Erik Goeddel made his major league debut last year and while he pitched well in his cup of coffee he didn’t exactly overwhelm people. It looked like he threw hard but his secondary pitchers were nothing to get excited about. Goeddel pitched well in Spring Training and with the combination of injuries and the decision to open the year with eight relievers, Goeddel made the Opening Day roster. Once again, the results have been great but this year his non-fastball pitches have looked like plus offerings.

FanGraphs shows his repertoire as nearly identical to a year ago. It shows him with a fastball, curve and change. But the changeup in particular looks like a different pitch. While PITCHf/x classifies this pitch as a changeup, the announcers referred to this offering as a splitter. And a look at the movement of this strikeout pitch and it’s easy to understand why.

Most pitchers utilize a changeup to throw against batters that enjoy the platoon advantage. Typically, the changeup moves away from these hitters. The beauty of the splitter is that Goeddel can throw it against all hitters. Here he is using it against righty Martin Maldonado Saturday.

The Mets are carrying three lefty relievers and we all know how Terry Collins loves to play the matchups in the late innings. But Goeddel has performed quite well against LHB this year. In 17 PA, lefties have just a .588 OPS against Goeddel. Additionally, he hasn’t surrendered a walk against a lefty in this span and he’s recorded five strikeouts.

Of course, the main reason he’s been allowed to face lefties is because most of his action so far has been in low leverage situations. Last night he came on with a 10-run lead, hardly the stuff to make a manager need to chase the platoon advantage, even a matchup-crazy guy like Collins. Not only did Collins not pull him when a LHB strolled to the plate, he allowed Goeddel to face four of them. Lefties went 1-4 with two strikeouts.

Goeddel has thrown 11.1 innings so far this year and FanGraphs classifies nine of them as “Low-Leverage” and two as “Medium-Leverage.” Collins’ reluctance to use him in key situations was never more evident than Wednesday’s game against the Cubs. He sent out a struggling Carlos Torres for a second inning rather than going to Goeddel in a tie game in the ninth. Torres loaded the bases and was charged with the winning run while Goeddel and his 0.00 ERA watched from the bench.

At this point, all Goeddel can do his perform when given the chance. Eventually, the manager will display more confidence in him, especially with veterans Vic Black and Bobby Parnell still a ways from contributing at the major league level.

Even if most of his appearances have not been in clutch situations, it’s still nice to see a guy who throws consistently in the mid-90s successfully utilize off-speed pitches during the game. PITCHf/x shows Goeddel having thrown 29 changeups this year and batters have swung and missed at 11 of those, for a 37.9 SwStr%. That’s outstanding.

We’re watching Goeddel transform from an afterthought to an asset right before our eyes and the splitter is the reason why.

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