Photo by @KristinBasnett

After his near no-hitter last week, Anthony Kay walked off the mound assured he just made his best start of the season. Kay pitched seven no-hit innings against the Bowie Baysox while striking out seven. He was perfect until a sixth inning walk. However, partially because he induced a double play ball to end that inning, he faced the minimum. When he hit the dugout, he was second in the Eastern League with a 1.07 ERA and had a league leading 0.770 WHIP.

Even with seven hitless innings, the WHIP is a surprising development for Kay, as he has been prone to fits of wildness. Entering this season, Kay had a 3.6 BB/9 with a 4.6 BB/9 in St. Lucie. He opened this season by walking 14 batters over 29.2 innings (4.2 BB/9) in six starts.

Now, there were reasons for the lack of control. It is worth noting Kay did undergo Tommy John surgery immediately after having been drafted, and he got a late start to his professional career. There is the old adage that control is the last thing to come back. While that has been disproven to an extent, Baseball Prospectus’s deep dive in the subject did conclude, “UCL repairees saw a worse called strike average after returning from injury than they did before, with their command only returning after the second year back.”

While pinpoint control was never his hallmark, it should be noted in college Kay did once have very good control. As UConn head coach said of Kay when he was a Junior, “His control gets better as he gets deeper into games.” (The Daily Campus). Looking at what he was collegiate career, we should have expected Kay’s control to return.

In addition to just getting the repetitions and comfort throwing the ball post Tommy John, Kay has also been learning how to harness better stuff. For example, when he was drafted Baseball America characterized Kay’s curveball as “slurvy.” Now, his curveball has spin rates rivaling Seth Lugo. It should also be noted Kay has seen increased spin on his fastball.

This is a steep hill to climb. He has had to get comfortable back on the mound. He’s had to learn how to harness better stuff. He’s had to adjust to a much higher level of competition. Essentially, he’s learning not just how to pitch after Tommy John surgery, but he’s also learning how to become a completely different type of pitcher.

Binghamton manager Kevin Boles told Tim Britton of The Athletic Kay now has the ability to control all three of his pitches. As Boles pointed out, the question going forward is just how good it is saying, “But is it major-league quality command? We’ll see. We’ll see where this goes. He’s on the right course.

As we saw with his start yesterday, it’s still a work in progress. However, even in the three walk game, 62.9 percent of his pitches were thrown for strikes. Even with the walks, he has not allowed more than two runs in nine of his 10 starts.

That’s not the pitcher the Mets drafted 31st overall in the 2016 draft. This is a much better pitcher albeit with the same bulldog mentality on the mound. It took him some time, but he’s harnessing his improved repertoire much better. As a result, there’s no reason to keep him in Double-A anymore.