Colorado Rockies: Adam Ottavino on free agency, his “new pitch” from 2018, the playoffs, and more

MLB Network’s show MLB Now is hosted by Brian Kenny weekdays at 12 PM MT. It has a recurring panel of 2 MLB Network analysts and insiders and one special guest for everyday. On Wednesday, former Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino was that special guest for the entire hour long show and he delved into many different topics.

Adam Ottavino was the special guest on MLB Now on Wednesday (the first of a few days, according to Kenny) and he had a chance to talk about a lot of things during the hour, including the recent signing of Patrick Corbin to the Nationals, the possibility of defensive shifts being banned (you can listen to his thoughts on that here), the Arizona Diamondbacks offseason outlook, and the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade but in a one-on-one interview with Brian Kenny, he spoke about a number of different concerning himself and the Colorado Rockies.

To lead off the interview, Kenny asked Ottavino about how it’s like being on the free agent market. Ottavino said that he “still feels the same…[but I] wait for my agent to call–talk to him, get the feel [of the market] but ultimately, I know I’ll be playing baseball somewhere next season so [I’m] just try[ing] to enjoy the offseason with my family and do my training.”

Kenny then asked him how often he talks with his agent and Ottavino said that they talk often, if not everyday “just because I like to know stuff and stay in the loop.”

Ottavino was asked about listening to media reports and rumors on him and he said that he listens to them a little bit but he tries to tune it out as much as he can because if his agent doesn’t mention it to him in their conversations, the rumors probably aren’t true.

Ottavino on his “new pitch”

Kenny asked him about his “new pitch” that he developed in 2018, which Ottavino described as a “cutter/hard slider.” He said that he tested it out last spring and struggled with it early but he got more of a feel for it and used it more as the season moved on.

He developed it so it would give him a third pitch to throw in a velocity and movement profile that he didn’t have previously. The two other pitches are a fastball/sinker, which averaged at about 94 MPH, and a slider that averaged about 82 MPH. This “cutter/hard slider” was about in the middle at 87 MPH, according to Brooks Baseball.

Ottavino also said that pitchers “creating” different pitches for themselves is starting to become more popular because more tools and technology are available.

"“You can look at the pitch tracking devices, the flight dynamics of your pitch, see how they’re spinning and how much they’re spinning, and then you can go look at it [with] a really high speed camera and see how you are accomplishing that goal and what you’re doing it right and what you’re doing it wrong and, I think, it takes a person to kind of look in the mirror a little bit and look at their stats and see where there’s room for improvement and this is just a way to get to that end.”"

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Ottavino on the postseason

Ottavino said that it was “a little different” in the postseason and that he was “surprised” by it. He said that his emotions and adrenaline level were higher in the Wild Card game.

He said that’s part of the reason why he, as you may remember, was so wild in the first inning of his appearance during the Wild Card game in Chicago in 2018. He said that he “felt really good” in the second inning of the Wild Card game but “at the beginning, it was almost like I couldn’t throw anything with feel because I was vibrating at, like, such a frequency that you’re not accustomed to.”

In the Division Series, he talked about how he gave up a walkoff single to Mike Moustakas to end Game 2. He said that Moustakas connected on a fastball, the fourth straight of the at-bat, and he said that while Moustakas wasn’t successful with up and away fastballs in that situation throughout the season, Ottavino said the he “got a little too caught up in the numbers in that specific at-bat instead of going with a feel there.”

You can check out the entire interview here. Also, at the end of the show on Wednesday, Kenny said that Ottavino will be with them for a “few more days” so, presumably, he will on the show through the end of the week so you can tune in on MLB Network at 12 PM MT.