SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Cubs left-hander Drew Smyly had been intrigued by Driveline Baseball’s process for years. He is good friends with Giants right-hander Alex Cobb, who turned to the data-centered development organization in 2020 to revive his
career. For Smyly, however, it was never quite the right time.
Smyly, 34, had put a priority on recovery and health the last few offseasons. But this winter, after an up-and-down season in 2023 and the Cubs not in the playoffs, everything lined up.
‘‘I just thought it would be a win-win,’’ Smyly said in a recent conversation with the Sun-Times. ‘‘Now’s my chance to do it. If they help me, that’s going to be awesome. It can add a few years to my career and change my trajectory. And if not, I can say I left it all out there and tried to see where I can improve.’’
He fell in love with the environment and came away from the experience with two new pitches, a slider and a splitter.
‘‘I don’t like being, like, ‘Oh, I’ve got all these new pitches,’ because I don’t want it to be hyped up,’’ Smyly said. ‘‘But it’s just something we’re working on and dabbling with. And I think if I can develop a new pitch, it will help me a lot, especially if I have a chance to be a starting pitcher again.’’
Smyly is stretching out as a starter and is in the mix for the fifth rotation spot. Then sometime in the middle of camp, manager Craig Counsell said, the Cubs will make a decision about his role.
‘‘I’ve started most of my career; I really enjoy it,’’ Smyly said. ‘‘But I also enjoy pitching out of the bullpen. And that’s what I told Counsell at the beginning of this year: wherever I’m needed.’’
Smyly began last season as one of the Cubs’ most consistent starters. By early August, however, a series of bad starts had piled up and he was having uncharacteristic struggles against left-handed batters, who hit .338 against him last season.
‘‘[He has] a very vertical profile,’’ pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. ‘‘Most lefties didn’t have to really worry about anything [outside]. So you cut the plate in half, and it kind of limits where you can go at times.’’
Smyly righted his 2023 season with a move to the bullpen. And as he entered the offseason, he still felt strong. Three days after the Cubs’ last game, he went in for his motion-capture assessment at Driveline’s facility in Arizona.
‘‘I told them, obviously, I want to try to gain [velocity],’’ Smyly said. ‘‘But throughout the winter, if I can work on pitch-shaping or try to develop something new, that’d be sweet, too. So I dabbled in both areas.’’
As he went through the training and a weighted-ball program, Smyly estimated he threw more this offseason than he did the previous six winters combined.
‘‘But, in a weird way, I felt like my arm was recovering and felt better than it ever has,’’ he said.
Smyly said he sees potential in both the splitter and slider. Before his first start of spring training Saturday, he had tested the pitches in live batting practice.
‘‘The splitter is more inconsistent right now,’’ Smyly said. ‘‘The slider is actually pretty good. And I got pretty good feedback from it from [catcher Yan Gomes] and the hitters [Monday in live BP].’’
While Smyly’s curveball moves to the arm side, his slider breaks away from left-handed hitters — something that was all but missing from his arsenal last season.
In the Cubs’ 8-4 victory Saturday against the Giants, Smyly threw a few sliders to left-handed hitter Michael Conforto.
‘‘On one, it looked like he buckled a little bit,’’ Smyly said after coming out of the game. ‘‘He didn’t swing, but it was a strike. And then I was throwing my curveball off that to him. . . . And I think that could play pretty well to lefties, too.’’
Smyly also threw three splitters, none of which were strikes. But he saw the last hitter he faced, Heliot Ramos, lean out over the plate as though he was tempted to swing at it. Then Smyly came back with a fastball inside.
‘‘He was really late on it, like he wasn’t ready for it,’’ Smyly said. ‘‘So in that sense, [the splitter] was effective. It did change his
eyesight.’’
