Star tech: Lefty reliever Kyle Ryan calls fix Cubs made in their pitch lab ‘life-changing’

MESA, Ariz. — Score one for the nerds.

A little more than two years ago, left-hander Kyle Ryan was a guy who wasn’t sure why he couldn’t throw strikes anymore and was released by the Tigers.

These days, he’s one of only four relief pitchers in camp for the Cubs who has a right to think he can count on a big-league job on Opening Day.

‘‘What happens if they had this 10 years ago or 20 years ago?’’ Ryan said. ‘‘How many guys would still be playing now?

‘‘For me, it was life-changing.’’

Ryan, 28, is talking about the pitch-lab phenomenon that has turned coaching and fixing pitchers into a high-tech precision process.

Of the successes the Cubs have had with theirs in recent years, Ryan might be the most dramatic one — at least so far.

After his walk rate in the minors — and especially in a brief big-league turn — jumped in 2017, the Tigers released him. And as they looked at buy-low options that offseason, the Cubs examined nine years of video of Ryan and decided to sign him.

‘‘They told my agent, ‘We think we have something for Kyle; we have a fix,’ ’’ said Ryan, who until then generally scoffed at the nerd analytics and hyper-study of video. ‘‘At that point, I was open-minded and was like, ‘If you guys are going to be able to make me throw strikes again, let’s do this.’ If you don’t adapt, it’ll surpass you.”

Five inches later, he was fixed.

Ryan’s arm angle was 5 inches higher in 2017 than the range it was in his career before then, leading to the fix the Cubs identified. And the rest is Cubs bullpen history.

Ryan rode his newfound command to a sterling 2018 season at Class AAA Iowa, then became one of the brightest spots in the Cubs’ oft-maligned 2019 pen.

‘‘It always sounds that simple,’’ pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said.

Of course, the analysis, diagnosis and player buy-in ran deeper and took more work than it sounds like it did. And the high-tech stuff doesn’t work just because a player plugs into the system.

‘‘That’s the point,’’ Hottovy said.

But if even a few of the other buy-low guys the Cubs have added since Ryan can find the right formulas from the tech side of the operation, the team might be able to fill a functioning bullpen in the wake of several veteran free-agent departures.

For now, the Cubs know they have Ryan. And, just as important, Ryan knows what they have.

In part, that’s because the Cubs did a pre-spring baseline diagnostic of his mechanics to determine he was still in line. It’s kind of an annual physical for pitchers’ mechanics after their actual spring physicals.

‘‘Basically a pre-spring-training oil change,’’ Ryan said.

Turns out, he’s right where he left off after the most productive season of his career (73 appearances, 3.54 ERA).

‘‘Those stories are exciting because it just shows how we can use stuff like that to help guys not only get back to being really good but how to stay within their range and make sure everything’s progressing the way we want,’’ said Hottovy, who credited Ryan’s work ethic and embrace of the system for his success with it.

Keeping that success going for Ryan might be as important as Hottovy’s work with any reliever in camp. With Brad Wieck’s recent procedure to correct a heart arrhythmia, Ryan is the only apparent lock to make the bullpen among left-handers in camp.

But regardless of that status or the career-high confidence he seems to have this spring, nothing changes for him, Ryan said.

‘‘I fought from Day 1 until my last day in all my big-league camps, not knowing if I had a spot until I got on a plane to go to that certain city,’’ he said. ‘‘And that’s the mentality.

‘‘I want everything to feel like last year, and that’s how last year was, so that’s how we’re going to go about it.’’