Tigers' Jordan Zimmermann tweaks grip in hopes of fixing slider, producing better results

Anthony Fenech | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Mario Impemba, Tigers host guests of honor with MVP program Members of Team Red White and Blue watch the Detroit Tigers vs the Cleveland Indians game as part of Mario Impemba's Military Veterans Program or MVP, on May 1, 2017, at Comerica Park in Detroit. Video by Elaine Cromie/DFP

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A day after his latest struggle, Jordan Zimmermann was back on the mound this afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

The mission: Figure out how he can fix his slider, which has been ineffective this season.

It will take some time to see if the Tigers’ veteran right-hander has accomplished it, but the early returns were positive.

“I’m tweaking my grip a little bit and found something that I’m a little more comfortable with,” he said.

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Zimmermann showed the difference in the grip, with the outline of his fingers penned onto a baseball. It’s more similar to the slider he threw two seasons ago with the Nationals. The goal is to get more depth on the pitch, which has been his best breaking ball throughout his career.

Zimmermann lamented his lost pitch after another bad outing Sunday afternoon, allowing seven runs on eight hits in five innings in a loss to the White Sox.

“It’s been absolutely terrible,” he said, about the slider. “I haven’t been anywhere close. I have to figure out how to throw it again and get back to how it used to be.

“I used to be able to throw the slider consistently for a strike behind in the count and I could keep hitters off my fastball. I’m not able to do that right now and they are smashing my fastball.”

The first thing Zimmermann did was looked at old video. He compared that to present-day and noticed his arm slot was dropping and his fingers were on the side of the ball at the release point instead of on top of the ball.

“That’s why I get that inconsistency,” he said. “Some are big sweepers, some are tight spinners in the middle and I had no consistency. While I was playing catch, I kept moving my finger around and I think I found the grip I used to have when I was with the Nationals.”

Zimmermann doesn’t usually hop onto a mound the day after he pitches, but these are different times. After playing catch, he got pitching coach Rich Dubee and set up a bullpen catcher a few feet in front of home plate in order to lessen the workload on his arm and gauge how the ball was moving.

“More control, better command and I had more depth,” he said. “It’s still early, though.”

The difference in the grip, Zimmermann explained, is not necessarily where his index and middle fingers sit, but his pinky and ring finger, which are now aligned with a seam on the bottom of the baseball.

“It was more of a cutter grip,” he said.

Zimmermann has not been good this season. In 10 starts, he has posted a 6.47 ERA and has allowed 16 home runs in 55 2/3 innings. In 2016, he allowed 15 homers in 105 1/3 innings. He allowed three on Sunday.

A big reason for that, he thinks, is because the slider isn’t posing any sort of threat to opposing batters.

“When I was able to throw my slider, I could get (hitters) out in front and maybe miss the barrel,” he said. “I’m not able to do that now.”

And so he was out throwing off a mound again this afternoon, a day after his last start, searching for the slider that he’s lost – and the results he hopes to find.

Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech.