No Longer Just a Two-Pitch Guy, Logan Henderson is Establishing Himself in Brewers' Rotation

After his name appeared in rumors last month, Logan Henderson remained a Brewer after last Monday's trade deadline. Given that the club reportedly made Henderson off-limits in trade talks for Tarik Skubal, it seems that's the outcome both player and team preferred.

"I saw my name thrown in there," Henderson told reporters after his last start on Tuesday, the night after the deadline. "I actually saw [Matt] Arnold earlier today, and I said thank you for not dishing me away."

To this point, Henderson's big-league opportunities have not been as consistent as he and the Brewers prefer. At this time one year ago, elbow inflammation ultimately ended his season prematurely. Earlier this year, he missed six weeks with a low back strain. As a result, Henderson has made just 15 career major-league starts.

Including last year's postseason, that's four months of big-league games in which Henderson has been with the Brewers but unable to pitch. He's still found ways to benefit from that time.

"When I've been on the shelf, I'm watching the game all the time," Henderson said over the weekend. "I'm always still thinking about baseball, still seeing how I can improve in a lot of different areas. I live and breathe the game, and I'm always thinking about it and seeing how I can get better."

One might expect that missing time due to injury could impact a 24-year-old rookie's ability to settle in at the game's highest level. It's had no noticeable effect on Henderson, who has looked at home on a big-league mound whenever he's been available. In those 15 starts, he's pitched to a 2.39 ERA, 3.06 FIP, and 91 DRA- with an excellent 32.6% strikeout rate.

"I don't know that I have a great answer for that," Henderson said of his ability to pick up where he left off after being sidelined. "I feel like when I get back in a 'compete' mode and when I'm in-game, it's like I get in that zone and it's kind of hard to explain."

In his five starts last year, Henderson proved that his stuff could get big-league hitters out, but the jury remained out on whether he could succeed sustainably as a starting pitcher. His ride-run four-seamer and fading changeup from a low slot created a lethal two-pitch combination, but he lacked feel for a third pitch with consistent glove-side movement. In his debut season, 89% of Henderson's pitches were a fastball or changeup, raising questions about his effectiveness multiple times through a lineup.

Henderson is quelling those concerns this year. He's reduced that combined usage of fastballs and changeups to 78%, mainly by making his cutter a bona fide secondary pitch to right-handed hitters. Last season, Henderson did not throw a single cutter to a righty, but for much of this year, it's become his go-to secondary in those matchups.

"Honestly, it's kind of just a comfortability thing," Henderson said. "Being able to have a full offseason with it, spring, then time in Nashville, I felt really good about it. If I'm a two-pitch pitcher to a righty, you can flip a coin and you know what's coming. So I think it's a really good buffer, and I think it's a good pitch. I think William [Contreras] likes it a lot too because he calls it a lot. So I think a lot of it was just him pressing cutter behind the plate, me being convicted in it, and just kind of running with it."

Metrically, Henderson's cutter still grades as his worst pitch. A decent chunk of them still back up with slight arm-side run, rather than true cut.

Stuff is only part of the equation, though. Last year, Henderson also threw a short gyro slider as a potential fourth pitch. Over the offseason, he traded it for a sweeping breaking ball. Both have graded as nastier pitches than the cutter, but Henderson has struggled to find a consistent feel for them. The cutter has been a more repeatable in-zone pitch, making it a more sensible third offering.

"It's how does this blend with my arsenal, and then how does it feel coming out of my hand? How does it feel throwing it?" Henderson said. "Last year, I had the gyro, and I loved it, and I thought it was a good pitch, but I didn't execute it great. It didn't feel good on my elbow, so I'm not throwing that one anymore. And then the cutter, I think, is just necessary. You look at my arsenal, and I'm not throwing the slider a ton, so I need something turning left."

Furthermore, despite its unimpressive characteristics, the cutter has excelled at missing barrels. According to Statcast, Henderson's cutter has posted a +1 run value while holding opponents to a .279 xwOBA, 33.3% hard-hit rate, and 20.5% whiff rate.

The raw movement numbers are probably underselling it. Henderson's cutter may not actually cut much, but he's been told the movement is late enough to miss the sweet spot of the bat. Additionally, because he throws from a low slot and gets so much run on his fastball and changeup, the cutter might have extra perceived cut by comparison.

"Ty Duvall, one of our bullpen catchers who catches me every day, has given me that feedback before," Henderson said. "On paper, it might not look like it cuts a whole lot, but it's hard enough and late enough to where it's just the perfect amount of cut to be able to get guys off the four-seamer and miss the barrel with that last amount of cut."

The next item on Henderson's checklist as a developing starter is length. He has completed six innings in just three of his 15 starts. It's not a matter of efficiency, but of durability. The Brewers have routinely pulled him after five innings with a pitch count at or below 85 pitches, citing pitch-tracking and biomechanical data showing that his stuff declines around that threshold.

"Those things are all great goals to have, but you got to be able to maintain your stuff beyond that," Pat Murphy said in late July after Henderson expressed that he wanted to start working deeper into starts.

The Brewers have since let him work into the sixth inning in two straight outings. They could give him more leash on Monday night, as running a six-man rotation during a stretch of 17 straight games without a day off has left them short-handed in a seven-man bullpen. However, Murphy also made clear that Henderson throwing his best stuff for five innings is better than pacing himself for seven.

"I don't want him thinking about getting deeper in games and conserving pitches," Murphy said. "You've got to fight to get outs, man."

Henderson is finally getting an extended opportunity to show that fight, and he's becoming a key cog in the middle of Milwaukee's rotation.

"It has been good to get a little runway here to make a good stretch of starts," Henderson said. "Just trying to keep doing that moving forward."

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