Ryan Helsley came to the team with the vision of helping on the mound, as many expected he would, but things recently haven’t been working out for him. He has now confessed that he has been tipping pitches, which has been directly affecting the New York Mets.
“I’m not trying to sound arrogant or anything, but I feel like my stuff’s too good to get hit around as consistently as it has since I’ve been here,” Helsley told Anthony DiComo. “We’ve played mostly teams in the hunt, and a lot of teams nowadays will have guys who look specifically for those things. It’s pretty glaring and obvious when I’m doing it.”
Helsley seems sure that his issue is with tipping pitches but is mentally ready to resolve it. “I think I know how to fix it,” Helsley told Will Sammon. “So it’s just being able to enforce that and that being my mental norm versus what I was doing to get my body to accept that and reinforce that.”
A Frustrating Situation for Helsley
Without holding anything back, Helsley said that going through this tipping pitches issue has greatly affected his work on the mound with the Mets, especially knowing he has to prove himself more after being traded to keep his job in the future.
“Dude, it’s so frustrating,” Helsley said. “I started out really great — my first three outings were good. The last five, six, seven haven’t been really that good. It’s definitely frustrating, especially being traded for and thinking you’re getting the polar opposite of what I’ve shown. But I know I’m capable of it. I’ve done it a lot in my career. I’m just trying to be that guy.”
Helsley is right; his first games with the Mets in August have been difficult to analyze. He was part of 10 losses for the team, though not all were his fault. In his last four games, however, he helped the team win and avoid some catastrophes.