The Ragans have ‘locked in’ for their spring rematch against the Cubs.
MESA, Ariz. Cole Ragans was ambushed by the Cubs five days ago at Surprise Stadium, where he scored seven runs
in two and a third innings. Ragans wasn’t pleased with it, even though it’s only Spring Training and outcomes aren’t that important.
“I get mad if I give up a lot of runs, and seven runs will keep you thinking whether or not it’s spring training,” Ragans remarked.
The thoughts pestered Ragans until Thursday, when he took the mound again for his fourth Cactus League start this spring, once again against the Cubs but this time at Sloan Park, and this time with better results. The lefty faced 10
batters across three innings, struck out six of them, and only allowed one hit on an infield single in. It looked a lot more like the pitcher Ragans has become over the last two seasons with the Royals: Their young ace.
According to manager Matt Quatraro, “he was locked in.” In addition to the velo, life on the fastball was excellent, and you could tell it had some jump. He found his slider. Additionally, as [pitching coach] Brian Sweeney discusses,
he must be surprising. He performed the task well.
Ragans was pleased with his speed and the swing and miss he produced. On Saturday, he struggled with execution;
by Thursday, he was figuring out his locations and keeping batters off balance.
According to Ragans, “it’s in a good place.” It indicates that my mechanics are sound, that I’m in the zone, that I’m filling it up, and that, if I’m getting swing and miss, everything is looking the same. I’m not babying this pitch where
they’re picking up. Everything’s coming out of the same spot, doing what it’s supposed to do.” In between starts this week, Ragans focused on execution against lefties, putting a left-handed dummy in the box
during his bullpen to simulate how his stuff was playing. His goal this year is to be unpredictable to lefties after significant reverse splits last year.
Righties cut.195/.274/.321 against Ragans in 2024. .276/.341/.382 was slashed by lefties, albeit in a considerably smaller sample. Against the lefty hitters, he mostly used his slider and fastball, so improving his slider consistency this year can be beneficial.
However, he wants to find methods to employ every tool in his toolbox against both sides of the plate. Ragans remarked, “Being comfortable with fastballs here and there.” as well as all of my offspeed. I can’t restrict
myself to fastball-sliding to lefties; I utilize everything to righties. The blend has two pitches. I have to determine how, when, and where to use each of my pitches.
Ragans let up home runs to Moises Ballesteros and Pete Crow-Armstrong, two left-handed hitters, on Saturday.
Another lefty, Michael Busch, hit a double and triple off Ragans, who remarked that even the flyout Busch hit in July was a hard-hit warning-track out. Ragans remembers clearly how well Busch sees the ball against him.
Busch was 0 for 1 against Ragans on Thursday. Crow-Armstrong launched himself to the center. Another lefty, Kyle Tucker, was also struck out by Ragans.
Ragans remarked, “Spring training is the time to work on stuff, but I want to get outs.” “I want positive outcomes. Where you want to work on things is up to you. I continue to watch footage even though it’s Spring Training. I continue to take notes.
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