As has been speculated since his acquisition, and propitiated by the season ending hip surgery required by Ryan Pepiot, the Rays have formally started the transition of Griffin Jax to a starting role, and in doing so Jax has reintroduced his cutter. It’s already helping him handle left-handed hitters more effectively, and should help the transition to starting as well.
Jax entered the 2026 season projected toward the top of the Rays bullpen depth chart, particularly given his success in a relief role
after being converted by the Twins, but when the season began it was a struggle for Jax to fend off lefties.
Prior to his appearance on 4/26/2026, across the first 25 left-handed batters faced, Jax issued four walks, struck out five, allowed six hits, and gave up two home runs – good for a 10.80 ERA and 8.73 FIP. The sample is small, but the underlying indicators weren’t encouraging either: below-average strike rates, elevated hard contact, and a lack of swing-and-miss.
Since reintroducing the cutter as he has transitions to a starting role, the results have began to trend in a more positive direction against lefties. Jax has gone from not using his cutter at all against lefties to using it 16.7% of the time across his last two outings.
Jax’s cutter, like most cutters, serves as a useful weapon against opposite-handed hitters. Its movement allows it to get in on the hands of lefties, often inducing weaker contact. As a “bridge” pitch, it sits between fastballs and breaking balls in both velocity and movement. That typically limits its swing-and-miss upside, but it plays an important role in sequencing while giving him a pitch that he can land for strikes.
In Jax’s case, the cutter helps support his best pitch: the sweeper.
League-wide trends suggest hitters have become more comfortable against sweepers, particularly from right-handed pitchers. Since Jax entered the league in 2021, performance against sweepers has gradually improved:
While 2026 is still a small sample, the broader trend is clear: hitters are handling sweepers better than they did a few years ago. Increased exposure and tools like Trajekt machines have likely contributed to that adjustment.
For a pitcher like Jax, whose profile is heavily built around a once-outlier breaking ball, adaptation becomes necessary.
That’s where the cutter comes in.
Against right-handed hitters, Jax can still lean heavily on his fastball-sweeper combination. But against lefties, he needed a more effective plan.
The cutter helps create that plan by pairing with his changeup. Both pitches operate in the lower-90s velocity band, but with different movement profiles. There are roughly 17 inches of horizontal separation between the cutter and changeup – less than the gap between his changeup and sweeper, which exceeds 27 inches.
While it might seem like a smaller difference in movement and velocity might hinder his effectiveness, it actually works in Jax’s favor by improving how well the pitches tunnel out of the same window.
The result is a more cohesive approach against left-handed hitters: two pitches that look similar early, diverge late, and disrupt timing in different ways. https://twitter.com/raysmetrics/status/2048791611367133613?s=46
Jax can still mix in his sweeper to lefties as a third look, particularly deeper into outings, but it no longer needs to carry the load against them.
There’s an inherent tradeoff here. Jax is increasing usage of a lesser pitch at the expense of his best one, and most pitch models won’t love that. But pitching isn’t just about maximizing individual pitch quality; it’s about disrupting timing and forcing uncomfortable decisions. The league is better equipped to handle sweepers from right-handed pitchers than it was a few years ago, so adjusting to that reality is part of staying effective.
Jax appears to be making that adjustment, and the early returns are encouraging.
If this approach holds, we could see Jax settle into something like a three-pitch mix against lefties: four-seamer, changeup, and cutter. Each of these could be used at relatively similar rates with occasional breaking balls mixed in. Against righties, a more traditional fastball-sweeper approach should remain intact while he occasional dips into his arsenal for a different look.
It’s still early, but this is the kind of in-season adjustment that can meaningfully change a pitcher’s trajectory. Jax’s ability to adapt like this will be key to sustaining the success he’s shown in the past regardless of whether he continues to get stretched out to start or moves back into high leverage in the bullpen.
