Yacksel Rios Looks to Get Major League Footing in 2020
Over the last three seasons, right-handed pitcher Yacksel Rios has spent at least some time on a Major League roster pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates out of the bullpen. However, he hasn't been able to stick on either roster bouncing back and forth between the MLB and Triple-A levels. With a 6.20 career ERA at the Major League level, Rios has gotten hit around way too much at the big league level and still needs time to develop into an everyday reliever.
Last season, he appeared in 14 games at the major league level and posted a career-high 6.92 ERA in 13 innings of work while striking out 12 and walking eight. While he has strong velocity and strikeout numbers, he is prone to giving up the long ball, averaging 2.77 home runs allowed per nine innings, and his control has been an issue for him. As he enters 2020, he is looking to fix these issues and find a way to make a spot in the bullpen and stick in it throughout the season.
It has been a long road in the minor leagues for Rios, who was drafted in the 12th round of the 2011 MLB draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. He spent two seasons at the rookie ball level with the Gulf Coast League Phillies before jumping to the Class A Short Season Williamsport Crosscutters, where he posted an impressive 5-3 record with a 3.59 ERA in 15 games, 10 starts. He continued that success throughout the ranks of Class A ball pitching with the low A Lakewood Blue Claws and the High A Clearwater Thrashers in each of the next two seasons pitching to ERA's under 3.70 each season.
The 2017 season was a big year for Rios as he not only made the jump the the Double A Reading Fightin Phils, but also made the transition from being a starting pitcher to heading to the bullpen. He would respond in the best way possible, dominating Eastern League with a 1.89 ERA in 24 appearances while striking out 47 batters in 38 innings of work. It was this season that Rios set a career-high averaging 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings while walking just 10 batters in those 38 innings of work. He was rewarded with a call to Triple A Lehigh Valley. He continued his success at the Triple A level pitching to a 1.96 ERA in 13 games out of the bullpen and kept the high strikeout rate.
Rios would be called up to the Majors on August 22nd, 2017 and pitched well out of the Phillies bullpen over the final month of the season. He threw 16.1 innings for the Phillies and struck out 17 batters, but walked nine. Rios would get some on the job training in 2018 as he jumped between the Phillies and Lehigh Valley six times throughout the season. He appeared in a healthy 36 games at the Major League level and his ERA shot up to 6.35, however, he continued his high strikeout rate with 36 strikeouts in 36 innings of work. It was the first year that Rios had consistent time at the Major League level, but it still wasn't good enough to keep him in the big leagues full-time.
Rios started the 2019 season at Triple A, but was hurt in the first week with an abdominal strain that caused him to go on the seven-day IL. He returned and pitched in just four games for the Phillies before being designated for assignment. The Pirates claimed him off waivers on August 3rd 2019 and sent him to Triple A Indianapolis. He appeared in nine games for the Indians and pitched to a 2.35 ERA in 15 innings of work before being part of the Pirates September call-ups. He pitched in 10 games for the Pirates and had his most consistent stretch in the majors. He limited the number of home runs he was giving up, allowing just two in 10.1 innings of work, but the walk numbers hurt him as he allowed five free passes in those innings.
The downside that Rios has shown at the Major League level is his susceptibility to the long ball allowing 1.93 HR/9 in his career. Rios is hit hard more often than you would like allowing a 40.5% hard hit percentage last year while opponents barreled up the ball 9.5% of the time. To go along with the hard hits he allows, he doesn't get a lot of chases with batters going out of the zone just over 32% of the time. Because he is not getting the chases that he wants, it is causing him to have to leave the ball in the zone, where he is susceptible to being hit hard.
Rios has a five-pitch mix that he uses to and he tries to mix all five pitches into his arsenal out of the bullpen. His most effective pitch is his fastball, which he uses 31.6% of the time and averages 96.2 miles per hour. With speed like that, Rios has the stuff to be able to out muscle Major League hitters and his fastball is the pitch that has shown success generating six of his ten strikeouts last season. However, after the fastball, Rios has four different breaking balls that he tries to use to get outs. His sinker is his next most used pitch and looks just like the fastball, but drops off just over 15 inches from the point of release. It made batters swing and miss 36.3% of the time and hitters are hitting .286 against the pitch.
He rounds out his arsenal with a slider, change-up, and curveball that average between 84 and 86 miles per hour. All three offer a change of speed from the 96 mile per hour heat that Rios starts with, but none of the pitches are very effective. He generated just three strikeouts on those three pitches, and had whiff rates under 25% and put away rates under 15%. However, all three have decent movement and are a good balance to the heat that Rios starts the count with. As a reliever, you don't normally see a five-pitch arsenal and maybe eliminating two of those pitches might be what Rios needs.
His most effective of the three pitches was the Curveball which generated one strikeout and saw opponents hit just .250 off the pitch. It is another pitch that has a lot of movement dropping 45.6 inches on it's way to home plate while having 4.5 inches of break. After seeing straight heat at 96 miles per hour, it would be hard for an opposing hitter to adjust to that much movement. This could allow Rios to focus more on his location rather than working in five different pitches each time he takes the mound.
Rios has shown a lot of promise as a late inning arm throughout his minor league and early major league career, and just needs a few tweaks to his arsenal to put it all together. With his pitch speed averaging in the mid 90's, he has the velocity to be a back-end reliever and a successful one at that. If he is able to take care of his control and limit the number of hard hit balls he allows, he could be a successful Major League reliever and finally get his foot in the door full-time at the Major League level.
Prediction: 3-2 4.10 ERA (23 Games MLB)
While Rios will not start the 2020 season at the Major League level, I feel that his experience pitching out of Major League bullpens will have him up sooner rather than later. With more time in the big leagues, and a new pitching staff to work with, Rios should flourish in the new environment and start to find himself. I hope that he can limit his arsenal to just the three pitches to allow him to work on making those pitches the best they can be. If he can't figure it out, it might be the end of the line for Rios in his professional baseball career.
As of now, the season is expected to begin somewhere around May 25th. Until then, we will continue to look at the men who make up this year's team and their contributions in 2020.
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