The Show Notes #20: Duque Hebbert Should Be Taken Seriously
Signed by the Detroit Tigers in 2023, Jamaican-Nicaraguan relief pitcher Duque Hebbert should be seen as a legitimate prospect.
The Detroit Tigers front office has quickly developed into one of MLB’s best since the appointment of Scott Harris as President of Baseball Operations after the conclusion of the 2022 MLB season. In just about two and a half years, Detroit’s ability to identify and develop prospects has been transformed from one of the worst to arguably the best in baseball. The current scouting department has aggressively pursued talent through all available avenues, following an extended period with limited reach.
The signing of Jamaican-Nicaraguan relief pitcher Duque Hebbert by Tigers scout Luis Molina in April 2023 serves as a good example because it is a move that would not have happened just a year prior. Hebbert agreed to a minor league deal with Detroit after striking out Dominican superstars Juan Soto, Julio Rodríguez, and Manny Machado during a 2023 World Baseball Classic game between Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Despite standing only 5’10’’ and being equipped with a sinking fastball that flirts with the low 90s, it wouldn’t surprise me if Hebbert found success for Detroit as an effective long relief pitcher sometime in the near future. He has tools that could allow him to compete against major league-caliber hitters, but he needs to work on reducing or erasing the glaring flaws holding him back from more consistent success.
Looking Under The Hood
Duque Hebbert is 5’10’’ and weighs around 170 pounds. He lacks projection in his frame but has a bit of lower-body muscle mass. He throws right-handed and works from the middle of the rubber with a basic, 3/4ths overhand delivery. His pitching arsenal consists of a sinker, slider, and changeup.
His sinker sits 90-91 miles per hour and will reach 92-93 occasionally. It has an average shape for accumulating whiffs and is somewhat decent at garnering groundballs when it is well located. Hebbert’s lack of feel for controlling his sinker is one of his most significant flaws and might be the reason he never pans out. While he can throw strikes, he frequently leaves offerings in places where opponents can do damage. The pitch works best in the lower third of the strike zone, and he frequently leaves it elevated.
I think Hebber uses two different slider grips, but I am not entirely sure. At the very least, it’s a pitch that he has tremendous feel for. I’ve seen him throw it up to 85 mph with a tight, hard, cutter-ish gloveside break and seen him slow it down to 79 mph with a more sweeping shape. His changeup is a straight, fading offering that sits in the low 80s. It is his best offering, and the pitch that he used to get strikeouts against the heart of the Dominican Republic’s order during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. It plays well off his sinking fastball in the lower third of the strike zone and underneath it. I can comfortably say both pitches are at least 45s, and borderline 50s. It would not surprise me if the two secondaries utilized by Hebbert turned out to be 55-grade pitches.
Hebbert has a real feel for pitching backwards and getting crafty with his pitch usage. He works with a very fast tempo, regularly leaving 10-12 seconds on the pitch clock when winding up. His ability to command and control his secondary pitches is very impressive. It looks like he has an easier time throwing his slider and changeup for a first-pitch strike than his sinker sometimes.
I believe Hebbert should consider manipulating his leg kick timing, similarly to Johnny Cueto, Nestor Cortes, and Oliver Perez. He’s already shown the intangibles to be crafty with his ability to locate, so why not give him another wrinkle that might help him find more viability against opposing hitters? Cleaning up his delivery and getting him to be more consistent with his release point will help him control his sinker in the strike zone. It will lead to more first pitch strikes, which will in turn reduce his walk rate and possibly even make his strikeout rate jump up despite not being a flamethrower with hell-bending secondary pitches.
A Brief History Lesson
If the idea of Hebbert being Jamaican-Nicaraguan has you scratching your head, then you probably did not know about the considerable populations of Black people in the Central American countries of Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, or Costa Rica. Hebbert is from Puerto Cabezas, known locally as Bilwi. It is the capital of the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region (NAAR), which makes up a large sector of the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua. NAAR is the official name for the territory that has belonged to the Miskito maroon enclave since the late 1800s. Maroon is a term used for the communities of escaped African slaves and Indigenous Americans who successfully occupied territories in North, Central, and South America as well as Continental Africa.
Baseball was introduced to Bluefields, Nicaragua, in the 1880s and quickly spread across the country as a replacement for cricket. Bluefields is the largest city in the region and the epicenter of the Jamaican ethnic enclave in Nicaragua. This transition was not coincidental, as American influence in Latin America was growing, while Britain’s influence in Central America was waning after the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was signed between the two countries in 1850.
Nicaragua has a notable history of producing Black baseball players that is not widely known. Jamaican-Nicaraguan Edward “Eduardo” Green is considered by many to be one of the greatest Black players of his era to have never played in the Negro Leagues. He was recruited by Branch Rickey to play for the Dodgers, but quit and returned to Nicaragua after experiencing the Jim Crow laws of America. He expressed extreme disgust with the de jure and de facto racism of the United States.
It was very common for Black baseball players from Latin America to refuse to play in the Negro Leagues despite being offered large amounts of money. They felt living under the pervasiveness of Jim Crow laws that made American racism unique was beneath them. Afro-Puerto Rican shortstop Perucho Cepeda famously lived in poverty while being one of the most famous Black baseball players in the world during the 1920s and 1930s because he refused lucrative offers from Negro Leagues teams.
Many baseball historians consider David Green (son of Edward) to be one of the biggest what-ifs of MLB’s Integration Era. He was signed by a Milwaukee Brewers scout who navigated through intense urban warfare in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua during the Sandinista Revolution. He was compared to Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente as a teenager. He did not reach his ceiling due to issues with depression and alcoholism after the unexpected death of his father. Other Black players from Nicaragua include Kenly Hunter, Devern Hansack, Albert Williams, and Carlos Rodríguez.