Kyle Freeland’s been down, demoted and counted out.
Now he’s thriving. Again.
Six years after the best season of his career, and six months removed from the worst stretch of his career, the 31-year-old lefty might be in the best place of his career.
Freeland entered the weekend series against the Dodgers riding a hot streak. Over his last 15 starts, he’s posted a 3.40 ERA, struck out 70 and walked only 13. The Rockies were 10-5 over that span.
“I’m so proud of Kyle and what he’s done,” manager Bud Black said. “He’s made adjustments. He knew he had to make adjustments, and he did. That’s not always easy.”
Freeland’s current statistics pale in comparison to his 2018 season, when he helped lead the Rockies to the playoffs while pitching to a 17-7 record and a 2.85 ERA. In just his second season in the majors, the Denver native and pride of Thomas Jefferson High School finished fourth in voting for the National League Cy Young Award.
But as good as he was in ’18, Freeland was essentially a two-pitch pitcher, over-reliant on his fastball-slider combo. It was not a sustainable game plan, and big-league hitters didn’t need much time to figure him out.
His 2019 season was a disaster. Over his first 12 starts, he went 2-6 with a 7.13 ERA and gave up 16 home runs. He was demoted to Triple-A on May 31.
“It stinks, but I’m able to clearly see why,” he said at the time. “Obviously, right now I am hurting the ballclub every time out. I’m not giving them a great chance. So I’ve decided to go down and get everything right, get back on track and get back to being me.”
And he did. Freeland figured it out then, and he figured it out again this season.
Fellow left-hander Austin Gomber admires not only Freeland’s fiery competitiveness but also his willingness to adapt.
“‘Free’ does what needs to be done, and that’s the bottom line,” Gomber said. “The thing that I admire about him is his adaptability. He’s always been able to adjust, in his career and on game day. He just finds a way to get it done.
“If he doesn’t have something working on a particular day, he’ll adjust. He’s learned how to do that.”
Freeland entered the weekend series with the Dodgers riding one of the best stretches of his eight-year career. Freeland has shaved his WHIP to 1.38, his lowest since 2018 (1.25), and his walks per nine innings (2.18) are the lowest of his career and markedly better than in ’18 (3.11).
Those are solid numbers, especially by Rockies standards, but truly remarkable considering how Freeland’s season began.
He had an excellent spring training and appeared primed for a stellar season. But on opening night against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field, Freeland was rocked like he’d never been rocked before. In a scant 2 1/3 innings, he gave up 10 runs on 10 hits, including a two-run homer to Lourdes Gurriel in the first inning. The 10 runs Freeland surrendered were a career high. The Rockies lost, 16-1.
Freeland’s changeup was his worst pitch that night. To make the pitch work, he must throw it 85-86 mph — with movement. Against the D-backs, it was an 88-89 mph pitch that got hit like a batting practice fastball.
“The changeup was just coming in too hot, too much velocity and not enough difference from his fastball,” Black said. “And the location of all of his pitchers was not Kyle-like.”
Freeland improved, a bit, but after his first four starts, he was 0-3 with a 13.21 ERA and a .416 batting average against.
Next came the hot pain in his elbow, which hinted at a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Freeland was initially worried he might need Tommy John surgery. Fortunately, he had a strained elbow, not a torn UCL.
Freeland used his two-month stint on the injured list to take a hard look at himself and get better.
“When you’re down for two months, you have a lot to think about and a lot of time to watch and study,” Freeland said. “(The injury) came after four starts that were absolutely terrible to start the season. I made the adjustments that I thought were the proper adjustments that I needed to make. They ended up being the kind of adjustments I needed to make to be the pitcher that I wanted to be.”
Freeland, who worked overtime in the offseason to increase his fastball velocity after it dipped to a career-low 88.8 mph last season, has not only seen his fastball velocity pump up to 91.7 mph, but he’s also commanding his slider, curveball and changeup better than at any point in his career.
That’s evidenced by his career-best 66.3 strike percentage entering the weekend. He’s also seen fewer 3-0 counts (3.1%) and more 0-2 counts (27.6%) per plate appearance than at any point in his career.
“Kyle used to have two pitches, now he has four,” Black said. “He throws his fastball to both sides of the plate, his changeup is in play and his curveball is more effective. And he still has the same slider.”
In 2018, Freeland threw his curveball just 4.6% of the time, according to FanGraphs. In 2020, during the Rockies’ downtime due to the pandemic, he began experimenting with a knuckle curve. He now uses the pitch 18.8% of the time.
Freeland will never be mistaken for a flamethrower. His average four-seam fastball velocity is nearly 2.5 mph slower than the major league average of 94.2. And while Freeland prides himself on being a technician on the mound, Rockies right-hander Cal Quantrill contends that Freeland is, in fact, a power pitcher.
“I think people get way too caught up with velocity when defining a power pitcher,” Quantrill said. “That’s just not true. A power pitcher, to me, is somebody who attacks the zone with their fastball and is able to throw a hard breaker on strike three.
“‘Free’ does those things. Just because he doesn’t throw 98 doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s a power pitcher. Is he crafty? Yes. And that’s great. He throws the pitch where he wants to. But if you ask (batters) who have faced Kyle, I’m sure they’d tell you it feels like he’s coming at you pretty good. He throws inside to righties, throws a ton of first-pitch strikes, pounds the zone — all of the things power pitchers do.”
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Freeland says he’s evolved into a more complete pitcher.
“I think I’m a mix of both a technician and some power,” he said. “Obviously, I’m not a 95-mph-plus pitcher, but I think my fastball and slider inside to righties and my two-seam (fastball) inside to lefties can play like a power pitcher at 90-92 mph. And manipulating my slider up and inside to righties at 87-89 makes it firm and uncomfortable for hitters.”
The one bugaboo to Freeland’s resurgence has been a nagging blister problem on his left middle finger, the finger he uses to impart spin on his breaking balls. But he’s worked through that, too.
The Rockies have a number of pitching prospects on the rise, including right-hander Chase Dollander. But Black sees Freeland as the veteran anchor of next season’s rotation.
“His (recent) run validates the type of pitcher he is,” Black said. “He’s gonna give us a chance to win every time he takes the mound. He’s throwing the fastball with conviction, the secondary pitches are great, they’re down in the strike zone. He’s doing everything he can to help us win the game every night he pitches.”
Kyle Freeland: Then and now
In 2018, left-hander Kyle Freeland had one of the best seasons in Rockies history, going 17-7 with a 2.85 ERA over 33 starts. This season, after a rough beginning (13.21 ERA over four starts), and after overcoming a strained elbow, he has pitched very well, going 5-4 with a 3.40 ERA over his last 15 starts (entering Friday night’s game at Los Angeles). But Freeland is a much different pitcher now than he was then and his pitch mix has changed significantly from 2018 to 2014. A closer look:
2018
Pitch
% thrown
Avg. velocity
Fastball (four-seam)
39.90
91.8 mph
Sinker (two-seam)
12.50
90.6 mph
Slider
29.30
85.8 mph
Curve
4.60
79.9 mph
Changeup
13.70
85.5 mph
2024
Pitch
% thrown
Avg. velocity
Fastball (four-seam)
20.50
91.7 mph
Sinker (two-seam)
26.20
91.5 mph
Slider
22.40
87.0 mph
*Knucklecurve
18.80
80.6 mph
Changeup
12.10
86.1 mph
(Can’t see chart on mobile? Click here.)
* Freeland began throwing a knucklecurve in 2020. | Source: FanGraphs
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