CHICAGO — Padres bullpen coach Doug Bochtler, a former reliever for the team, specializes in teaching the change-up. Most notably, he helped teammate Trevor Hoffman and two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana with the pitch.
To this day, Bochtler considers those the two best change-ups he's seen. Fernando Rodney's, in his estimation, is not far behind.
"I think that, without a doubt, it's the best in the game right now," Bochtler said of Rodney's change-up. "I think he's come into this pitch, and he hasn't had it necessarily the length of time that Trevor had it.