Jared Koenig on His (Sort of) New Pitch, His Other (Sort of) New Pitch, and the (Sort of) New Level He Could Yet Reach

[Matthew Trueblood]

By the end of last season, the towering southpaw was arguably the Brewers' second- or third-best reliever—at least when things were going right. He enters 2025 hoping to have things going right even more often.

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Inside the Brewers' spring training clubhouse in Maryvale, the team has assigned the lockers in one corner to a collection of some of the biggest human beings in the league. At the far end is the locker for Trevor Megill, and next to him are Jared Koenig and Bryan Hudson. It's like the club is expecting a basketball game to break out at any moment, and believes the rim they need to protect will be right by the entrance to the showers.

Megill is where he was last year, but there's been considerable turnover during the winter, and Hudson and Koenig are new to this sector. It's the lane reserved for players more or less locked into the bullpen. Last year, Hoby Milner was there, along with new signee Jakob Junis. Hudson and Koenig were on the other side, where roster hopefuls with only slim chances to claim a place line up—where, this year, the likes of Grant Wolfram, Easton McGee, Chad Patrick and Logan Henderson are. 

As a group, Megill, Hudson and Koenig average 6-foot-6, 248 pounds. Koenig is the shortest, but also the most sturdily built. As the team often does, they've dropped a prized prospect into the middle of a long line of veterans, to encourage them to learn from more experienced peers and to begin integrating them into the group. This year, it's Jacob Misiorowski, who stands 6-foot-7 himself—but who is absolutely dwarfed by his older, equally tall but almost unfathomably wider and stronger teammates.

As a group, they're a testament to what the Brewers look for in relievers: the raw materials for more than they've achieved elsewhere, and a willingness to learn and grow in the game. Koenig might be the best example of all. The journeyman lefty has found a very comfortable home in the Brewers' pen, and this spring, he knows he's likely to be a trusted contributor. He did not, however, take anything for granted this winter.

"Yeah, I had a good year, so that helps: going into the offseason knowing I’m most likely going to have a job," Koenig said, when asked about the human side of getting over the hump and into the majors in earnest for the first time. "That was a nice plus, for sure. I was a little more relaxed in the offseason; I got to enjoy it a little more, rather than having to stress whether, ‘Alright, is someone going to want me? Is someone going to sign me?’ So that was a luxury. Everything else was a continuousness to try to be better each time. My trainer’s always pushing me on that. So, with that, nothing else really changed. I was in the gym six days a week."

Koenig said he first picked up a ball and began building back up just a few weeks after last season ended, following much the same process he would have in previous years. He believes the best way to protect his arm is to carefully manage offseason workload, but not lose touch or miss any kind of signal that something isn't right. Had such a problem flared up, he wanted to know as soon as possible, so he could treat and attack it—even before reporting to camp, perhaps. 

Not only has that not happened, but Koenig has hit the ground running this spring. In his lone Statcast-tracked outing of the spring so far, he sat just under 96 miles per hour with his fastballs—both his sinker and his four-seamer, the latter of which he threw more often Sunday than in some entire months of 2024.

"There was a few more four-seamers [catcher Jorge Alfaro] called, and I’m fine throwing it, because I need to work on it a little bit," Koenig said of that pitch selection. "Trying it out. I’ve thrown it before, but it’s hard for me to keep that ball straight, as well. I don’t throw a ball that can stay straight. I’m still cutting it, but if it’s in the zone and it has the ride it needs to, it’s a good separation [from the sinker and cutter]."

On Sunday, the pitch did have more induced vertical break than it did last year, so the limited experiment was a success. A catcher more intimately familiar with Koenig's arsenal might not have even prompted him to throw the handful he did, but the results were encouraging. Koenig also said that velocity number was the highest he's ever been this early in a season, which is hardly a surprise. Even last year, when he kept adding velocity all the way to the end of the season, it took until August for his juice to exceed what he's already shown this spring.

The four-seamer could be a semi-new pitch for Koenig this season. He's much more comfortable with his command of the cutter and sinker, but if he can even occasionally throw a riding four-seamer at 96 or 97 miles per hour at the top of the zone, it will force hitters to build their strike zone against him in a whole new way. That's not the only offering Koenig is thinking of as somewhat new, though.

"The other one is the sweeper. Just trying to get it, again," he said. "It came in last year where I wanted it, and then muscle memory took over during the season, and it became more curveballesque. It’s a constant battle with that one, trying to keep it where I want it."

Indeed it is—so much so that the pitch he thinks of as a sweeper has been classified as a curve by all of the major classification systems available. It's a pitch with lots of depth, but not always as much horizontal movement as Koenig intends. He believes that an offseason of work might have fixed that.

