What to expect from Ricky Vanasco

The Detroit Tigers in their September call-ups as expected, called up Justyn-Henry Malloy and right-hander Ricky Vanasco. Vanasco was the 3rd player acquired by the Tigers from the Dodgers during the Scott Harris for cash considerations, joining utility player Eddys Leonard and left-hander Lael Lockhart Jr. Vanasco, originally drafted by the Rangers, was a starter until he was traded to LA for Luis Valdez in 2023, and after that, he became a reliever with just a cup of coffee at the big league level.

Vanasco pitch-mix

Ricky throws a four-seam fastball that averages around 94MPH but can touch 96-99 with good glove side movement. It’s the pitch he throws the most, sitting on top of the zone. In our live looks back on August 7, it looks like he was working on a cutter.

Ricky Vanasco comes in relief and ends the Jumbo Shrimp threat pic.twitter.com/NdXgjf0zih

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 8, 2024

Vanasco’s curve has good, late movement when his command is on, allowing him to sequence the pitch with his fastball, changing eye levels with this pitch in addition to throwing a slider, which he does not throw often. His curve was getting a 46.2% whiff rate at Toledo.

Nasty first strikeout for Ricky Vanasco pic.twitter.com/HRAxzIIBlK

— Ricky (@realbkrick) April 16, 2024

The Tigers have already tinkered with Vanasco a bit and as a result, his curveball has seen more swings and miss than his time with the Dodgers. Here’s before joining Detroit.

Here is the data since he joined Detroit in a small sample size. The results look like a little more horizontal movement on his breaking balls. The Tigers may of tweaked things in changing his arm slot, similar to what they did with Ty Madden. 

Vanasco, along with Malloy, should see some time down the stretch as the Tigers are now in contention for the second spot in the AL wild-card standings.

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