This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
DETROIT – Joey Ortiz stepped to the plate Wednesday night, and Jake Rogers – back behind the plate to catch Casey Mize – didn’t know what would follow. Rogers had just struck out the Brewers infielder the night before with a knuckleball in the ninth inning of a blowout, and Rogers didn’t know if he felt offended.
“If I was in his shoes,” Rogers said, “I'd be fuming: Of course this guy's throwing a knuckleball, and it happens to be nasty.”
No worries.
“He was just like, 'That knuckleball's nasty,'” Rogers said. “And I'm like, 'Dude, I am so sorry. I've been on the other side of it.' They all kind of came up to me and were like, 'Dude, incredible.'”
That’s about as high praise as Rogers could get for his pet pitch – except for the praise he gets from a back-to-back Cy Young Award winner.
“That,” Tarik Skubal said, “was a special pitch.”
Skubal should know. He has seen it longer than anybody.
“You guys don't watch,” Skubal said, “but when he's warming you up, he throws them to you when you're warming up between innings. Pregame bullpen, he'll throw it back to you. In between innings, even if he's not playing, he'll do it. So he has a lot of practice. …
“He's been able to do that since I've known him, 2019. He's always had a knuckleball. And then he's just messed around with it more as time has gone on.”
The knuckleball fraternity is a special group. What was once a bread-and-butter pitch for some Major Leaguers, including former Tiger Steve Sparks, and a secondary pitch for many others, is now a rarity. But several big leaguers like to try throwing it on the side.
“There's a few guys that throw it just messing around,” Rogers said. “Colt [Keith] and [Zach McKinstry] will throw one every once in a while when they play catch. Connor Seabold has a really good one that he's thrown to me before. Burch Smith can throw a good knuckleball.”
Even a young Skubal liked to play catch with it.
“I think the last time I messed around with a knuckleball was in high school,” he said. “Not that I even tried to throw it, just messing around.”
None can throw it quite like Rogers can, probably because none have had the history with it that Rogers has had.
“I've had a lot of people text me: Dude, when did you start throwing that? It was literally I think when I was 10 years old,” he said. “I think I learned that before I learned how to throw a changeup or a curveball or a slider.”
Rogers learned it from his dad.
“He threw a pretty good one,” Rogers said. “He's a pretty athletic guy. We would just play catch, and obviously my hands were tiny so I had no idea how to throw it. But he was just like, ‘When you throw it, you have to put your fingers off.’ At that time, I'm a little kid shotputting the ball, which is how a lot of people start learning how to throw it, just trying to get a ball to not move. …
“I started throwing a four-fingered grip, and then as my hands got bigger and I got into college and pro ball, then I moved to a two [fingered grip]. I learned that's the best way for me, anyway. Some guys can throw a four or a three; it depends on how much spin you're putting on the ball to counteract that spin. It's kind of an evolutionary pitch.”
It evolved without Rogers actually pitching. Until the Tigers needed a position player to pitch, Rogers hadn’t pitched in a game since before high school. But throughout his rise as a catcher, he tinkered with the knuckler, whether warming up pitchers in the bullpen or long-tossing in the outfield before a start at catcher.
“Even to this day, when I start, I'll be in left field [long tossing], and my last two throws to [bullpen catcher Chris] Chinea will be two knuckleballs,” he said. “I throw it every day. It's just something I love throwing.”
Rogers made one appearance as a pitcher in 2021, before Tommy John surgery put his career on hold. He got back on the mound last year and got comfortable enough with the knuckleball to throw it with two strikes. He got a groundout from Ernie Clement with it last July. He finally got a swing and miss with it from Ortiz.
“I think he's been trying to hone it in before he goes and does that, which I think he's done,” Skubal said.
Careers have started that way. Tim Wakefield was a Minor League infielder in the Pirates’ system before his knuckleball led him to a 19-year Major League career on the mound. R.A. Dickey was once a hard-throwing pitching prospect for the Rangers before the knuckleball extended his career by a decade.
Rogers is well-established as a catcher. But in an alternate universe, would he ever want to be a knuckleball pitcher full time?
“Let me tell you something: I'd love to do it,” he said. “I love throwing that pitch, but I don't know if that's in my cards. That's way above my pay grade. Someone's going to have to take a real stab at doing that, because my mechanics are probably absolutely terrible. I'm just out there throwing, having fun. It would be incredibly fun to do that for a living.”