"The goal is, ‘Throw this as a ball, and hopefully, it comes back,’ but hopefully that forces me to spin it [laterally] rather than top to bottom," Koenig said. "There are a couple things I’m trying, to just get it a little more horizontal, and a little less depth-y. And if we can get that, then great. But even, to the righties, if it’s got a little depth to it, that’s fine, because it can get a swing and miss, down below."

In that department, we've yet to see the progress. On Sunday, Koenig's so-called curve has more vertical depth and less horizontal movement than it averaged last year. He's right, though: Against righties, that's just fine. In fact, it might complement that budding four-seamer just as well this way as anything can. The good news, if the focus is making it a truer sweeper, is that the pitch was firmer (averaging around 82 mph) and located pretty consistently below the zone and inside on a righty, or away from a lefty.

Koenig believes he can get even better, and the evidence is on his side. If he can live at 96 and touch higher; if he can throw the occasional four-seamer to make it even harder for hitters to spot his sinker and cutter; and if he can consistently execute his breaking ball, he might well emerge as a left-handed relief ace for the Crew in 2025. He's going to be huge for the Brewers, one way or another.

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[Team Canada]

1 hour ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

It's like the club is expecting a basketball game to break out at any moment, and believes the rim they need to protect will be right by the entrance to the showers.

I enjoyed this.

[Joseph Zarr]

Love these player pieces, Matt. Keep 'em coming. What a treat!

[Brian]

The article is good even though it may lead to another Brewer arm injury.  How many different pitches does a pitcher need now days?  Surely not 7,  I see elbow tendonitis in his near future again and back on the injured list by the all star break.  I don't want to be a "Debbie downer" but there is no need for so many different pitches. No wonder every year that goes by there are new record arm injuries every following season. 

[Team Canada]

Do you have data linking number of types of pitches to injuries?

[jesusoftheapes]

1 hour ago, Team Canada said:

Do you have data linking number of types of pitches to injuries?

I do stop over to our site. 

[jesusoftheapes]

I think he was the HERO of the Brewers 2024 season and no one says so.    When we were without him we struggled from the Pen until he was back .  He is the glue that holds everything together.  

He has to add nothing to his game to be that super piece the Brewers need .   

I love the guy. He gives batters fits. 

[Brian]

2 hours ago, Team Canada said:

Do you have data linking number of types of pitches to injuries?

Wouldn't that be common sense that max effort plus the pursuit of "nastier stuff ball movement" would cause extra stress on the elbow and shoulder?  Do I seriously need an article for that with all the elbow  inflammation, flexor tendon injury, and ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) tears pitchers get now days? 

[Team Canada]

6 hours ago, Brian said:

Wouldn't that be common sense that max effort plus the pursuit of "nastier stuff ball movement" would cause extra stress on the elbow and shoulder?

What do those two things have to do with the number of pitches a pitcher throws? Those two things are absolutely true. They also are unrelated to throwing 6 pitches. It's not somehow more stress on your arm if you throw 1 sinker, 1 cutter, 1 4-seam FB, and 1 slider compared to 4 sliders. Generally I'd expect it to be worse for your arm that you threw 4 sliders.

[Brian]

20 minutes ago, Team Canada said:

What do those two things have to do with the number of pitches a pitcher throws? Those two things are absolutely true. They also are unrelated to throwing 6 pitches. It's not somehow more stress on your arm if you throw 1 sinker, 1 cutter, 1 4-seam FB, and 1 slider compared to 4 sliders. Generally I'd expect it to be worse for your arm that you threw 4 sliders.

I didn't say the number of pitches had anything to do with it.  Just like any other injury, you could do it right away in the 1st game or half way through the season. But tendonitis is a repetitive motion injury. 

[Team Canada]

10 hours ago, Brian said:

I didn't say the number of pitches had anything to do with it.  Just like any other injury, you could do it right away in the 1st game or half way through the season. But tendonitis is a repetitive motion injury. 

To be clear, we're taking about number of types of pitches. As you said:

Quote

How many different pitches does a pitcher need now days?  Surely not 7,  I see elbow tendonitis in his near future again and back on the injured list by the all star break.  I don't want to be a "Debbie downer" but there is no need for so many different pitches. No wonder every year that goes by there are new record arm injuries every following season. 

I'm just curious how you would back up that opinion at all. My example above was saying that if you were a pitcher that just threw a bunch of sliders, that is arguable more stressful on the arm than someone who throws 4 different pitch types. 

 

[Matthew Trueblood]

I just want to stress what was already in the article: this isn't a *truly* new pitch situation. The four-seamer has been there, it's just something he's trying to get more comfortable with to force hitters to respect it. The sweeper is the pitch that is currently classified by Statcast as a curve; he's working to get more sweep and less depth on it. By way of an update, he only threw one in the game in Mesa against the A's Wednesday night, but he did say the numbers were a bit better on that one and that he's feeling good about its changing shape in catch play.