The Rockaway Wave
Originally Published August 30, 2024
When Gregori Louis stepped onto the Maimonides Park mound for his Brooklyn Cyclones debut, he was nervous. He was standing in front of a crowd of 4,323, over 2,000 more than his final appearance in Single-A.
Playing in New York City is quite the step up from playing in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
“That’s normal, you’re always going to feel nervous in your first outing wherever you go,” Louis said through Brooklyn Cyclones mental skills coach Maria Bogaert, who was translating. “But the stronger you get, the stronger your mentality, the more experience you get, that goes away.”
While he started his season in the FCL, he appeared in just two games before being promoted to Single-A St. Lucie. He spent the next three months with the St. Lucie Mets and thrived, throwing 42 and 1⁄3 innings with a 1.49 ERA over 20 games while also allowing just 24 hits, albeit with 24 walks as well.
“Hitters don’t hit him,” Cyclones pitching coach Daniel McKinney said. “The stuff is good certainly, but he’s got a pretty unique way of throwing. He’s got some funk to the glove arm that just makes him tough for the hitters to pick up.”
Louis was promoted to High-A Brooklyn on August 20 and made his debut two days later, throwing two innings of scoreless ball with two strikeouts and one hit allowed.
“[I] just trust God,” Louis said through Bogaert. “[I] knew I was doing the job down in St. Lucie, [I] just trust God and said, whatever has to happen is gonna happen. And then when [I] got the news [I] was very, very excited.”
The southpaw features a fastball that can hit the mid-to-high 90s, and Louis says it’s the pitch he has the most confidence in.
“[I] trust my fastball because [I] can throw it in any count,” Louis said through Bogaert. “Doesn’t matter what count it is, [I] know that [I] can execute it.”
McKinney said because of the way Louis throws, the velocity on his fastball plays up. It gets on hitters quickly, he said, and they have a hard time squaring it up. He also has a changeup that impressed in his Brooklyn debut and a slider that he can use against both lefties and righties.
“The secondaries have really developed,” McKinney said. “I think they’re still developing in terms of just overall consistency, but he’s made a lot of progress with them.”
Louis, who said he follows current Red Sox and longtime Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, is also developing a cutter. Jansen has famously leaned on his cutter over his 15-year MLB career, and it’s a pitch he still throws over 85% of the time.
McKinney believes Louis’ cutter is going to be a big weapon for him against right-handed hitters, and liked that Louis has been seeking out videos of Jansen on his own.
“I’m sure he probably draws some inspiration from that, yeah,” McKinney said. “I’m not sure many people can develop the same type of cutter that Kenley throws, but we actually love doing that, say hey, who’s one of your favorite players? If that person throws that pitch type, then we like to kind of use those as inspiration.”
Louis also brings one trait to the table you can’t teach: pitching left-handed.
“We always love lefties,” McKinney said. “He’s a lefty with stuff, and we love the fact that he’s continuing to develop. I think his best days are ahead of him.”
Every big league organization needs left-handed pitchers. In 2024, about 550 right-handed pitchers have recorded an MLB strikeout to about 200 left-handed pitchers. There are just simply fewer left-handed pitchers out there.
Lefties have a little extra intrinsic value just because of the arm they throw with, and it sometimes leads to them getting more opportunities, or a longer leash so to speak.
“It’s not hard to just look at the numbers, right?” McKinney said. “There’s a reason why the left- handed average velo is less than right-handed average velo, they’re just harder to find. So, when you have a lefty that has some real stuff, it probably is true you get a little bit longer of a leash. I think there’s certainly at least a level of truth to that.”
As of Wednesday among Mets minor league pitchers who have thrown at least 30 innings this year, no one has a better ERA than Louis.
“I think he’s gonna be good for us,” Cyclones manager Gilbert Gómez said. “Another lefty that we can throw in, can pitch to lefties and righties, and his numbers in Low-A were pretty good, so we’re happy to see him here. He’s a grinder, and he’s had to work for everything he’s got.”
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