Diamondbacks’ Kevin Ginkel working on smoother delivery

SCOTTSDALE — Arizona Diamondbacks reliever Kevin Ginkel felt good about how his stuff came out last season, but he entered 2025 wanting it to come a bit easier.

He’s worked hard on improving his lower-half mechanics and using technology to focus on his balance and rotation.

So far, Ginkel feels his delivery has been smoother, which he said analytically has increased the vertical break on his fastball an inch or two. That helps him separate the four-seamer from his slider and two-seamer to keep hitters off.

“So from a mechanic standpoint, just trying to clean some stuff up after ball release,” Ginkel told Arizona Sports. “So been doing some stuff on our air track device, doing some plyos, aqua bag stuff, just to help rotate better and get over my front leg better. So it’s been kind of nice trying to feel that out. Just feel a little more fluid. But yeah, overall, stuff’s been good. I feel like fastball is in a good spot.”

So far, Ginkel has five strikeouts in three innings of Cactus League work.

The 30-year-old is coming off a solid season after his breakout 2023, in which he grabbed onto the setup role and dominated through the postseason. Ginkel pitched a career-high 70 innings across 72 games in 2024 and worked a 3.21 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and 77 strikeouts. He produced sub-2 ERAs each month from June through August, although there were a few hiccups in September.

Ginkel has successfully lowered his walk rate from earlier in his career. At the same time, he was hit a bit harder last year and faced some misfortune as balls got through. The batting average on balls in play (babip) against him was .333 in 2024 compared to .244 in 2023. League average is .293.

His adjustment involved getting his body in the right position to maximize his arsenal, even using essentially an air mattress-like tool to do so.

“I’m basically just going through my delivery, but I’m just trying to feel like I’m getting onto my front foot,” Ginkel said.

“It’s almost like I have to brace for the impact because it’s an uneven (air track) device. So like, basically feels like I’m throwing onto an air mattress, and you’re trying to balance on that, but also like, finish, follow through the pitch, it just works on your stabilization and your balance. So that’s kind of what I’ve been trying to deal with and play with, at least early on in camp. It was something I did over the last two years, but I wasn’t as consistent with it.”

.@Dbacks pitcher Kevin Ginkel joined @wolf987FM and @LukeLapinski earlier today and discussed having "a chip" on his shoulder when he pitches.

Full interview: https://t.co/ViAZLuRvzR pic.twitter.com/sgFbyUy0G4

— Wolf & Luke on Arizona Sports (@WolfandLuke) February 14, 2025

Ginkel is in a competition for the closer role along with internal candidates A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez. He, and the other two for that matter, has been pretty open about being ready to go with no role preference.

The Diamondbacks have less than three weeks until Opening Day, and those conversations are starting to gain a bit more steam.

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