Often when a player changes teams mid-season and experiences success that he did not have with his original team, we hear the phrase "a change of scenery" as a big reason for that success. For New York Yankees starter Brandon McCarthy, that change of scenery brought with it a change in his approach and an allowance for a pitch that his former team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, frowned upon: the cut fastball.
McCarthy had a very tough time in Phoenix in the early half of 2014. As a Diamondback, little seamed to go right, leading McCarthy to a record of 3-10 with a 5.01 ERA and 1.38 WHIP. He averaged six innings in his 18 starts. Since the July 6 trade, though, he has come through for the Yankees when they needed it most: 4-1, 2.21 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, and a similar average of innings pitched through his first six starts. Only once (Texas Rangers on July 29) has he allowed more than two runs.
What does McCarthy attribute to his sudden turn-around? Yankees reporter Kyle Kesses asked him that improtant question as part of an August 13 interview.
At the 1:29 mark, McCarthy begins to describe his use of the cut fastball since joining the Yankees. He stated that he had lost confidence in it (after two very successful years with Oakland in 2011-2012). His performance fell in 2013 when he signed with Arizona: 5-11, 4.53 ERA. The Diamondbacks did not want him to throw the cutter. He had even worse numbers in 2014 before the trade. McCarthy stated,
"The Diamondbacks aren't a cutter-happy organization, so you have to change your attack a little bit, and so I lost a little faith in my cutter. And then coming here [to New York], it was something that they fully embraced. It was, 'We want you to throw your cutter, that's when you were the most successful.'... Once catchers started calling it, that's when the confidence came back.... I just had to start throwing it, and then the results fall out."
How could the Yankees not "fully embrace" the cut fastball? Remember that superstar closer Mariano Rivera made his entire career with mostly that one pitch. McCarthy is no Rivera (no one is), but if he had success with the cut fastball in Oakland, then he should have had that pitch available all along. Manager Joe Girardi made the right call in giving that pitch back to him.
With pitchers such as Jeff Samardzija, Jon Lester, and David Price all still available shortly before the McCarthy trade, critics may have wondered why the Yankees -- who can certainly afford those high-priced aces -- would trade for a pitcher making over $10 million with a 3-10, 5.01 record. It turns out that all McCarthy needed was his best pitch available to him: the cut fastball. It also helped him to go from a then-last-place team to a contender.
McCarthy will become a costless agent after this season ends. At age 30, he still has many years of success ahead of him. If he finishes 2014 just as strongly as he has pitched for the Yankees so far, then he may find himself a job -- perhaps back in New York -- and likely with a raise soon after the costless agency period begins.