Phillies' Hector Neris: Working on third pitch

Neris is using the offseason to polish up and implement his slider, Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly reports.

Analysis:

Neris is coming off a breakout year in 2016, where he posted a 2.58 ERA and an 11.4 K/9 in 80.1 innings, the third-most among National League relief pitchers. He did so while relying heavily on two pitches, a fastball he threw 46 percent of the time and a splitter he threw 49 percent of the time. He's working on improving his slider, which he threw 2.9 percent of the time in 2016, so he will be able to diversify his pitch repertoire further and build on his success. The third pitch could help the 27-year-old grab hold of the closer job, a role that has competition in the form of Jeanmar Gomez and Joaquin Benoit.