SARASOTA, Fla. — Bryan Baker probably wishes he could claim there had been some deep analytical thinking involved, some bright idea that prompted him to alter his changeup grip in the last stages of a flat-ground throwing session.

Instead, as Baker threw with his catch partner, the baseball nestled into his hand in a slightly different way. He still held the ball with a loose circle changeup grip, forefinger and thumb not quite touching. But the spacing along the seams rotated slightly, and when he flicked his wrist and watched the ball fly, he stopped.

“Oh, that one was good,” Baker’s catch mate at Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, said. Baker agreed.

“I saw the action on it, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to keep trying that,’” Baker said.

He threw it three more times to end his session and liked it, then spent the next day before stepping onto the mound trying to remember how the ball just slipped into his hand that way — such a similar grip, such a different feeling. And, when Baker took the mound for his next bullpen session, the Orioles right-hander became a believer.

Baker spent his offseason trying to make his changeup a more consistent pitch in the strike zone. That’s what has held him back most over the past two seasons — command, not metrics such as velocity, sink and run.

In that late-winter throwing session, about a week before he reported to spring training, Baker uncovered a way to make his changeup more reliable and more difficult for hitters to face.

“I was like, ‘Oh, this is really nice,’” Baker remembers thinking when he unleashed the new-grip changeup off the mound for the first time. And, when he looked at the TrackMan pitch data, it reinforced his feeling.

“I saw everything I needed to see to be able to be like, ‘OK, I need to just stick with this.’ Obviously, especially for me, personally, everything gets amplified when I get more adrenaline and the situation and everything. I knew at the baseline it was going to be good, just from that bullpen the first time throwing it.”

The discovery could help the Orioles in a time of need. With right-hander Andrew Kittredge sidelined for months following arthroscopic knee surgery, Baltimore may well rely on Baker in a way not foreseen when spring training began.

In 2022, during Baker’s best season in the majors, his changeup was a major reason. The radar gun lights up for his fastball, which averaged 96.2 mph that year, but his 84 mph changeup held hitters off balance. Opposing batters recorded a .044 batting average against his changeup in 2022, and he forced them to whiff on 37.7% of their swings against it.

It took a step back in 2023 and 2024, and so did Baker’s results. Baker’s changeup dropped in average velocity, which made it easier for hitters to notice the difference between it and the four-seamer. And he struggled placing it for strikes.

In 2024, when he covered only 23 1/3 innings in Baltimore, batters hit .222 against his changeup. And his trust in the offering came and went — an exasperating inconsistency.

“There could be two months where I could be blindfolded and I could throw it over the plate, and it was great,” Baker said. “And then I don’t throw for five days and just lose the feel for it really quick, and it’s all of a sudden like, ‘How the heck did I throw that?’ It was hard to find a consistent feeling with it, and that was just frustrating, because I know I’m better whenever that’s in the mix.”

When Baker’s changeup is at its best, his fastball and slider benefit. Having another pitch that can land in the zone simply gives batters more to think about. With his grip change this winter, Baker feels he can more easily repeat the mechanics that make his changeup stand out.

When he rotates the seams ever so slightly, Baker’s index, middle and ring fingers are located behind the baseball rather than only the middle and ring fingers. To create the necessary run and depth on his old changeup, he needed to pronate his arm upon release, applying more twist that would in turn create movement.

Now, with his fingers more settled behind the ball, there’s less need to manipulate the ball upon release.

“I can just kind of grip it and throw it like a fastball,” Baker said, “because my wrist has naturally good whip.”

That can also help deceive hitters. By throwing it just like his fastball, the slight possibility a hitter can pick up on his changeup grip during Baker’s delivery is reduced.

Baker has thrown 4 1/3 innings this spring, so a sweeping takeaway from game action is risky. Baker hadn’t allowed a base runner until a wind-aided home run against his fastball Sunday, and then the Minnesota Twins took two more fastballs deep for homers. Still, manager Brandon Hyde has noticed the improved changeup in games and during bullpen sessions.

“The changeup is different,” Hyde said. “It’s harder than it probably was in ’22, and way harder than it was the last couple years. I love the adjustment that he made with it, because, for me, that was a high-90s fastball with this really slow change that really kept guys off balance.”

The Orioles may require Baker to use that new changeup to good effect this season. Kittredge, the lone bullpen addition this winter, is sidelined, and it remains to be seen whether right-hander Félix Bautista is ready for the opening day roster.

It may be fortunate, then, that the ball nestled into Baker’s hand just a little differently late in the offseason.

“It’s kind of crazy how it worked out,” Baker said.