Despite accolades, SF Giants’ Logan Webb still searches for perfection

SAN FRANCISCO — By any objective measure, Logan Webb had a great year.

He earned his first All-Star appearance. He, again, led the National League in innings. He finished sixth in the Cy Young Award voting, his third straight season receiving votes. His status as Opening Day starter was so secure, even with a rotation featuring Justin Verlander and Robbie Ray, that manager Bob Melvin didn’t need to tell him that he’d start the Giants’ first game.

Webb wasn’t dissatisfied, by no means. But as a perpetual critic, he wasn’t entirely happy either. He knows there’s another level to reach, unafraid to say that a Cy Young Award is an object of his desire. Webb has never been above experimenting, and leading up to his seventh season there wasn’t a single element of his game that was off limits in the pursuit of excellence.

Webb knows what he’s accomplished; he’s equally aware of what he hasn’t.

“To be successful in this game — and I have a long ways to go — but what I learned from guys before me and what I watched is you’ve never figured it out,” Webb said. “My favorite analogy is you’re chasing constant perfection in a sport where there’s no perfection.”

Chasing perfection this offseason required Webb tweaking the pitch that, ironically, generated the most chase.

Webb’s changeup has long been his best offering. In 2023, the year he finished as the Cy Young runner-up, Webb’s changeup matched Gerrit Cole’s fastball as the best pitch in baseball by Run Value. Last season, Webb couldn’t reclaim that same effectiveness.

As far as pure results, opponents had a .275 batting average and .411 slugging percentage. As far as expected outcomes — .308 expected batting average, .502 expected slugging percentage — Webb was lucky that the damage wasn’t worse.

Webb assessed that the changeup’s shape was different in ‘23 compared to ‘24. This was most evident in horizontal movement; after getting 11.3 inches of armside movement in ’23, Webb was down to 9.8 inches of armside movement in ’24. The most noticeable adjustment that Webb made to the pitch this spring was velocity. Webb’s changeup clocked in at 87.4 mph on average last season, but the changeup has been down around 85 mph this spring, allowing Webb to create more separation between his changeup and sinker.

“He’s a supinator, and I think that what happens sometimes with supinators is because they’re so rotational, he will open up early and it will square his hand up to the pitch,” said pitching coach J.P. Martinez said. “It’ll knock the spin efficiency higher, and it ends up being more of a runner — a Magnus runner — than a depth pitch that moves late. So, for him, it’s about keeping that front shoulder in check, then making sure the spin efficiency on the changeup is low enough to grab the seams and go down.”

Changing up the changeup is not all that Webb has changed up.

Webb also made a subtle tweak to his mechanics, adding movement into his back foot during his windup opposed to remaining stationary. It’s a subtle difference, so subtle that Webb comedically asked reporters after his first Cactus League start if they even noticed. Webb made the change because there were times when the stationary back foot resulted in him being “stuck,” causing him to be “out of whack.”

“It’s starting to feel pretty good,” Webb said. “There’s still moments where it’s a little different because I’m not used to it and I’ll accidentally do the old way, but overall, I’m really excited about it.”

There’s also the matter of the cutter, a pitch he re-incorporated last year after not throwing it in ‘22 or ‘23. Webb threw his first cutter of the season in May against Shohei Ohtani, of all people, but seldom used the pitch during the summer. Through August, Webb’s cutter accounted for 1.1% of his pitches. In September, Webb promoted the cutter from cameo status.

In the season’s final month, Webb’s cutter accounted for 11.6% of his pitches. The sample size was small, but opponents had just one hit in 10 at-bats that ended with Webb throwing the cutter. And while Webb’s cutter only accounted for 2.6% of his pitches, it was one of his most valuable pitches according to Run Value.

“He looks to get better every year, and he knows where the soft spots were the year before. Using the cutter now, especially to lefties, creates some room for him away,” said manager Bob Melvin. “A lot of times, lefties will kind of hang over that outside part of the plate for a sinker or changeup. The sweeper’s become a real pitch for him, too. He’s just always trying to get better. He’s a Giant, and I think that rubs off on everybody, too.”

Webb’s internal hardware — one that demands interminable innovation — cannot be found in every player. With Ray and Verlander, a pair of Cy Young Award winners, Webb shares a wavelength. As the saying goes, they’re all built different.

This spring, Ray added a changeup that he learned from Tarik Skubal while Verlander added more horizontal movement on his curveball. Ray assessed that Webb can be hard on himself to a fault; Webb laughed at the hypocrisy because he knows Ray is the same way.

“The best guys in this game are just not complacent with where they’re at,” Ray said. “They’re always trying to work and get better. Everybody should be doing that on a daily basis, but the guys that push themselves harder are the guys that end up doing something special. I definitely see that in him.

Added Verlander: “We are our own harshest critics. Just because he finished sixth in Cy Young, most people would be like, ‘What are you talking about, that’s a great year.’ For somebody who knows how good they can be, if you take a real objective look at yourself — which is another attribute that’s impressive for his age — and say, ‘That wasn’t me, I can be better, I should be better than that.’”

For all his innovation, Webb carries an old-school, traditional mentality.

Over the last three seasons, no one has thrown more innings than Webb.. His 3.22 ERA and 3.05 FIP over that time prove that Webb transcends the “innings eater” label. Webb has thrown at least 200 innings in back-to-back seasons, the first Giant to do so since Jeff Samardzija. Should he hit that mark again, he’ll become the first pitcher to do so in at least three straight seasons since, coincidentally enough, Verlander.

Drafted in 2014, Webb enjoyed the privilege of working with some of the better starters of this millennium: Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, Jake Peavy, Johnny Cueto, Tim Hudson. That collective taught him the importance of taking the ball every five days, of throwing upwards of 100 pitches, of putting the team in a position to win. The 200-inning pitcher is on baseball’s list of endangered species due to a myriad of factors. Webb, then, is one of the last of his kind.

“Those guys were always available,” Webb said. “They’re not chucking 99 (mph) up there or getting away with stuff. They’re going out there, they’re pitching and finding ways to go 200 innings every single year. I’ve tried to mold what they started. I hear the term ‘old-school pitcher’ a lot. I try to be like that and I’m trying to see how many innings I can throw and put the team in good spots.”

Should Webb cross that 200-inning threshold once again, he’ll likely be in position to secure the award that has eluded him: a Cy Young. The baseball industry at large does not Webb as the favorite, behind the likes of Paul Skenes, Chris Sale and Zack Wheeler. To win, everything will have to click. If history is any indication, the hardware will not satiate his appetite. Nothing likely will.

There is, after all, perfection to be chased.

“Despite all he’s accomplished so far — first All-Star Game, those 200-inning seasons — he’s still super hungry,” Martinez said. “He still wants to go to the playoffs and make noise. He still wants to win the Cy Young. There’s still a lot that he wants to accomplish, and I think it’s pretty unique for a guy that’s done as much as he’s done.”