Sometimes the simplest of acts can change everything. Ryan Tepera felt great during spring training and coming into the season. But every time he took the mound in April, it just didn’t feel right.
There were a few issues that needed to be corrected, but the key to it all in Tepera’s opinion wasn’t overly complex: breathe.
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“I was moving my rib cage down to make my core tighter and it’s helped everything,” Tepera said. “It’s helped my stability, it fixed me mechanically and kept me in line and just repeating that delivery helped a lot. I owe a lot to PJ (Mainville), our trainer. He’s the one who got me on it and it fixed everything. It just put everything back in sync in my delivery.”
It’s rare to hear a pitcher credit a trainer for something that’s not really health-related, but Tepera had a reason to talk to Mainville about this.
“I was having some soreness in a certain spot,” Tepera said. “He was wondering why, so we started talking and I told him I felt like I was trying to over-pronate my two-seamer. He started talking about the rib cage and trying to lower it to be more stable, which gives you more internal rotation and puts less stress on your arm. I made that adjustment and it’s fixed everything.”
Tepera had spent time watching video with the coaching staff and saw that his back leg was dropping down, leading his torso to tilt back, his front shoulder to tilt upward and that it was causing him to open up. The straightforward process of gathering himself on the mound and breathing properly helped correct all of that.
“So much of biomechanics and pitching is aligning everything,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “We noticed that early in his delivery it was what I call the rib cage getting disengaged from the torso. He started getting very open with his upper body. Part of re-centering all that is breathing and re-focusing your core and then everything falls in line. It’s something that just clicked with him. It’s something that everyone focuses on, but it happened to be something for Tep that really made sense and everything fell in line from that point.”
Breathing, slowing down and thinking about pitching instead of mechanics have played a big role in Tepera’s turnaround. It led to his confidence growing as he became locked in both mentally and physically and allowed him to stop over-throwing on the mound.
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“Effort level is a big thing,” Tepera said. “A lot of times relievers just go out and throw as hard as they can, max-effort guys. There’s a fine line with that. Right now I’m in a good place where I’m almost thinking 80 percent effort level and just let the arm go on a ride. The ball has more life and you’re able to command it. That’s kind of where I’m at.”
Tepera actually has seen the velocity on his four-seamer and slider go up from April to May, which is normal for pitchers as they build up over the course of the start of a season, but also shows that he’s not losing anything when throwing nice and easy.
After struggling with command in April, Tepera didn’t walk a single batter all May and only issued a walk in his first June outing after a tough 2-2 call didn’t go his way in the scoreless seventh inning of Tuesday’s 4-3 victory over the Padres. It was a dominant month for Tepera as he allowed just three hits and one run over 14 2/3 innings, striking out 19 of the 49 batters he faced while allowing a minuscule .145 OPS.
Tepera’s bread-and-butter pitch is his slider — he used to throw a cutter, which this pitch gets labeled as currently, but Tepera says it’s morphed into a hard slider and he also throws a slower breaking ball he calls a slurve. When he wants to get some swing-and-miss, that’s the pitch he goes to and can get plenty of chase.
But it’s actually his four-seam usage that’s helped him get back on track. In April, he threw his two-seamer 33.5 percent of the time and the four-seamer 14.8 percent. It largely switched in May as he was at 29.7 percent with the four-seamer and 16.2 percent with the two-seam fastball.
Part of that change was strategic, of course.
“We’re trying to keep hitters guessing,” Hottovy said. “If they know he has a good sinker and you’re out there anticipating the sinker and you get four-seamer, no matter if the four-seamer has elite ride or numbers — and his four-seamer actually has pretty good movement — it’s still different than what they’re anticipating. Pitching is playing with hitters’ timing and their thoughts and how we can play with that. Part of that is anticipating when they’re thinking a two-seamer is coming and we throw a four and vice versa and we manipulate that.”
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But Tepera says the pitch also helps him get locked in mechanically.
“I was getting behind hitters with the two-seam because it was running off the plate,” Tepera said. “So then I started throwing four-seamers down and away to righties when I come into the game and it kind of locks me in. It gets me going and locks me in for that first pitch. Not to mention I’m getting ahead of hitters, I’m 0-1 instead of 1-0, which makes a huge difference. That four-seam has been a big help too.”
In April, Tepera threw 19 first-pitch two-seamers, 10 for strikes. In May, he threw 16 first-pitch four-seamers, 13 for strikes.
“It’s getting that extension and feeling that release point,” Tepera said. “Locking in on that, I think that helps all your pitches, off-speed too. It’s hard to explain, but every pitcher has a pitch and location that gets them back on track.”
Tepera started last season brilliantly, becoming one of David Ross’ most trusted relievers. But by the end of the season, his command was faltering and he was starting to get hit hard. The Cubs ended up non-tendering him after the season, but after he tested free agency, he returned to Chicago. His season started much like last year’s ended, a bit uneven, but Tepera said the issues weren’t similar.
But something did carry over from last year, the belief Ross has in Tepera. Despite an April in which he had a 5.40 ERA and had a walk rate above 10 percent (along with hitting two batters), Ross didn’t bury him in a bullpen that was proving to be deep and very talented.
“Part of it is we don’t overreact to results,” Hottovy said. “A guy might get results, but the pitches might not look right and he’s skating by. There are also times guys may not be getting the outs or giving up runs, but the stuff is there and it’s just that close. If you keep trusting that it’s gonna get better and they’re gonna figure out, then when you do, they go on a run.”
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Tepera said it was a process to get to where he is now. He got his mechanics right, his manager kept trusting in him and eventually, his confidence came back.
“Confidence is key in this game, you have to have that confidence,” Tepera said. “Mentally, I was just in a better place. I was able to throw the pitch that I knew I wanted to throw. I was able to think out there. The first six, seven outings I was on the mound, I just wasn’t thinking. I was kind of out there throwing and worrying about mechanics instead of worrying about getting the guy out in the box.”
The Cubs bullpen is stacked, a deep group that has a 2.69 ERA, second-best in all of baseball and leads the game with a 29.4 percent strikeout rate. The group boasts a dominant closer in Craig Kimbrel, a cadre of talented lefties and some young arms who are opening eyes. But Tepera has become Ross’ go-to pitcher in some of the team’s biggest moments. Six of his 14 May appearances came with runners already on base, three of those times with the bases loaded. Despite having nearly impossible circumstances to walk into, he only allowed three of the 13 runners he inherited to score in May.
Even on Tuesday night, when starter Kyle Hendricks allowed a two-out single in a one-run game in the sixth, Tepera started warming in case another batter reached and he was needed to get his team out of a jam. Ross knows that if he finds himself in a bind, he can trust Tepera to unravel the situation.
“That’s everything,” Tepera said. “That’s what bullpen guys want to do, earn the trust of the manager. Whether you’re a rookie guy coming up or a veteran trying to make the team, that’s what you have to do. You want to pitch in big situations and gain that trust.”
(Photo: Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Images)