A's reliever Lou Trivino looking to expand pitching repertoire in 2nd season

MESA, Arizona - Despite a standout rookie campaign, Lou Trivino is looking to change things up.

Few rookie pitchers, or even pitchers in general, were better than Trivino last season. The A’s reliever led all rookie pitchers with a 2.92 ERA. But there are still some things he would like to correct.

“I’m working on my arm action to be a little shorter,” Trivino said. “You’re always trying to improve. I was pretty blessed and fortunate to have a good rookie season, but there’s a lot of areas where I could improve and that’s what I’m aiming to do.”

Trivino, 27, is also looking to integrate a changeup into his pitch repertoire this season.

“It’s getting there,” Trivino said with a grin when asked how the pitch was coming along. “That’s what spring training is for.”

It’s a pitch Trivino has always had throughout his career. But when he reached the big leagues last April, he immediately found success with his fastball-cutter combination.

The results spoke for themselves as he racked up 82 strikeouts over 74 innings. But A’s pitching coach Scott Emerson believes getting back that changeup and curveball could make him even more dominant than last year as he served as part of the bridge to closer Blake Treinen.

“When he got to the big leagues the first time, he tried to limit his stuff to just the fastball-cutter and he was having great success, so why make an adjustment?” Emerson said. “But knowing that he has these weapons at his disposal, I think it’s time he uses them when he needs them.”

There were plenty of things to be impressed by in Trivino’s rookie year. Emerson’s favorite part was watching the right-hander mature as the season went along.

A good example came early in the season during the A’s trip to Yankee Stadium.

Trivino entered the game and failed to record an out, walking two batters before getting pulled in an eventual 10-5 victory over the Yankees. Emerson recalled his mound visit that day to calm down a young Trivino, who was admittedly a bit rattled by the bright lights in New York.

Fast-forward to the A’s wild-card game in New York later that October. Asked to put out a fire after Liam Hendriks had surrendered two runs in the first inning, Trivino entered in the second and tossed three scoreless innings to keep the A’s within striking distance.

“I remember the first game in New York I went to the mound and told him, ‘You’re going to be in these moments the rest of your career,’” Emerson said. “When I made the trip in New York during the playoffs, I told him, ‘Remember what I told you three months ago?’ These are the positions he’s going to be in because he’s that good of a pitcher.”

Trivino remains hungry to get better in a spot where some players could get complacent coming off such a successful season. Instead of hitting that dreaded sophomore slump, he’s looking to follow up with an encore performance.

“If you think you’ve made it and you’re good enough, you tend to backslide a little bit,” Trivino said. “I just know there’s a lot of stuff I need to work on and I would like to be the best possible.”

Trivino faced A’s batters for the first time this spring during Tuesday’s workouts.