Since Michael Rucker was recalled after the trades of pitchers David Robertson, Scott Effross, and Mychal Givens at the 2022 MLB trade deadline. Rucker has delivered more than the Chicago Cub ever expected. In the month of August, the young righty has a 2.03 ERA and 2.82 FIP in 13.1 innings of work.
Rucker has shined to the point where he is now getting higher leverage situations. On August 20, Rucker was given the ball with a tie game in the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers and retired the side on only eight pitches.
The following outing, Rucker was given the fifth inning with men on first and second, no outs, in a two-run game. He got out of the jam and retired the side the very next inning.
What has lead to Rucker's new found success? The first easy note to identify is a change in his pitch usage.
Before August, Rucker was working with more of a five pitch mix with his four-seam thrown 47.4% of the time, curveball at 20.9%, slider at 16.3%, cutter at 8.2%, and changeup at 7.2%.
His best offspeed pitch in that group is the slider, which currently has a -2 run value, nearly identical to that of his 2021 campaign. Now, Rucker has raised his slider usage to 34.6%. This is an easy midseason adjustment pitchers can make, throw your good pitches more. Changing your pitch mix is one of the quickest ways to finding improvement at the margins.
The right hander's slider has a 44.6 whiff percentage and just a .267 slugging. It's a good secondary pitch to help create a tunneling effect with his fastball. Additonally, relievers often don't need anything more than two or three pitches to use.
Rucker's stint as a long reliever helped him become more valuable for the Cubs bullpen. Instead of the typical inning of work, the Cubs now have an arm that can eat multiple outs with efficiency. Rucker has four appearances of more than one inning this season, including two innings in the aforementioned Cardinals outing.
While it is hard to expect a reliever to never give up home runs, Rucker has kept the ball in the yard this month. He's overall done a much better job of limiting hard contact this month from 33.3% prior to August to 25% this month. It is a limited sample size but still something to watch for.
Rucker has the rest of the season to continue his success, and with most of the veterans traded he will get plenty of chances to shine. Between Rucker, the recent successes of Brandon Hughes and Erich Uelmen, Chicago's bullpen will certainly have less spots to fill in free agency.
While it may be just a tad too early to call him a future piece, a mid-90s fastball with a plus-slider is piece most bullpens are glad to have. Now with more of a blueprint on how he can succeed at this level, he has the offseason to develop his slider even further and be a more impactful contributor for the 2023 Cubs.
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