FORT MYERS, Fla. — The first one didn’t feel right, so Ryan Helsley spread his fingers outside the seams of the baseball and went right back to it. On the mound at Hammond Stadium, Helsley ripped his newest pitch, and the reaction from Josh Bell was a promising one.
Helsley, the new Orioles closer, added a splitter to his arsenal this winter. On Tuesday, Helsley tested it against an opponent for the first time. And while his first splitter spun arm-side well out of the zone, his second to the Minnesota Twins first baseman drew a swing and miss.
“The league is always adapting,” Helsley said, “so trying to get better and keep working.”
This is one way to respond to a difficult second half of 2025, once he arrived with the New York Mets in a trade. Helsley posted a 3.00 ERA in 36 innings for the St. Louis Cardinals, but in 20 innings for the Mets, Helsley was hit around to the tune of a 7.20 ERA.
In the right-hander’s career, his results between right-handed and left-handed batters have been roughly even, but suddenly in New York, lefties were teeing off against Helsley. They managed a .341 average and .554 slugging percentage against the reliever from July 31 onward.
“I had some long nights after some games in New York,” said Helsley, who signed for the Orioles this offseason. What befuddled Helsley was that the pitches out of his hand felt fine. On paper — or, really, on spreadsheets and advanced analytics charts — there wasn’t a massive difference in the way his pitches were playing.
Except, of course, that he was getting hit.
“You’re going to go through some ups and downs,” Helsley said, “and I think I learned from it and hopefully got better from it.”
The introduction of a splitter into Helsley’s fastball and slider-heavy pitch mix is part of his solution. Helsley expects to throw it more frequently against left-handed hitters because the movement profile is so different from anything. His fastball has slight run to the glove side. His slider, of course, fizzes across the zone toward a lefty. His splitter, in contrast, dives with arm-side movement.
It was evident against Bell how a splitter, even if infrequently used, could help. Bell wound up doubling when he lifted a high four-seam fastball to left-center field (it should’ve been caught; instead, center fielder Leody Taveras lost it in the sun). But the swing and miss on a pitch below the zone is exactly the response Helsley would’ve hoped for when he first discussed a splitter with Baltimore’s pitching coaches.
“I think it’ll help open up the whole zone for me, you know?” Helsley said.
Under pitching coach Drew French, the Orioles have a knack for developing splitters. Right-hander Seranthony Domínguez last year may have had the best splitter in baseball. Even before French arrived in 2024, right-hander Félix Bautista’s splitter drew a whiff rate of 60.2% in 2023.
The pitch, which can play similarly to a changeup, is a popular offering across baseball currently. Helsley said he watched as other pitchers found success with it, and he began tinkering with the grip. When discussing his future with teams in free agency, the possible addition came up.
What Helsley heard from Baltimore was enticing. They saw the splitter as a productive addition, too.
“It was kind of a two-way street,” Helsley said. “I mentioned it, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got a pretty good idea, and we think your profile would fit for a splitter.’ I’ve thrown some really good ones so far in camp, so I think it’s really promising. I’ve just got to be able to get that feel for it, because it is such a weird pitch. Your fingers are super wide, and it’s kind of awkward. Hopefully, the more I throw it throughout spring, it’ll start to feel a little better.”
The first one he threw in competitive action Tuesday must’ve slipped. It flew far to the arm side, and Bell easily took it for a ball. But the next one? It fell off the table and Bell hit only air.
The pitch spun in at 86.6 mph. Helsley said his splitter averaged around 90 mph this winter, and when paired with a fastball that can touch 100 mph and a slider that is among the best in baseball, the ninth-inning outlook against Helsley will have completely changed from last year.