Left-handed pitcher Richard Lovelady missed the 2022 season because he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. Before his injury in 2021, Lovelady had a 3.48 ERA in 20.1 innings pitched in relief. With only a couple of locks in the projected Royals’ bullpen, Lovelady is among the mix to compete for a spot.

Lovelady currently does not have any remaining Minor League Options, but may qualify for a 4th due to his time on the injured list. If he does not quality, he will have to start the season on the 26-man roster. Otherwise, the Royals will have to outright him from the 40-man and risk losing him on waivers.

Lovelady is a solid left-handed option for any competitive team and is an early trade or acquisition target for team who needs some bullpen help. Let’s get into what makes him so intriguing.

If you prefer video breakdowns, check out this video:

Pitches and Overall Profile

Lovelady has plus control and command. He throws a slider, fourseam, and sinker. He has a crossfire delivery with low 3/4 arm slot and stands on far 3B side of rubber.

Looking at the movement and velocity of each pitch:

• Slider (87mph): Slightly above average sweep
• Fourseam (93mph): Below average ride and run
• Sinker (93mph): Above average sink and slightly above average run

The fourseam is he only below average pitch in terms of shape. But, Lovelady gets elite extension (97th percentile), so the velocity on his pitches all play up.

Lovelady vs Right-Handed Hitters

Overall pitch usage vs right-handed hitters:

• Slider: 48%
• Sinker: 28%
• Fourseam: 24%

The sinker and slider move in the east/west direction and the fourseam moves north. He is using the slider in on right-handed hitters, the sinker on the inner and outer third, and the fourseam upper outer third.

Lovelady’s best offering vs right-handed hitters is his slider. He is throwing his slider in-zone to right-handed hitters, and it gets great results.

While the in-zone miss is slightly worse than average, the pitch gets a high ground ball rate. When it is thrown out of zone, it gets a high chase rate.

His sinker also performs as an above average pitch:

I did not include in-zone miss in the table above because Lovelady is pitching to contact. He throws it in-zone to induce weak contact, which is demonstrated in the table with the high ground ball rate.

Lovelady also mixes in his fourseam to right-handed hitters, but the results are not as good as the slider/sinker combination:

Part of the issue is that Lovelady is not throwing this pitch in-zone as frequently as the others. Based on the location of the pitch, the fourseam and sinker are both thrown to the upper, outer third of the zone. It’s possible Lovelady is trying to get hitters to chase the fourseam out of zone, by getting hitters to think he is throwing the sinker. At the same velocity, the two pitches likely look very similar out of hand.

That being said, the pitch is not being chased enough to overcome the low zone rate, and is also getting less in-zone miss than average.

Lovelady vs Left-Handed Hitters

Overall pitch usage vs left-handed hitters:

• Slider: 52%
• Fourseam: 24%
• Sinker: 8%

He is throwing the slider away from left-handed hitters and the fourseam toward the upper third of the zone. He occasionally mixes in the sinker. I did not show the location below because the sample was not big enough to show a pattern in location.

Similarly to when he faces right-handed hitters, Lovelady’s slider performs above average against left-handed hitters:

The slider is thrown in-zone and gets a higher ground ball rate than average. It also gets slightly more chase than average when thrown out of zone.

The fourseam performs better vs left-handed hitters than vs right-handed hitters. This is in part due to where he is throwing it.

When facing left-handed hitters, Lovelady throws his fourseam in-zone more, and gets a higher in-zone miss rate than average. He is not using it as a chase pitch, but when it is thrown out of zone, hitters are not chasing it as much as average.

As a left-handed pitcher, Lovelady will likely face more left-handed batters for the platoon advantage. But, he has put up competitive pitch results vs right-handed hitters, so I would not limit him to just a lefty-specialist.

Lovelady pitched one inning in a Spring Training game on February 25th, and recorded one hit and one strikeout.

It will be interesting to see how Lovelady returns, and if anything has changed due to his injury and missed time. If he performs like he used to, he is an intriguing trade target for competitive teams.

What do you think of Richard Lovelady?