At approximately the same spin rate between the two seasons, Hendricks saw his curveball become his second-best pitch, producing an average exit velocity of 84.7 MPH.

WIth Hendricks’ signing a four-year contract extension that will keep him in Chicago through 2024 – should the front office pick up his club option in 2024 – it’s encouraging to see him rebound. What do I mean by that? In 2017 and 2018, his curveball was statistically his worst pitch, producing a .688 and .759 slugging percentage, respectively.

And with Yu Darvish rounding back into form during the second half of last season, the Cubs’ rotation will be anchored by the duo for the foreseeable future.