Since leaving the A’s, Santiago Casilla has been a different player. That’s not a joke about his name (now it is!), he transformed as a pitcher across the bay. What do the A’s have in their newest reliever?
He’s developed a two seam fastball
Before departing from the A’s, Casilla was a straight fastball heavy pitcher, throwing his four-seam offering over 60% of the time. That held steady when he first arrived in San Francisco, but in his third year there, he started to throw a two-seamer (also considered a sinker by some). He still threw his four-seam fastball a significant amount (35%) but slowly phased it out in favor of the two-seamer, dropping his four-seam usage as low as 15%, routinely throwing his two-seamer over a third of the time.