New Mariners RHP Austin Voth: A quick video check on the stuff
Voth can start or come out of the bullpen. But whats he throw?
Among the trio of recent signings by the Seattle Mariners is right-hander Austin Voth, who will receive Trevor Gott money to serve as depth and perhaps help cover innings in both the rotation and out of the bullpen.
His raw stuff suggests a back-end starter and he doesn’t posses the kind of fastball value or wipeout secondary offering to serve in a lot of high-leverage scenarios. At least from watching. But it’s an interesting group of pitches with some upside, despite Voth being 31 years of age.
It’s a four-seamer up to 95 and averaging 93 mph in a relief role with some carry up in the zone and he throws it with some deception at release point helping the right-hander generate a 24% whiff rate a year ago. He typically uses the fastball 40-45% of the time.
Voth, a UW product, has two breaking balls. The first, an upper-70s curveball with depth and late break. It’s mostly a purpose pitch in attempt to change speed and eye level, but he can throw it for strikes and induce some whiffs (24%) but it’s rarely an out pitch.
His slider is 81-84 mph with plenty of horizontal break so the nerds will call it a sweeper. He increased the usage of this offering in 2023 to 16% from 5% the year before. This pitch grew from a more traditional mid-80s slider he had earlier in his career.
Voth has a changeup he’s never thrown much, and not at all in 2023.
He’s thrown a cutter since 2020 and it’s been useful for him, but like with his curveball and slider he’s yet to command it consistently and both pitches have been hit hard at times.
Both breakers are of the high-spin variety, suggesting more may be in the tank.
Here are two innings from Voth from his season with the Baltimore Orioles, just to get an idea what it looks like:
It’s a small sample of two frames but the above video is a pretty good representation of Voth’s stuff. The breaking balls break and break late, but a bit too often they are non-competitive offerings.
Voth is likely one of eight arms in the club’s bullpen when campe breaks in late March. Right-handers Joey Krehbiel and Ty Buttrey, also added this week, are in the mix, too.
Buttrey has a track record of missing bats, posting solid years for the Los Angeles Angels in 2018 and 2019. He’s battled command problems and injuries (finger fracture in 2023) since, but he’s up to 98 mph with a pretty good slider when he’s right.
Krehbiel has three pitches, including a cutter and changeup he throws with solid command.