SARASOTA, Fla. — Chayce McDermott was encouraged by the walk he issued in his first spring training appearance.
Wait, what?
Yes. He was encouraged by the walk, because he was so close to the strike zone. None of the misses was that far off. He was maybe an inch or two from the zone with his four-seam fastballs. He attempted to place them on the outer edge of the zone against the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Davis Wendzel last week, and even though he missed, he made Wendzel think.
“Last year, if I was going away from someone, my miss was 3 1/2 feet,” McDermott said. “Obviously, I don’t want to miss that at all in games. We’ll figure that out.”
But missing as closely as he did is just another piece of evidence for the Orioles right-hander that his mechanical adjustments this winter are working. McDermott, who has shifted to a relief role and is battling for a bullpen spot, worked with Mason Feole to adjust his delivery. They focused on his posture and alignment.
The results are showing early in camp — first with McDermott’s command, even when he issued that walk, and second with an impressive rise in fastball velocity.
“When you’re throwing from weird positions, it’s hard to repeat it,” McDermott said. “And it’s also hard to command things. It has to be perfectly on time to command it. So then creating better posture through [the delivery] and using proper energy in the right spots creates easier locations — and the velo ticks up with it because you’re in better positions.”
The dual nature of those changes has been on display in McDermott’s first two appearances this spring. He has faced seven batters. He has struck out five of them. What helps: His fastball is firing in on average about 3 mph faster than last year, from 93 mph to 96 mph.
When Feole, a pitching coach based in Rhode Island, began working with McDermott this offseason, he quickly focused on the variability in the pitcher’s release point. McDermott’s timing issues — be it rotating his body before his left foot lands in the dirt or the other extreme, staying closed too long — meant he’d spray pitches.
Feole sought to improve McDermott’s results by creating more efficient movements with a repeatable windup and release.
“What he’s able to do now is stay aligned with the right side of his ribcage and right hip, as well as leverage his front side or front arm a little bit longer, so when he lands, he is getting to full ground force and full weight bearing on his left foot a lot sooner,” Feole said. “Chayce can now unwind the upper half, and his hand is gonna follow. The sequence is going to be a little more efficient.”
McDermott high-fives catcher Maverick Handley after striking out the last batter in the seventh inning of a spring training game. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Banner)
That was, primarily, to lower McDermott’s big misses. Last year, when in the majors, McDermott’s in-zone rate was 43.6% (MLB average in 2025 was 50.7%). He drew batters to swing at pitches outside the zone at just a 14.5% rate (league average was 28.2%).
What that shows is, when McDermott threw a pitch outside the strike zone, the pitch was often so obviously a ball that it didn’t induce a swing.
“We centered everything around posture and alignment and how he’s interacting with the ground, and I think that will always be the main focus for him,” Feole said.
Improving command was the focal point of McDermott’s offseason, but it was just one of three areas that Feole figured would be improved through better mechanics. McDermott dealt with lower back discomfort at the end of 2025, and Feole said correcting “the alignment of his posture to take a little bit of pressure off his lower back” may prevent that pain from recurring.
And, finally, better mechanics would allow McDermott’s pitches to increase in velocity. When McDermott flew open, with his shoulders moving parallel to the plate before his plant leg was in the dirt, he was using energy that should’ve been directed forward rather than sideways.
“He wasn’t able to send all that energy in a direct line,” Feole said.
The upper-90s velocities that are flashing on the stadium radar gun in Florida are the result of better energy transfer.
“I’m not doing this for the velo. The velo is kind of an added bonus,” McDermott said. “Obviously, if I could get up to 98, 99, 100, I’d love to be there. But if it stays at 96, 97 all year, then I think I’m pretty good with that, and I can use some of that adrenaline with two strikes to get up to 99. I think that’d be a good goal.”
The 27-year-old suddenly has a better understanding of why certain pitches were flying out of his hand and missing the zone by a wide margin. He’s now firing in harder velocities without major fluctuations in speeds. And McDermott also knows what his role will be.
Even last year McDermott was caught in a cycle between starting and relieving. Entering this season he knows to focus on the bullpen, and with that clarity everything else seems clearer.
And with the bullpen equation wide open for Baltimore, the improved command and velocity from McDermott could vault him right into that picture.