Michael King has the misfortune of having options. The Yankees young right-hander has been spectacular to start the 2021 season. For his troubles, King has been demoted three times.
“My mom always has a line,” King said before Tuesday night’s game at Yankee Stadium. “She calls it a 10-second pity party. So I definitely use those 10 seconds. But then after that I know that it’s not going to do me any good sitting and pouting and getting angry or sad.”
“Obviously, you never want to get sent down,” King added. “But after those 10 seconds go away, I just say, ‘Alright, let’s move forward and the next time I get an opportunity to continue to make it a hard decision for them to send me down.’”
It’s not anything that King has done, or not done, on the field. In 11 innings over three appearances, King has not allowed a run. He’s struck out nine and walked four.
It’s a common procedure for roster/bullpen management. After throwing multiple innings in his outings, King is unavailable for a few days. Because he has options, the Yankees can bring up a fresh arm to take his spot and bring him back after 10 days.
So King has time to keep working. This season, he credits his early success to the development of his cutter.
“It just kind of gives me another pitch that is totally different than my sinker. I’ve always had a lot of confidence in my sinker, but when you’re facing big-league hitters you have to have more than one pitch unless you’re Mariano (Rivera),” King said. “I learned that last year and it was a big emphasis this year developing a secondary pitch that I can command and throw in any count.”
And King uses his time with the big leagues wisely. He picks the brains of his teammates. All of them.
“If we’re talking sequences, a lot of the pitchers are who I go to for that,” King said. “Obviously (Gerrit) Cole’s a big one. He knows a lot about hitter swings and tendencies. He’s been great that way. (Catcher Kyle) Higashioka’s been great.”
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But he also goes to hitters to pick up things.
“I talked to Gary (Sanchez) a bunch this offseason. I’ve I faced him a lot in live BP,” King said. “If I’m facing Gary and he takes a pitch that I think is a good pitch, and he’s able to say, ‘Well, you haven’t shown me you can execute a fastball here, so I’m not going to expand off that with the cutter.’
“Or I’m able to kind of go in under his hands with a sinker and now he’s laying off that and I (throw a) front-door cutter, he’s like, ‘That’s impossible to hit because now it starting as a ball.’ So those conversations that I’ve had with both hitters and pitchers. It allows me to have the confidence to use those sequences in game.”