Mahle finally saw his first spring training action Saturday against the Padres, allowing two earned runs over 1.2 innings, allowing a two-run homer by Jason Vosler after a walk. He struck out four in the outing. He previously had thrown two live batting practice sessions, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com reports.
Mahle is stuck developing as a starter without a projected opening in the rotation, following the Reds' signing of Wade Miley. He's working on a slider to get him out of tricky situations after struggling last year. "I didn't have an out pitch," Mahle said. "A lot of times I got hurt, it was [with] two strikes. I would try to throw a breaking ball under the zone. I just didn't have that pitch, and it hurt me over and over again. I started throwing a slider for right now. I'm able to do that with a slider. Until the curve can get big enough to where it starts out on the same plane and goes under the zone, that's going to be my slider." Last year Mahle relied mostly on a four-seamer (57.1% of the time according to Statcast) and a curve (23.2%), and didn't throw a slider last year despite throwing it 20% of the time in 2018.