When he was pitching in the big leagues a decade ago, Danny Farquhar barely gave a passing thought whether he was tipping his pitches.
“Wasn’t really a thing back then,” he said.
These days, he’s often consumed by it.
As an assistant pitching coach, Farquhar works closely with Mariners pitchers to help them correct any tells they might have during their pre-pitch routine. He’ll break down video, come up with ideas and then help the pitcher implement changes to his glove placement or body angle to better hide pitch grips.
That has become increasingly important for all pitching staffs in MLB as teams scout opponents to find any cues, any giveaways, that might help them decipher a pitch before it’s thrown.
Pitch tipping could become even more relevant in October, where each pitch, each cue, takes on even greater weight in the playoffs.
“It’s definitely there,” Mariners starter Logan Gilbert said. “It’s there way more than fans probably think. It’s not like you wait and see during the game if somebody is doing something (to tip pitches); everybody knows every single pitcher in the league beforehand if they’re doing something.”
The art of stealing pitches has a long and storied history in baseball. Using the naked eye, there’s nothing illegal about it.
What’s different in today’s game is the time and energy many – if not all – teams are putting into figuring out opposing pitchers going into a new series.
“There’s definitely more info now, with all the camera angles,” Gilbert said. “If there’s something to find out, they’re going to find it.”
The introduction of the PitchCom system a few years ago ended the old-fashioned sign stealing – where runners at second base could pick up on the catcher’s finger signals to the pitcher and relay what pitch was coming to the batter.
Even so, players now generally seem better equipped to pick up on cues, in part of because of the technology available.
During the playoffs last year, Mets slugger Pete Alonso hit a home run off Milwaukee’s then-closer Devin Williams after conferring with one of the Mets’ hitting coaches about a small tell Williams had with his change-up grip. Sure enough, Alonso got a change and hit a home run to help the Mets win the series.
Gilbert said he’s spent more time this season than he ever has trying to make sure he isn’t tipping pitches.
“Unfortunately, that’s where we’re at now,” he said. “It’s just (about) combating that as much as possible.”
Many players – and runners leading off second base, especially – aren’t subtle about sharing any tells they pick up from a pitcher with their teammates standing in the batter’s box. The Mariners’ Josh Naylor, on several occasions when standing on second base, hasn’t been subtle about using hand/arm signals to relay cues he’s seen from the pitcher.
“Teams are OK being very visible about it and letting it be known that they don’t really care about if other teams know that we have tips on them or they have tips on us,” Gilbert said. “I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. I’m just objectively noticing that people are OK not hiding it, they do it more because there’s no consequences.”
At Yankee Stadium in July, Yankees runners were practically doing jumping jacks at second base when they saw that Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz was about to throw a slider.
Muñoz said he wasn’t upset with the Yankees. He knew he had to figure out a better way to hide his grips, and one change he did make this year: He’s using a bigger glove, going from a 11.75-inch glove to a 12.25-inch one.
“I’ve got to be more careful,” Muñoz said.
Farquhar sat down with Muñoz after the Yankees series to go through corrections he could make with his grip and glove setup.
It’s notable that Farquhar oversees pitch tipping with the Mariners because he was the one who, back when he was pitching for the White Sox in 2017, first figured out the Houston Astros’ had a sign-stealing operation, using banned electronics – and banging trash cans – to relay his pitches.
That operation took sign stealing to a new level, and MLB later punished the Astros for it.
Pitch tipping falls into a different category than sign stealing, and Farquhar’s job is to make sure Mariners pitchers aren’t giving anything away.
“Our guys have been extremely receptive, because they know how important it is,” Farquhar said. “It’s easy to point out the problem. The tougher part is figuring out the solution and then working with the individuals on, ‘What is the setup you want to go to? How do you want to fix this?’ So it’s a little bit of back and forth, and our guys have been awesome about it.”