Working on new offerings, Grant Holmes and Joey Wentz trying to do their part

Wentz is working on a pitch he had not thrown in a game before, a two-seam fastball. And the first time he tried it, in the fifth inning of the Braves’ spring training game against Detroit, the lefty’s pitch was at first appetizing enough for left-handed Tigers prospect Max Clark to start to swing at before it began to ride up and in on him.

Clark had to try to check his swing while simultaneously trying to duck out of the ball’s path. He ended up on his seat, his helmet having fallen off, humbled.

It appeared that both Clark and the TV graphics operator took the 1-0 offering to be a strike, but home plate umpire Chad Fairchild called it a ball, thus catching Clark off guard when a later pitch was ball four but he stayed in the box, apparently thinking that the count was 3-1.

Hence, Wentz’s satisfaction with the outcome, ball or not.

“I mean, I liked it,” Wentz told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday at his locker in the team’s clubhouse. “I thought it got the reaction that I would want to get from the hitter.”

If you want to believe in the Braves’ decision to refrain from adding another starting pitcher after the elbow surgeries of Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep, you can take encouragement from the spring work of pitchers like Wentz and the support that new pitching coach Jeremy Hefner is offering them.

“It’s been really good,” Wentz said. “I mean, ‘Hef’ and J.P. (bullpen coach J.P. Martinez), I think they’re both really smart when it comes to pitching, when it comes to kind of pitch design and shapes and stuff like that.”

Signed by the Braves in July after being waived by the Minnesota Twins, Wentz impressed before faltering. He had a 2.60 ERA and a dazzling .952 WHIP over 34 2/3 innings in his first seven appearances, the last six in a starting role.

But over the final seven appearances, all starts that covered 29.1 innings, his ERA was 7.67 with a 1.977 WHIP. Wentz said problems stemmed from falling behind early in the count.

When he met with Hefner and Martinez after their hire, one objective was an “arm-side” pitch (for a southpaw facing the plate, a pitch to the left side of the plate) to give him a pitch that could attack that side of the strike zone.

Hence, the two-seam fastball, to go along with another pitch he’s worked on this spring with Hefner, a change-up.

“I’m excited about it,” Wentz said of the two-seamer. “I think, when I watch what I would think are some of the best pitchers in the game, they throw two distinctively different fastballs.”

Grant Holmes is another rotation candidate tinkering with his assortment of pitches. One is his four-seam fastball, which last year opponents teed off on, hitting .330 and slugging .651 against it, per Statcast. It limited a decent season — a 3.99 ERA in 22 appearances (21 starts) and a 1.339 WHIP — before an arm injury ended his season in July. (Identified as a partially torn UCL, Holmes has reported no issues this spring and thinks that he may have sustained the injury long ago.)

A big problem with Holmes’ four-seamer was its lack of “carry,” the illusion of upward vertical movement.

Rather than spreading the index and middle fingers when gripping the ball for that pitch, Holmes has tried throwing the pitch with the fingers together, at Hefner’s suggestion. Holmes said it felt weird the first few times he tried that delivery, but he has grown used to it. And he has seen results with the pitch.

“I was probably up two or three ticks so far, so that’ll work for me,” Holmes said.

His cutter and kick change, a modified change-up that he tried last spring but used sparingly last season, are other projects. Holmes feels more confident about the latter, having continued to rep it in the offseason.

“He’s great,” Holmes said of Hefner. “Really good, actually, with pitch shapes and grips and stuff.”

The Braves’ decision to not pursue pitching help after the Schwellenbach and Waldrep injuries (both are out at least two months and possibly longer) was based in no small part on their faith in pitchers like Holmes and Wentz to hold up the back of the rotation. Holmes figures to be the No. 4 starter. Wentz could have a role in the bullpen and serve as a spot starter.

If they can consistently confound batters with their new offerings as Wentz did with his maiden two-seamer, the Braves would be delighted.

You can now get my column sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for my newsletter here.