15 nasty new pitches we've seen this spring
David Adler
@_dadlerSpring Training is the season of new pitches. Tons of pitchers all around big league camps are experimenting with their repertoires and adding to their arsenals.
Some new pitches stick, some don't. But let's try to find the ones that are worth paying attention to as the 2025 regular season approaches.
Here are 15 of the most interesting new pitches this spring.
1) Paul Skenes, Pirates -- Cutter
Skenes came out firing a new cutter in his first outing of Spring Training, and when the most dominant young pitcher in the game breaks out a brand new pitch, you pay attention. Especially when it looks like this:
Skenes hasn't pitched in front of Statcast tracking yet this spring, but thanks to pitching analyst Lance Brozdowski, we know that it's sitting at 91 mph with tight movement, and could add another weapon to Skenes' nasty arsenal.
2) Jackson Jobe, Tigers -- Curveball
Baseball's No. 5 prospect (and top pitching prospect not named "Roki Sasaki") showed a four-pitch arsenal when he earned his first big league callup for the Tigers' playoff push last September. Now Jobe has a fifth pitch, and it looks like it's going to be a really good one.
Jobe's new curveball is an absolute hammer. It's averaging 83 mph with an elite 3,030 rpm spin rate this spring, with 14 inches of induced downward break and 12 inches of horizontal break. In 2024, only nine big league pitchers averaged 3,000-plus rpm on their curveball, and Jobe's spin is generating a ton of movement, especially for a curveball at that velocity.
3) Max Scherzer, Blue Jays -- Sinker
Scherzer is one of the most dominant four-seam fastball users of his generation. He and Justin Verlander have been the poster children for the rising fastball over the last decade. But in a season where a lot of pitchers are starting to add sinkers -- a pitch that had fallen out of fashion with the rising fastball's ¡ well ¡ rise -- even Scherzer is toying with one.
Scherzer's sinker is averaging about 90 mph, with 10 inches more drop than his four-seamer and way more arm-side run -- over 18 inches, which would have been in the top five for sinker movement in the Majors last season.
4) Robbie Ray, Giants -- Changeup
We don't have any Statcast data yet on Ray's new changeup, but what we know is this: Ray asked Tarik Skubal for his changeup grip this offseason, and that's the changeup he's throwing. Now, that's a former Cy Young Award winner picking up the reigning Cy Young Award winner's best pitch. So Ray's new changeup will be a big pitch we're keeping an eye on.
5) Clay Holmes, Mets -- Changeup
The "kick-change" (a new variety of changeup) is another trendy pitch this spring, and Holmes has added one to help widen his pitch mix as he transitions from a reliever to a starter with the Mets. And it's looked nasty so far this spring, averaging 88 mph with a lot of vertical break. Holmes has always gotten a lot of movement with his turbo sinker and sweeper, so it's not surprising his changeup moves like crazy, too.
6) Bryce Miller, Mariners -- Cutter
Miller throws seven pitches, and while the cutter is already technically one of them, he's throwing a new version of it starting this spring. Miller's cutter last season averaged 92 mph and 2,552 rpm, and it barely cut at all, with 0.3 inches of glove-side movement. His cutter this spring is harder (closer to 93 mph), has more spin (2,714 rpm) and has more cut (three inches). Miller still needs to figure out how to command the cutter, but as the emerging Mariners righty put it himself: interesting development.
7) Dylan Cease, Padres -- Changeup
Before this season, Cease's changeup was a Bugs Bunny changeup -- a sub-70 mph floater that was the slowest pitch in baseball. It functioned as a surprise pitch the Padres ace could drop in for Strike 3 when the hitter wasn't expecting it. But now he's throwing a more traditional changeup, at 83 mph.
That's over 13 mph harder than his old changeup, but still a 14 mph differential from his fastball -- and the new changeup has gotten whiffs on five of the six swings against it this spring. Cease even threw back-to-back changeups to strike out Corey Seager, one of the best hitters in baseball.
