Watch: Yankees' Michael King tosses PitchCom device into stands
Before suffering a season-ending broken elbow during a July appearance vs. the Baltimore Orioles in 2022, Yankees reliever Michael King was one of the best in the business. He had 66 strikeouts and just 16 walks in 51 innings.
This year, he's back and has returned to his productive ways, sitting tied in saves (three) with Wandy Peralta in a bullpen without a true closer. But during Tuesday night's matchup—once again with Baltimore—King found himself throwing something other than a baseball into the stands.
After retiring Ryan McKenna to begin the top of the ninth inning, King removed his PitchCom device (technology used to help the pitcher and catcher communicate the pitches they want to throw) and chucked it towards the dugout—but just missed his mark.
"The one that I got didn't work," King told ESPN after the game. "It just happened where I was hitting slider at the same time that [catcher] Ben [Rortvedt] was hitting sinker. So every time I hit a slider it was coming through as a sinker."
King survived pitchers have for generations, tossing the final two scoreless innings in the Yankees' come-from-behind win in the Bronx; but the fact that pitchers and catchers communicating via signs is no longer a given is indicative of changing times in MLB.
What is PitchCom?
PitchCom is a device that was officially approved for use in the Major Leagues in 2022 as a way for teams to prevent other teams from stealing their pitch signs. It is a device that can be worn not only by pitchers and catchers but field players as well, and in 2022 it was mostly catchers using the device to call pitches as opposed to the other way around.
But with the rule changes approved for 2023, PitchCom has become important in a new way—pitchers calling their own games.
With a limited amount of time between pitches thanks to the new pitch clock, pitchers no longer need to shake off their catcher two or three times to select the pitch they want. Instead, they can now tell the catcher what is coming and save precious seconds.
While PitchCom is becoming more and more prominent in MLB, mishaps like Tuesday night's with King just serve as a reminder that sometimes technology can fail and doing things the old-fashioned way can still be effective.
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