""I'm not going to reveal the pitch," Ryan told Dodgers Nation's Doug McKain. "I want to kind of surprise people next year. The way I figured out how to throw it, I was just kind of in the middle of an outing and uh, I was looking at some film and some Trackman on what my pitch shapes were and I was... I was kind of surprised on one of them and I was like, I didn't know I could make the ball do that. "So unfortunately after I kind of figured it out, I got hurt and then I had to stop throwing. So I had to pick it back up when I was able to start spinning the ball again in rehab. Um, and I kind of just figured out what I did to make the ball do that and um, yeah, we just kind of honed it in from there. It's still... it's still in the works. I mean, it's... I don't think it's going to be a highly used pitch, but it's definitely another strikeout option if needed. So.""
""Definitely not a knuckleball," Ryan said. "That's one thing I cannot do is throw a knuckleball. It's bad.""
River Ryan is adding an undisclosed new pitch to his six-pitch arsenal while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Ryan made four starts in 2024 with a 1.33 ERA over 20.1 innings and 18 strikeouts before missing the end of 2024 and all of 2025. He identified the pitch while reviewing film and Trackman during an outing and later refined the delivery during rehab as he regained spin. The pitch remains experimental and likely will be a lower-usage, supplementary strikeout option. Ryan ruled out a knuckleball and could return to the Dodgers as a starter or reliever.
Read at Dodgers Nation
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