It Takes a Village: How Tigers Prospect Kenny Serwa Is Climbing the Minor League Ladder

It still feels a bit surreal to Kenny Serwa.

After signing a professional contract with the Detroit Tigers in January, the 27-year-old now finds himself knee-deep in the Eastern League.

“I’m having probably the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” Serwa said, grinning. “Living the dream, loving the process.”

Featuring a pair of knuckleball variations, including one known to run up as high as 88 mph, Serwa began the regular season with an assignment to High-A West Michigan in the Midwest League. The assignment was designed to provide him with exposure to professional hitting, as well as experience with a variety of inning assignments and transitioning between starting and relief roles.

As a part of Serwa’s development with West Michigan, Serwa also had a dedicated catcher in Bennett Lee, with whom he had done extensive work during spring training. Serwa was the first knuckleball pitcher Lee had ever caught.

“It was the first knuckleball I had ever caught in my life,” Lee said. “It was interesting, challenging, and fun at the same time. There are some adjustments you have to make. I couldn’t make the full framing motion that I usually make. I had to quiet that down, focus on the ball, and react that way. It turns from more of a framing catcher to a hockey goalie.”

While the 88-mph offering might be a lot more fun to dream on, it’s not the more utilized of the two, with Serwa opting for more routine use of the low-80s option, which he has affectionately named Yoshi, in reference to the character from the Mario video games.

Serwa has found the lower-velocity choice to be the more effective, while he continues to refine the higher-velocity option for more routine use going forward.

After posting a 2.75 ERA over 36 frames for the West Michigan Whitecaps, Serwa was rewarded with a promotion to the Eastern League. He had already established a relationship with Eastern League manager Andrew Graham during spring training, and Graham was quick to assign a dedicated catcher for Serwa, this time the veteran backstop Eduardo Valencia.

Valencia, 25, had never caught for a knuckleball pitcher before Serwa, but as was the case with Lee, Valencia got a taste of Serwa’s work during spring training.

“When we were in spring training, we were working together and we were doing a really good job talking together,” Valencia said. “He’s a really good guy and a really good person. He told me every day about how he wanted to work and how he liked to work. So, when he came here to Erie, we kept talking. His knuckleball is amazing. It’s a special pitch.”

Graham also reached out to longtime friend Josh Thole, known for his work as the personal catcher for knuckleballer R.A. Dickey. Joined on the call by Tigers’ roving catching instructor, Brayan Peña, Valencia had plenty of guidance on how to work with Serwa.

“That call helped me a lot, because the most important thing with the pitch is to be easy on your body,” Valencia said. “You breathe and just come catch the ball. Catchers now are framing, framing, framing, but with (Serwa), we can’t frame because if you frame, you pass the ball.”

Valencia also reached out to Bennett Lee once he heard Serwa was on his way, and Lee had more knowledge to pass along for the 25-year-old.

“Benny’s a really good guy, too,” Valencia said. “He told me, ‘Work easier and sweep your glove. You need to be relaxed with your hands and sweep your hand more easily, because if your motion is hard, you won’t catch the ball. But if you move the target down and you just relax to catch the ball, you’ll get it.'”

In return, Valencia’s focus for guiding Serwa was on pitch sequencing, and with the new level of patience Serwa was receiving from Eastern League hitters, the sequencing was just what he needed.

“(Valencia’s) been teaching me just a little bit about sequencing different pitches and how to use my other stuff here against these hitters,” Serwa said. “I’ve taught him some of the things that I’ve picked up over the years with the knuckleball, like staying down, and it tends to move down more than not, and just keeping the target down.

“The hitters here are very selective,” Serwa said. “They know the zone a little bit better than the guys in the Midwest League. I would say getting to work with (Eduardo) Valencia was another awesome component of being moved up. I got to work with him a little bit in spring training, and then just getting back on the horse with him and getting to work with him has been great.”

Since arriving in the Eastern League, the righthander has moved to starting exclusively. On July 4, Serwa delivered his strongest Double-A performance to date, working six scoreless innings for the SeaWolves and holding Akron to just two hits on the night. While Serwa is working intentionally on sequencing, he couldn’t deny that his knuckleball was in solid form.

“Yoshi was definitely doing his thing that day,” Serwa said. “That was the main thing. That and just using the fastball to keep them off balance. I had a couple of hesitations that I think worked really, really well for me. Even when they’re seeing the Yoshi over and over again, I just mix it up with timing as well. I think everybody in the field made a play for me, so I had a great defense, and (Eduardo) Valencia was great behind the plate. All in all, just a great team win.”

With Valencia’s promotion to Triple-A Toledo over the weekend, this means the catching duties will once again change over, this time to 25-year-old righthander Eliezer Alfonzo.

Over just six outings, Valencia could already see the effectiveness in how Serwa was beginning to apply his new sequencing routine.

“The last time he threw like 70-80% knuckleball, something like that,” Valencia said. “But we’ve been mixing it up. We mixed breaking balls with fastballs, with sinkers, with cutters, and that’s a really good job because he did have a lot of stuff to throw. He has a cutter, a fastball, a sinker, a curveball, and the knuckleballs. That’s amazing. Especially to throw (the knuckleball) that hard, too.”

From what Valencia can see, it’s just one more step in the unorthodox, yet entertaining journey for Serwa. A journey both Valencia and Lee have been truly grateful to be part of.