Adbert Alzolay Example Of What Craig Breslow Could Do With Red Sox

On the surface, Craig Breslow’s introductory Red Sox press conference Thursday at Fenway Park was one filled with corporate buzzwords like “synthesizing” and being “directionally aligned.”

There were plenty of $1 words from the Yale-educated, self-proclaimed nerd as he spoke for the first time as chief baseball officer for one of the most historic franchises in the history of the sport. Breslow unsurprisingly kept details close to the vest, but just because he has an Ivy League vocabulary doesn’t mean he can’t communicate in a way that baseball players and coaches can understand.

In fact, it’s his demonstrated ability to do that with the Cubs that helped earn him his first job in a big chair. The Red Sox obviously hope Breslow, who oversaw pitching in Chicago, can turn around Boston the way he did the Cubs on the mound.

And when you’re looking for proof of concept, look no further than Adbert Alzolay. The Cubs signed Alzolay as an international free agent back in 2012. He worked his way through the system, and there was obvious talent there — Alzolay was a Futures Game selection in 2019 — but it still hadn’t completely clicked.

Alzolay broke into the bigs in 2019 and struggled in just four appearances. The 2020 campaign was better but still a challenge, as it was for just about everyone, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Injuries also were an issue. At the same time, Breslow — hired ahead of the 2019 season — was really trying to make his mark on the organization.

The Athletic in 2020 wrote an interesting story on that process, with Breslow offering specifics on what the Cubs were able to do to help pitchers like Alzolay. The Cubs, according to the story, identified Alzolay’s skills with certain pitches and looked for ways to leverage that with some minor tweaks.

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The biggest was adding a slider to Alzolay’s repertoire.

“Given Adbert’s ability to throw his curveball for a strike, we were confident that if we could target the shape and velocity, he would be able to find the zone with it,” Breslow told The Athletic in 2020. ” … Adbert (also) added a two-seam (fastball) that allows good sink and run, and in the last handful of outings, his ability to command this pitch to his glove-side has given him a really intriguing weapon. The added slider pairs well with his two-seam, adding an east-west component of his repertoire.”

That didn’t completely unlock Alzolay. The Cubs still used him as a starter in 2021 — and he went 5-13 in 21 starts. Eventually, Chicago moved him to the bullpen and made him a full-time reliever, a role he relished and embraced. He struck out 19 of the 52 batters he faced in an abbreviated 2022 before taking over the closer role and locking down 22 games in 2023.

Alzolay is largely seen as a success story, but turning around one pitcher doesn’t mean an organization is about to become the gold standard for developing pitching. But when you look at what Justin Steele, Tyson Miller and Javier Assad to name a few have done, it’s hard to say the Cubs weren’t making progress under Breslow.

The expectation is he’ll do the same in Boston. It’s largely why he’s here. The Red Sox should be encouraged by the tangible improvement and results. There will also be detractors, most of them older, who will look at an exec like Breslow and claim he’s a data-driven clone, who will live (and most likely) die by the data. The Alzolay story, though, with the pitch grips and velocity, are baseball-y things at their core. The end product is great, but it’s more about the process being sound that should both create excitement about what’s possible and give optimism it can be applied to multiple players.

Then, the data just quantifies it all.

When you look at the Red Sox, there are pitchers all across the organization who should be excited about a new voice. Younger players in the system will likely be asked to try new things to accelerate their development. The hope, too, is that big leaguers are open to change, too. A player like Brayan Bello, who has some filthy raw stuff, feels like the exact sort of player who could flourish with one slight change to the way he goes about his business.

The Red Sox should be looking high and low for pitching help this winter. Ultimately, they’ll need to spend — money, prospects or both — to do so. But Breslow’s Chicago past, highlighted by someone like Alzolay, should give some reason for optimism those already in the organization could see turnarounds, too.