MINNEAPOLIS - Alex Hoppe isn’t pretending to be something he’s not, and that might be exactly why the Orioles think he can help them.
The right-handed reliever, acquired by Baltimore in the deal that sent outfielder Taylor Ward to the Seattle Mariners, is blunt about his own profile. He knows what he brings: big velocity, a nasty slider, and command that can wander.
“I know this about myself: I’m not good enough to hit spots,” Hoppe said. “I’m not good enough to go, ‘Hey, we need to throw a down-and-away fastball to this guy.’”
So Hoppe has stripped the job down to something simpler. He aims at the middle of the zone and lets his stuff take over.
That doesn’t mean he expects the pitch to stay there. More often than not, it won’t. But Hoppe believes his fastball and slider are good enough to create the kind of contact Baltimore wants, even if the target is only a starting point.
“The main point is just getting in the zone, whether that’s middle-middle, up and in, whatever,” Hoppe said. “To be honest, I can tell you, I’m aiming middle-middle, and probably eight out of 10, it’s not going to end up middle-middle.
It’s hopefully going to end up in the zone at some level, but most of the time it’s going to be painted down and away, and sometimes up and in to a righty and stuff. It’s going to work out in my favor because of the stuff and the velo that comes with it.”
That idea fits a broader trend around the majors, where teams are increasingly willing to prioritize velocity and movement and live with some imperfect command. Manager Craig Albernaz, a former catcher, said that kind of polish can take time, and he used Texas Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi as an example of how a pitcher can grow from scattered to precise.
The Orioles are hoping Hoppe keeps moving in that direction. Pitching coach Drew French said the staff met with him on his first day in Baltimore to get a feel for how he thinks and how he works.
“You’ve got to listen to how guys talk about themselves, because that’s how they talk to themselves,” French said. With that in mind, French discovered what Hoppe makes clear to most people. “We understand what’s important to him.”
What’s important to Hoppe is keeping things simple: throw strikes, trust the arsenal, and let the pitch shape do the rest. French said Baltimore believes there are some “small, minor things” it can adjust in Hoppe’s mechanics and pitch grips to help him get there.
“We know it’s a really simple arsenal,” French said. “Here comes 100 and here comes a 90-plus slider. That’s what it looks like in the big leagues, and obviously, you’ve got to be able to do that stuff in the zone before you can do it out of the zone.”
Albernaz described the same philosophy another way.
“Usually with relievers, just paint the white, fill it up, give them the biggest margin of error to work with their elite stuff and bank on the swing and miss.”
Hoppe has already shown the full range of what that can look like this season. In his Mariners debut in April, he struck out three batters, walked three, and allowed three runs.
“If I look at the numbers, it went poorly,” Hoppe said with a laugh.
He prefers not to get too caught up in the numbers anyway. Even with a 5.46 ERA, his 8.4% walk rate sits around league average, and his 2.88 fielding independent pitching suggests his results may have been affected by some bad luck on balls in play.
Still, Hoppe keeps circling back to the same point. He’s not trying to turn himself into a corner-painting specialist overnight. He’s trying to get to the majors, stay there, and win the battles that come with throwing hard and trusting the movement.
“The most important thing is you just want to get there,” he said. “At the end of the day, who cares about your ERA?
You made it to the big leagues. That’s every kid’s dream.”
Hoppe wants to succeed, but he knows chasing perfection would only complicate the equation. For now, the 27-year-old is betting on his triple-digit fastball, his slider, and the simple belief that throwing into the zone is enough.
“We’re going to play a numbers game,” Hoppe said. “We’re going to throw it over the plate and it’s going to work out more times than not. It’s really just accepting that.”
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