It’s been an interesting journey for Twins right-hander Devin Kirby, who wanted to join a professional organization as a regular pitcher but eventually realized becoming a knuckleballer was the only realistic path.
The 25-year-old found impressive success in the 2024 regular season, finishing with a 3-1 record and a 3.55 ERA with a strikeout rate of 12.1 per nine innings.
He was invited to the Arizona Fall League, but struggled with his command, walking 13 batters in 11.1 innings while allowing 12 earned runs.
The Sports Daily caught up with Kirby to discuss his transition to the knuckleball and his aspirations of becoming the next R.A. Dickey for the Twins.
Q: You’ve been throwing a knuckleball for a year-and-a-half or so?
Devin Kirby: “Umm, about a year and three months.”
Q: I’m sure it’s a huge learning curve, trying to master it. How’s the transition?
DK: “At first it was hard, because I wanted to be a standard pitcher so bad. My mentality toward the knuckleball, it was hard to wrap my head around that this was going to be the pitch that I use all the time, or almost all the time. That part was really hard, but I finally broke that halfway through rookie ball season this year.
“And for pitch mastery, I just have to keep throwing it. It’s a big feel pitch. If I lose feel for it on a day, it’s not going to do what I want it to do. It’s like an animal. It has a mind of its own. I don’t know what it’s going to do when it’s 10 feet from the plate. I’m just trying to get it over the plate. It’s been a journey so far.”
Q: For a lot of guys at the Fall League, the competition is better, and they have to be more fine with where they are throwing. Is it such a unique pitch that, no matter who is in the box, you are trying to do a very similar thing? Or do scouting reports come into play as a knuckleballer?
DK: “My scouting report really would consist of if I can sneak a fastball by someone. For me, it doesn’t really matter if it’s a guy that was in Triple-A or a guy that was in Rookie Ball. It’s a knuckleball. It’s hard to hit, no matter what, and hard to throw no matter what. If I have trouble throwing it over the zone, I can only imagine how hard it is to hit. I don’t really change my approach. I just want to get them out.”
Q: You mentioned you wanted to be a regular pitcher, but if you didn’t have the knuckleball, you probably wouldn’t have been signed by the Twins. What has the knuckleball done for you, in terms of your career prospects?
DK: “It opened my eyes to, you don’t have to throw 100. It would be cool to, don’t get me wrong, but people talk about my knuckleball. Throwing 100 is pretty usual nowadays. Everybody is watching me throw this knuckleball. I always have a crowd. It’s cool, because it’s only been a year and three months, and it’s probably developed more than my org probably thought. I’m just so determined to be the next knuckleballer in the major leagues. I would love to be as good as (R.A.) Dickey, or maybe better. That’s my ideal, so I push myself to throw it almost every day. It’s always feeling for it, and nailing my mechanics.”
Q: How much progress have you made since when you started?
DK: “I’ve made a pretty good amount. I was not throwing it in zone in rookie ball. Maybe 20% in the zone. And then I went to the slide step and it went to 35-40%, with some games at 50%. I got to Low-A and they realized if I had a leg kick, I had more time to be balanced and together, and I could get it there without it moving too far out of the zone right away. On good days, where it does what I want it to do, it’s around 45-50-55% in zone. That’s my goal, to get it in the zone 50% of the time. If they see it near the zone 45-50% of the time, they’re swinging. It’s been a steady progression, and it’s promising.
Q: As the level of competition goes up, do you think this is something you can sustain?
DK: “Yeah, definitely. My K-rate was a little absurd at the lower levels. It’s now about weak contact. Strikeouts are really cool, don’t get me wrong, but this game is played by outs. If I can go four innings, get all of those outs, even if it’s just one strikeout, if I can limit the walks I’ll be fine.”
Q: Looking big-picture, you went undrafted. Did the knuckleball revitalize you, and hopefully can keep you on a path toward the majors?
DK: “It’s definitely revived my mission of getting to the big leagues. It is working. I just have to continue trusting myself and trusting it. Hopefully one day I will get there.”
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