8) Yusei Kikuchi, Angels -- Sweeper
Kikuchi's fastball-slider combo fueled his dominant run with the Astros down the stretch last season, but now he's adding a sweeper into the mix, giving him a pitch that gets more break, which he's never really had. Compare Kikuchi's slider to his sweeper this spring: the slider is averaging 87 mph with only two inches of break, while the sweeper is averaging 81 mph with 16 inches of break.
The sweeper looks like an excellent weapon for Kikuchi to use in lefty-lefty matchups -- he used it to get a whiff against Shohei Ohtani, for one -- but he can also throw it backdoor to a righty, like he did to punch out Will Smith in the same game.
9) Andr¨¦s Mu?oz, Mariners -- Changeup
When Mu?oz threw his first kick-change ever this spring, Mariners pitching coach Pete Woodworth called it the best pitch he'd ever seen. Now the Seattle closer has unveiled it in games (including a swing and miss from Bobby Witt Jr.), so we have some idea what it will look like: a 92 mph, 1,106 rpm fall-off-the-table weapon to pair with his 100 mph four-seamer.
10) Jared Jones, Pirates -- Sinker
Not to be outdone by his teammate Skenes, Jones is also working on some new stuff this season, including a running sinker that gives him a different fastball look alongside his explosive rising four-seamer. Jones' sinker is sitting at 95 mph this spring, with 13 inches of run, and it can induce some ugly swings when he runs it in under the hitter's hands.
11) Kodai Senga, Mets -- Sinker
Senga is toying with a 90-or-so mph sinker that would slot in between his normal four-seam fastball (95 mph) and the Ghost Fork (83 mph). The movement looks pretty good, too -- he's thrown only a few sinkers in front of Statcast tracking so far, but those are getting 18 inches of run. A sinker would add a seventh pitch to the Mets ace's repertoire.
12) Jack Leiter, Rangers -- Changeup
Can a revamped arsenal help Leiter reach his ceiling? The 24-year-old is looking for his big breakout this season, and right now he's throwing two new pitches: a sinker and kick-change. We'll focus on the changeup, the more interesting pitch. Leiter's new change is averaging 92 mph and 1,663 rpm with good vertical movement that should make it a nice 1-2 punch with his 98 mph rising fastball. A 92 mph changeup would have been one of the top five hardest in the Majors last season ¡ and Leiter's always been a fireballer.
13) Jesús Luzardo, Phillies -- Sweeper
The Phillies went out this offseason and traded for Luzardo, who's coming off an injury-plagued 2024 but is just one year removed from a 208-strikeout season in 2023. Right away, the power-pitching lefty has started throwing a new sweeper in Philadelphia. Luzardo has always had a great slider (108 of his K's in 2023 were on sliders), but his slider has very tight movement (just 0.1 inches of horizontal break that season). The new sweeper, on the other hand, is getting over seven inches of break.
14) Max Meyer, Marlins -- Sweeper
The former No. 3 overall Draft pick has had a rocky time in the Majors, but Meyer's stuff has been playing up this spring -- his velocity is up a couple of ticks across the board -- and he's got a new pitch in his mix. Meyer's sweeper is sitting at just under 87 mph, compared to his normal slider at 91 mph, and is getting 12 inches of sweep, compared to just one inch of break on the slider. Meyer's sweeper would be one of the highest-velocity sweepers in the Majors, and for a sweeper, that tends to be a good thing when it comes to generating swings and misses. The sweeper fits right in with Meyer's goal for 2025: throw the nastiest stuff possible.
15) Joe Boyle, Rays -- Sinker
Since the Rays traded for Boyle in December, the big right-hander has added a new sinker. Boyle's sinker is interesting because it's in the same vein as the "splinker" that fireballers like Skenes and Jhoan Duran throw. Boyle throws his four-seamer over 100 mph, but his sinker comes in at 94, with over twice as much drop and arm-side run -- it's basically an "offspeed" pitch, but a high-velocity offspeed pitch.