CLEVELAND -- Foster Griffin hasn’t had a lot of time yet to sit back and process the journey he’s been on this year. But one word came to mind that perhaps best describes his experience.
“A whirlwind, right?” Griffin said.
Following a three-year stint with the Yomiuri Giants in Japan, Griffin signed a one-year deal with the Nationals in December. The 31-year-old left-hander then earned his first career All-Star nod with Washington, before the Guardians acquired him before the Trade Deadline on Aug. 3.
Griffin, who is set to make his second start with Cleveland on Wednesday at Comerica Park, is a different pitcher than his first big league stint. He returned to MLB with an expanded seven-pitch arsenal that has keyed his breakout this year. As the Guardians look to withstand a second-half slide, they hope Griffin will ultimately help them reach the postseason.
“I love guys that can pitch,” catcher Austin Hedges said. “It’s kind of a lost art in this sport. This league's about stuff now and velocity, and he's shown the world that you can still pitch with different shapes and movement and execution.”
Griffin made seven appearances in his first big league stint, from 2020-22 with the Royals and Blue Jays. Given that lack of traction in the Majors, he embarked upon a career in Japan, with an open mind in feeling, “I'm getting a little bit of a second chance at baseball here.”
Griffin’s arsenal previously featured a four-seam fastball, cutter, curveball and changeup. He added a sinker, splitter and sweeper to the fold while in Japan. The sinker and a splitter came in 2023, and the sweeper followed in ‘24. Expanding his menu of offerings boiled down to a simple philosophy.
Griffin (whose four-seamer is averaging 91.5 mph this season) opted to stop chasing velocity and figure out alternative ways to get hitters out.
“Hitters in this league are really good at making adjustments on how you got them out,” said Griffin, who logged a 3.06 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in 129 1/3 innings over 22 starts with the Nationals. “Having a deep mix like that definitely helps me understand the pitching aspect of knowing you need to get a guy out more than one way, especially as a starter.”
Griffin’s cutter has been his bread and butter this season (32.4 percent usage), but he has a balanced mix between his four-seamer (16.4 percent), sweeper (14.5 percent), changeup (10.4 percent), sinker (10.4 percent), curveball (10 percent) and splitter (6 percent).
Among his newest pitches, Griffin implemented a sinker to help keep left-handers off his other offerings, including those running away that they could hit to left field. He has often thrown that pitch on the inner half to lefties and away from righties. Griffin’s splitter, which dives low and below the zone, gives him another swing-and-miss pitch.
Griffin’s sweeper is another swing-and-miss offering. It has generated a 32.8 percent whiff rate this season, trailing only his changeup (34.4), while working away from lefties and in on righties.
With seven pitches to account for now, opponents can’t comfortably sit on a four-seamer that doesn’t have top-tier velocity. They have hit just .212 against Griffin’s heater this season.
Griffin made his Guardians debut on Thursday, when he was charged with five runs on seven hits and two walks with six strikeouts over four innings in a 13-6 loss to the Mets. He called his own pitches on PitchCom that outing, as he did with the Nationals this season. Time is precious with the pitch clock, and there isn’t always time to shake off signs.
Griffin knows himself best. As the Guardians get to know him, they know it’s important to tap into that.
“He's a very intellectual guy, so he knows himself obviously better than anyone else knows him,” pitching coach Carl Willis said. “He can tell us what he's had success with, what pitches work off one another, what locations, and just his thought process then of how he views his arsenal against specific hitters.”
It’s an arsenal with a lot of ways to get guys out.
“A lot of times you look at a scouting report, and it's like, ‘Oh, well, my pitcher doesn't have this pitch,’” Hedges said. “Well, when your pitcher does have that pitch, you can exploit a hitter's weakness a little bit more if you have that weapon. It just gives us more options to have some fun with.”