Diamondbacks ace Zack Greinke mum on velocity after minor-league test

With most deliveries accompanied by his customary grunts, Zack Greinke threw four fastballs at 91 mph in the first inning on Monday morning. He hit 90 mph three times in the second.

But the Diamondbacks’ ace did not throw a fastball that exceeded 89 mph after that, and later he refused to answer questions about his velocity, despite having thrown well, giving up just two hits in five innings against minor-leaguers in an instrasquad game at Salt River Fields.

“I don’t know,” Greinke said. “I mean, the first time, it’s an interesting story. I’m not going to answer velocity questions every time the whole season. I mean, you’ve got to pick and choose your times you ask me about that.”

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Greinke might not want to talk about it, but that won’t prevent it from being a topic, at least until he shows either he’s capable of throwing harder or that he’s able to succeed despite it.

Both outcomes are entirely possible. With a little less than three weeks to go until Opening Day, Greinke might still be building arm strength. His peak velocity of 91 mph was a bit higher Monday than in his previous start, but his average of 88.1 mph was still in the same range as last time, and he dropped to 86-88 mph in his final two innings.

“To be honest with you, I think he’s right where he needs to be at this point in spring training,” pitching coach Mike Butcher said. “Velocity comes. It’s not like you can manufacture it or make it any better this early. I think by the time we get to where we need to be, he’s going to be where he needs to be.”

Greinke, though, is 33 years old. As it happens with nearly every pitcher, his velocity has dropped steadily throughout his career. Last season, according to FanGraphs, he averaged 91.3 mph with his fastball, about half of a mile-an-hour lower than it had been the previous three seasons. He also is coming off a season that ended prematurely due to what the team called a minor shoulder issue.

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Greinke has the sort of attributes that scouts have long thought would allow him age gracefully. He has never been overly reliant on velocity. He often exhibits pinpoint command. He has a deep repertoire of secondary pitches. And he possesses a high degree of pitching acumen.

His performance on Monday – albeit against minor-leaguers, most of whom would not be labeled “prospects” by scouts – was evidence of how he can locate his pitches and change speeds to generate outs. After allowing back-to-back hits to start the game, Greinke retired the final 14 batters he faced.

“Each outing (in spring training) has gotten a little better, which is good,” Greinke said. “A lot of times I’ll take a step back and one of the outings just goes really bad, but so far it’s been better with each start. … I guess I don’t know how good it was, the results were good, though. It makes you feel like you did good. I felt like I did all right and the results were good.”

While there are many pitchers who have thrived late in their careers with subpar fastballs – Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, to whom Greinke has often been compared, is an example – only a handful of pitchers every year rate among the league leaders with fastballs under 90 mph. Only three – Kyle Hendricks (87.8 mph) last year, Dallas Keuchel (89.6) and Marco Estrada (89.3) in 2015 – have ranked in the top 20 in ERA the past two seasons.

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“There’s velocity and there’s perceived velocity,” Butcher said. “He had some late life on the ball today. The ball got on guys. He mixed his pitches extremely well. I know he changed speeds with his curveball today extremely well. … I liked what he did today. It was good work.”

But Greinke’s ability to pitch effectively will remain an open question until the season begins, particularly considering he’s coming off a down year. Greinke’s numbers fell off in most major categories in comparison to either his previous season, his past three seasons with the Dodgers or his career averages entering last year.

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.