Entering Sunday, July 11’s game against the Everett AquaSox, left-hander Seth Corry had accomplished a small victory, but a rare feat for him in his wild 2021 campaign: His season walk rate was less than one per inning.
After issuing only one walk in the first three frames, he looked to be slowly finding his form again. But his control imploded on him as he walked four consecutive batters en route to being pulled from the game without making it through the fourth inning. He hung his head in frustration as the Eugene Emeralds lost their fifth consecutive game.
It’s been a wild ride for Corry, a 2017 third-round pick who entered the year as the No. 5 prospect in the San Francisco Giants organization and the No. 84 prospect in all of baseball. While he’s had success at the professional level, one flaw has continued to pester Corry: his control.
That issue has only been extrapolated for Corry in 2021, a season in which he’s walked the most batters of any pitcher in all of Minor League Baseball. But what’s been most perplexing about Corry’s season is how dominant all of his other stats have been and the prospect of how great he could be if he toned down the free passes.
The walk issue presented itself early in the season and hasn’t let up. He walked five batters in 2 1/3 innings in his first outing of the year on May 6, setting the tone for his season.
He issued at least three walks in each of his next seven starts as well, while going five innings only once. On June 18, he had allowed 34 free passes in 31 2/3 innings. However, his ERA was still under four and was under three before his most recent start.
Entering his outing on June 24, Emeralds manager Dennis Pelfrey expressed confidence that Corry would turn things around.
“You’ll see a different Seth Corry as we move forward,” Pelfrey said, “where he’s just going to become one of the best to ever do it, in my opinion.”
And Corry did improve in his most crucial area, as he walked only two that night at PK Park. But he still got knocked around for six runs in a loss to the Vancouver Canadians. And, since then, the control issues have returned. He’s walked 15 batters in 13 2/3 innings over his last three outings, bringing his season total to 51 in 50 innings. On top of that, he’s hit 13 batters. His season ERA is 5.40.
If any other pitcher were to walk 51 batters in 50 innings, they might be considered a lost cause or in need of a major fix. But despite the lack of control, Corry hasn’t lost the pure stuff that made him such a highly touted prospect in the first place. The lefty features a fastball that sits in the low 90s and tops out at around 95 mph. He uses a 12-6 curveball as his main out pitch, and he occasionally mixes in a mid-80s changeup.
This repertoire has yielded results. He’s struck out 81 in 50 innings, good for a 14.58 K/9. He’s also allowed just 34 hits. These stats are dominant, and they showcase the talent that’s gotten Corry to this level.
“I’ve found that when I throw my two-seam up and away [to righties], I get a lot of swings and misses,” Corry told FanGraphs in 2019. “When I throw it down, it’s two-seam sink. But when it’s up, it has this tailing to it. Not a sink tail, but a little bit of a rise tail, running up and away from the batter. It’s weird.”
The problem is, when he is allowing the occasional hit, it’s coming with men on base because of how many free passes he’s issuing. And even when he’s not walking batters, he’s constantly working behind in the count and persistently battling himself on the mound.
“His thing is himself. He’s trying to be perfect,” Pelfrey said. “And make no mistake about it, the kid has the ability to be one of the best pitchers to ever play this game. His stuff is so good. It’s just a matter of time for him to iron a few things out and just relax and just enjoy it.”
This isn’t the first time Corry has battled his drive to be perfect. It goes back to something else he told FanGraphs back in 2019, when control was a concern, but not nearly as major an issue as it’s been in 2021.
“Sometimes I’d find myself getting into full counts because I already had seven or eight [strikeouts] in the game, and I wanted more,” Corry said. “So I’d try to paint a corner, or throw a really nasty curveball, instead of just attacking the hitter. That’s when I’d kind of have to check myself. Sometimes that can be difficult, but it needs to be done.”
Corry’s desire to be perfect is somewhat of a double-edged sword. He has the talent to be a dominant major league starting pitcher, but it also causes him to tighten up on the mound and try to do too much at times. Pelfrey believes that the key for him is to loosen up and actually dial back the intensity — something that would likely seem counterintuitive to Corry and probably most baseball players.
“We’ve gotta kind of balance out those emotions for him and get back to where he’s just a kid and having fun,” Pelfrey said.
Through the ups and downs of Corry’s season, one thing’s for sure: Every start he makes is an event. And, at times, he’s shown signs of dominance. The control is very much a work in progress, but that’s what the High-A level is for: learning, experimenting and improving.
If he can get those walks down, Corry could be a fixture in the Giants’ pitching rotation for years to come, and as Pelfrey put it, “one of the best pitchers to ever play this game.”
