September 7, 2023
Right-handed pitcher Mitch White has found the transition over to the Toronto Blue Jays’ organization an easy one. White, who came over at the 2022 MLB trade deadline from the Los Aneles Dodgers in exchange for prospect Nick Frasso has noticed a lot of similarities between the two organizations.
“Obviously, it’s a lot of change,” said White. “I was comfortable with the Dodgers and I knew all of those people. But since I’ve been here, it has been a quick and very easy transition. They’re similar organizations. They both do a lot of things well and for me it wasn’t anything crazy – which was lucky. I really like it here.”
White has split time between the rotation and bullpen since coming over for both the Blue Jays and Triple-A Buffalo.
The righty uses a different mentality for both roles, “Obviously, you’re not going as long,” White said of the bullpen. “You have to get going from the get-go. I definitely struggled with that this year for sure. It’s a different feel than once every five days knowing. Routine helps a lot as a starter – just a couple slight changes but nothing too crazy.”
One adjustment White has made in the bullpen is shortening up his pitch repertoire to showcase his best pitches.
White who can throw six different pitches which includes: a 4-seam fastball, a sinker, a slider, a curveball, a cutter, and a changeup; talks about how he approaches hitters in a relief appearance.
“You have to get to your best pitches out of the pen,” explained White. “You don’t have time to feel out a lineup where you need more than one or two pitches. I think I got in trouble sometimes when I wasn’t able to lock in my best two pitches against whoever it was we were facing.”
His best pitches varies between righties and lefties, “I was working 4-seam fastball and slider to righties,” White added. “And to lefties it was fastball, curveball, and cutter.”
And when all of his pitches are in play, White uses different ways to work off his fastball to both righties and lefties.
“I like them up and in on lefties,” stated White. “I want something close to them and then slow them back down with the curveball. That’s the basics of it. Obviously, there’s a little more to it, sometimes I like to get them with the cutter – whether that’s back foot or up and in, I play them off each other with an up and in heater, and the curveball as the change of pace. If I’m feeling it a changeup the other way off the fastball. To righties it’s mostly 4-seam fastballs away and I’ll throw sinkers in on the hands to get them off the spin away because I throw a lot of sliders to righties and I think that keeps them honest.”
Whether, he’s starting or relieving, watch for Mitch White to mix up his pitches frequently to keep hitters off-balance.