NEW YORK — New York Yankees left fielder Alex Verdugo timed it just right. The 94 mph sinker from Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Michael Wacha was high and inside, but Verdugo fought it off to left field. It dropped in as a single, and in the next at-bat, Gleyber Torres crushed a two-run home run as the Yankees went on to win Game 1 of the American League Division Series.
If Verdugo seemed comfortable in his first at-bat of the game against Wacha, it was largely because he had hit against him a bit earlier in the day. Kind of.
Verdugo said many Yankees hitters had spent time before the game facing a simulation of Wacha via Trajeckt, a high-tech pitching machine just steps away from their clubhouse at Yankee Stadium. The machine projects a life-sized video of just about any major-league pitcher onto its screen. Then the video shows the pitcher through his delivery and shoots out whichever pitch the batter has chosen at that pitcher’s actual release point.
It’s about as close as it gets to a real-life at-bat, Verdugo said.
“We know it’s not going to be like the real thing,” he said, “but it just gives you a better idea.”
GIF courtesy of Trajeckt Sports Inc.
And it could be a major key for the Yankees as they try to navigate past the Cleveland Guardians — owners of likely the best bullpen remaining in the playoffs — in the American League Championship Series starting with Monday’s Game 1 at Yankee Stadium.
Cade Smith (2.7) and closer Emmanuel Clase (2.3) were the Nos. 1 and 5, respectively, among relievers in fWAR this season in all of baseball. Smith had a 1.91 ERA in 74 games. Clase earned 47 saves — the second most in MLB — with a 0.61 ERA in 74 games.
And the rest of the unit has been stout, too. The Yankees, who rely on slugging from Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton, will have a tough time coming by home runs, as Cleveland relievers allowed a league-lowest 0.74 homers per nine innings and the lowest batting average on balls put in play at .257. The Guardians also stranded the most runners (78.5 percent), and their 2.57 bullpen ERA was more than a half-run better than the runner-up Milwaukee Brewers at 3.11.
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt likes to go to his bullpen more than anyone. Guardians relievers led the league in total appearances at 593. Their starting pitchers threw the 24th-most innings in MLB at 805.
So, it’ll be imperative for the Yankees to game plan well against the Guardians’ relievers, who are mostly excellent and often used.
That’s where Trajekt could come in.
“It’s really a valuable tool,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
The Yankees’ batting cages are right behind the entrance to their dugout. They have two cages, one of them with a Trajekt. Often, assistant hitting coaches Pat Roessler and Casey Dykes man the cages during the game, with primary hitting coach James Rowson mostly remaining in the dugout.
Joshua Pope, CEO and co-founder of Trajekt Sports Inc., said teams take the data they have tracked from pitchers and upload it into the company’s database, and the pitching machine replicates it, from the spin to the movement and velocity. Each machine costs between $15,000 and $20,000 a month as part of a three-year lease, according to a report from The Associated Press in March.
When a Yankees player wants to take at-bats against a simulation of the pitcher they’re facing or about to face, the staff plugs that pitcher into the machine and that pitcher appears on screen. This is the first season MLB has allowed teams to use Trajeckt during games.
Ace Gerrit Cole said he stood in against a simulation of himself on the Trajekt a couple of years ago. He was curious if it replicated him on the mound.
“It was like, ‘Yeah, that’s probably right. That’s what I would imagine I look like,’” he said.
Cole said the machine had his delivery mostly down pat, right down to the time it takes for him to deliver a pitch.
“It certainly gives (a hitter) a cadence,” Cole said.
Catchers even use it. Austin Wells caught off the Trajekt at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2023, allowing him to get a feel for the movement and velocity of every pitcher on the Yankees’ big-league staff before he was promoted to the majors.
Shortstop Anthony Volpe said the machine was a big part of the Yankees’ bye week as they prepared for the Kansas City Royals. He added that when he has time during games, he’ll “play the game the inning before, a couple innings before” and use the Trajeckt to face whoever is on the mound or might be warming up in the bullpen.
Trajekt has allowed players to be “getting eyes on all the pitchers,” Volpe said.
And that will be important for when the Guardians are bringing in two of the best relievers in the game in Clase and Smith.
Some players don’t like hitting off it as much as they like to use it to get a feel for the pitcher’s timing and delivery, infielder Jon Berti said.
“You have the opportunity, hopefully, to get some feel for what you might see out there,” Berti said.
Rowson said he didn’t imagine there would be an uptick in the Yankees using the machine while they face the Guardians. Most players are married to their routines this deep into the season, he said.
But, Rowson said, it could be a huge help.
“Some guys are using it for the video,” he said, “and you see the pitcher’s delivery a little bit. I think you can get some benefit out of seeing release point, having an idea of where the ball is going to come out, even though there is no perfect science. But it will give you context.”
So if the eighth inning rolls around Monday and the Yankees are expecting to see Clase in the ninth, Berti might step into the cage, fire up Trajekt and have an at-bat against him before he even takes the mound.
“Whatever gets you ready to rock and roll,” Berti said.
(Photo courtesy of Trajeckt Sports Inc.)
