What is Kodai Senga’s ghost fork? The pitch with so…

What is Kodai Senga’s ghost fork? The pitch with so much movement, explained

Welcome to FTW Explains: a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Have you heard about New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga and something about his “ghost fork” pitch? and you have no clue what that’s all about? We’re here to help.

(This was published first in 2023.)

Kodai Senga joined MLB after a career in Japan saw him compile a 2.42 ERA, with the 30-year-old signing with the Mets this past offseason.

And all the buzz was about something called the “Ghost Fork,” a pitch that he brought with him that had its spring training debut this week.

What’s it all about? Let’s dive in.

Ghost ... fork?

Look at this thing!

Kodai Senga, 83mph Ghost Fork. 👻🍴 pic.twitter.com/p62NS4J4hI

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 5, 2023

Kodai Senga ghost fork K — with #MLBFieldVision

83.2 mph / 1,158 rpm
41 inches of drop, 11 inches of break pic.twitter.com/AZj9VD3own

— David Adler (@_dadler) March 5, 2023

Um, OK. Looks like a normal pitch to me, why does it have a nickname?

Well, because it looks like this when overlayed with his fastball:

Kodai Senga, 98mph Fastball and 83mph Ghost Fork, Overlay. pic.twitter.com/KTsYqTwqOJ

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 5, 2023

It’s a REALLY nasty pitch that dives out of the zone quickly.

Why does it have that name?

Because it disappears like a ghost when thrown, and also it’s a forkball, which is kind of like a splitter but it’s slower. MLB.com has some more info on it:

Although folks back home tend to call the latter pitch a forkball, Senga clarified that technically speaking, it’s probably a splitter. (He doesn’t use the term “ghost fork” himself.) Senga does not jam it as deep into his fingers as true forkball practitioners do; due to the injury risk, few have attempted that stunt since the days of Dave Stewart and Gaylord Perry. In fact, Senga’s grip is almost identical to the splitter grip of teammate Carlos Carrasco, who calls his variation a split-changeup. But Senga stuffs the ghost deep enough into his right hand that, when combined with an appropriate release point, it tumbles with a flight path unfamiliar to Major League hitters.

So it's got movement that MLB hitters aren't familiar with?

Yep. And it’s going to, er, haunt batters a lot as long as he can throw it with some consistency, which might be a bit of a challenge given the different size of an MLB baseball.