Tanner Bibee has emerged as a pivotal part of the top of the Cleveland Guardians rotation over his first two years in MLB and went 12-8 with a 3.47 ERA across 31 starts and 173.2 innings in 2024 for a team that fell just three wins shy of making it to the World Series.
A big key to Bibee’s success is his ability to mix it up with so many different pitch variations to keep hitters off balance, and he recently revealed his unique grip on one key pitch in his arsenal.
MLB analyst Rob Friedman shared a breakdown of Bibee’s impressive cutter on X during Bibee’s recent appearance on his podcast, and Bibee showed Friedman how he holds his cutter, which made him realize that he has uniquely-shaped fingers due to his first knuckles on his index and middle fingers connecting when he holds the ball while his second knuckles are separated, creating a bit of an ovular shape between his fingers.
Tanner Bibee's Unique Cutter Grip.
See how he manipulates his cutter movement & velo.All of Bibee's pitch grips are here (Fastball, Sinker, Cutter, Sweeper, Curveball, Changeup)
👉https://t.co/xy3ISoeNNp pic.twitter.com/pPObvgYVTP— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) January 19, 2025
Bibee also explained how this wasn’t always an effective pitch for him coming up through the minors, but fellow pitching prospect, Doug Nikhazy, explained to him that the middle finger is what makes the pitch move horizontally while the index finger is where the velocity comes from.
If he wants to throw the ball harder, he relies more on the index finger, whereas if he wants more break, he alters the grip to favor the middle finger and create more of a slider effect.
Bibee explained how the pitch started out last season as more of a slider, but evolved throughout the year into more of a cutter that was effective for him against lefties.
Whatever he is doing, it’s working.
NEXT: Dodgers Have Almost As Much Deferred Money As Guardians' Franchise Valuation
