The Rockaway Wave
Originally Published September 6, 2024
The Cyclones have had a lot of starting pitching talent come through Coney Island this summer. Brandon Sproat. Jonah Tong. Nolan McLean. Kade Morris. Brooklyn has been a hotbed for pitching talent in general over the last couple of seasons with Christian Scott, Blade Tidwell and Tyler Stuart all pitching for the ‘Clones last year.
Now, there’s another starting pitcher making waves once again: Jack Wenninger.
“He’s another guy that the swing-and-miss stuff is natural, that fastball-split combo,” Brooklyn Cyclones manager Gilbert Gómez said. “And he’s another guy that once he gets truly strong, like, we haven’t seen the best out of him.”
Wenninger was the Mets 6th round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft. He had more college eligibility on the table when the Mets selected him, but chose to sign rather than go back to school.
“I just feel like you never get younger,” Wenninger said. “So I feel like, I want to get to pro ball, get in there as young as possible.”
He started his 2024 season with Single-A St. Lucie and had some ups and downs. There were some standout performances here and there, like a six-inning, 10-strikeout outing in April and another seven-inning, 12-strikeout outing in May, but overall the results were underwhelming. Through 15 games in Single-A (10 starts), Wenninger had a 5.02 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 71 and 2⁄3 innings.
He was promoted to High-A Brooklyn in early July and had a shaky first start, allowing eight hits and five earned runs over 4 and 2⁄3 innings. From that point on though, things changed. After allowing five runs in his Brooklyn debut, Wenninger would go on to allow just five runs over his next six games, lowering his High-A ERA from 9.64 to 2.90.
“In that first outing, I felt like just throwing my best pitch to throw it rather than trying to set it up in at-bats and try to then put people away with it,” Wenninger said. “So I was just throwing it all the time, and the hitters were just sitting on it, expecting it, and giving up some hits on it.”
That pitch was his splitter, which Wenninger said he threw over 50% of the time in his first start with the Cyclones. He has since dialed the splitter usage down to anywhere between 30% and 50% in any given start.
His splitter garnered rave reviews from Cyclones pitching coach Daniel McKinney.
“His splitter is definitely his calling card,” McKinney said. “It’s a fantastic pitch. He throws it against righties, he throws it against lefties. He exudes a ton of swing-and-miss with it.”
Wenninger added the splitter during his last year of college at the University of Illinois and said it just took off from there. He started throwing it more and paired it with his fastball, which McKinney said sits in the 92-93 mph range and can completely top out at 97, but more likely 95 or 96.
“I think the separation between my fastball and split creates a lot of trouble for hitters, and I think the organization likes that,” Wenninger said.
He has a deep arsenal to work with, adding a cutter, sweeper, and curveball to his signature fastball-split combo.
The sweeper in particular is something Wenninger said they’ve been working on recently, switching from the different slider he threw in college.
“He’s put in a ton of work, going back to spring training, and it’s been a process for the evolution of that pitch,” McKinney said. “I think, to be honest with you, it’s still kind of stabilizing, but I think the biggest thing is he’s developed a feel to it … it’s definitely been a good weapon for him against right-handed hitters, but he’s also had some success with it against left-handed hitters as well.”
McKinney said they’ve been encouraging him to use his full arsenal more after what happened in his Brooklyn debut, and like Wenninger, attributed that to his run of success that followed.
“Obviously, we want him throwing the splitter a lot, because it’s a really good pitch,” McKinney said. “But since then, I think the control has been sharper, but he’s also used the other weapons to help set up the splitter. He’s just been sharper with everything, and just done a better job of knowing how to use his whole arsenal, which he was doing in [St. Lucie], so I think it was more of a one-off on that one day more than anything else.”
He has cooled off a bit over his last two starts but has still given up only four earned runs in 6 and 1⁄3 innings, far from disastrous.
He’s 22 years old and will likely start the 2025 season with High-A Brooklyn but there’s a chance it’s with Double-A Binghamton. Even if he doesn’t start in Double-A, it’s very likely he’ll make it there at some point during the season. After that, once you get to Double-A, the big leagues could be right around the corner.
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