When Jeremy Hefner dug into the 2022 version of Jorge López, he noticed sinkers.
A lot of them.
López attributed his success that year — a 1.62 ERA when he trekked to Dodger Stadium for his lone All-Star appearance — to the grip, too.
Half of his 1,161 pitches were sinkers.
It buzzed across the plate at an average of 98 mph.
So the question from Hefner, the Mets’ pitching coach, revolved around why he stopped throwing that pitch.
When López’s career spiraled in 2023, as he bounced between three different teams and his success resembled more of a fluke than a sustainable breakthrough, he only threw the sinker at a 34 percent clip.
López still had a “strong belief” in it, so that formed the foundation of their pitching blueprint for 2024.
Hitters would dictate if that wasn’t working, Hefner said.
López’s first 13 appearances for the Mets hinted that their vision has worked.
He used the sinker 41 percent of the time, and opponents hit .143 against it with a .143 slugging percentage.
Since allowing a run in the opener, López surrendered just one and compiled a 0.77 ERA across his next 12 outings entering Tuesday — emerging as a staple for the bullpen and allowing López to “rebuild my career again,” he told The Post before earning his second save of the season and allowing a run in the Mets’ 4-2 win against the Cubs on Tuesday.
“You have a four-pitch mix to a guy you’re only going to see once a series,” Hefner told The Post, “so, like, the advantage is all on him.”
The effectiveness of López’s sinker has directly correlated to his success against right-handed batters, Hefner said.
They’ve hit .100 against him this season.
And the revival has occurred even with López’s sinker velocity dipping since 2022, down to 97 mph last year and 95 mph so far in 2024.
“I don’t know,” López said of the velocity change. “I don’t feel anything.”
López, a 25-game starter in 2021 before getting shifted to the bullpen, learned that it doesn’t matter how hard he throws.
Still, over the course of the next 130-plus games, as López tries to avoid another instance of a promising stretch fading away and becoming an anomaly, Hefner and the Mets want to rediscover that velocity.
They’ve worked on some mechanical tweaks while also waiting to see if it’s a weather-based issue.
“Anytime you can add velo and not lose command, which he has good command of the sinker, that’s a path we should at least explore,” Hefner said.
Midway through spring training, López was adamant that he still had “the stuff” from 2022.
The dynamic pitching before a trade and two instances of being designated for assignment unraveled his trajectory.
López has “tried to be the 2022 guy,” he said Tuesday, and so far, that approach — with the sinker at the crux of it — has worked.
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