That is an old scout take from 30 years ago that has been disproven. They have always been common in Asia and have regained popularity domestically and are thrown by many prominent players (including Wheeler). They are another option depending on how an arm works and spin capacity and things, so Painter moved from a split back to a circle change because the shape wasn’t right and was interfering with other pitch grips. For the way Wood throws, a split tends to make more sense.
Wood has also been throwing the split at least back to the Futures Game, though after his promotion from Clearwater. He is throwing it more, but Law is wrong about it being new. It also is labeled and talked about as a changeup on broadcasts.
