Braves minor league staff use the words “mound presence” quite a bit when they’re talking about Matt Wisler, the 22-year-old right-hander and top prospect the Braves got in return from San Diego in the six-player Craig Kimbrel trade.
And until this past week, when he was named International League pitcher of the week, that was about the best thing Wisler had going for him in the early going of his career as a Brave.
Wisler pitched five shutout innings in his debut with Triple-A Gwinnett on April 12, but by the time the shock of the trade wore off — Wisler was just about to take a nap in his hotel room in El Paso, Texas, before dinner with teammates on Easter Sunday when the call came — difficulties set in.
Wisler gave up 17 runs (15 earned) over his next three starts. He gave up two homers in a span of three innings in an April 23 start at Norfolk. The next time out, with Braves director of player personnel Dave Trembley there watching, Wisler gave up seven earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.
“We didn’t make some plays behind him when I saw him; he didn’t show it,” Trembley said. “I think that’s probably the biggest attraction with Wisler. He competes. He competes, all the time, every pitch. Things don’t affect him, things don’t bother him.”
Well, not outwardly anyway. But Wisler wasn’t happy, not with the pitch selection on the homers and not with the way he felt so reliant on his fastball.
“The first (home run) was just a dumb pitch,” Wisler said. “I went to my fourth best pitch (a curveball) with the four-hole hitter up, with a guy on third base with two outs in the first. Instead of giving him one of my main two pitches, and I just didn’t execute it. Then the second home run was just bad pitch execution, an 0-2 slider. I left it up so the guy could drop the head on it.”
Wisler then gave up nine hits to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a seven-run outing April 29, largely because he thought hitters were sitting on his fastball. Wisler hadn’t been comfortable with his slider grip, so he wasn’t throwing it as much. He set out to address the problem in his next bullpen session, and after tinkering with moving his thumb around, Wisler said he finally found a comfortable grip.
“(When) my grip wasn’t right, I was kind of babying it, not getting out front with it,” Wisler said. “Once I got the grip to feel good, it feels like a fastball in the hand again, so you just throw it without thinking about it.”
He saw immediate results, too. Wisler gave up one run in 5 1/3 innings, walked one and struck out seven to win his next start against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Five days later in Lehigh Valley, he pitched a career-high eight innings, allowing one run on only 90 pitches.
Those past two starts got him the attention of the folks at the league office, not to mention the Braves’ front office.
The Braves called up power prospect Mike Foltynewicz from Triple-A Gwinnett late last month when they moved Trevor Cahill, who was struggling, to the bullpen. Now Eric Stults has lost three starts in a row, and the Braves could be looking to make another change.
Both Wisler, rated the Braves No. 1 prospect by Baseball America, and fellow Gwinnett pitcher Manny Banuelos, ranked the Braves’ No. 14 prospect, figure to get a close look over the next week as the Braves decide whether to make a change.
Wisler said earlier this week he was just focused on preparing for his start Friday night against Louisville, and then an upcoming trip to Toledo for his next start on Wednesday. Toledo is just an hour from where he grew up in the small town of Bryan, Ohio. Wisler was looking forward to pitching in front of family and friends, not necessarily when and if a big league call-up might come.
Chalk it up to mound presence.
“I try not to think about it,” Wisler said. “I don’t want to put my mind in a situation where I’m thinking, ‘OK if I do this this and this I might get a call up.’ I’m just trying to work on what I can accomplish. I’m not worried about what I can’t control — if I get called up, when I get called up, all that stuff. I’d rather just go day to day here and work on what I need to work on to get myself ready.”
