Blink and you’ll miss it! The top five pitchers in the MLB 2025
The 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) season opens on 27th March and pundits are excited to see several pitchers in action. You may have known them before but they have something new in store for 2025. Catch them when you can at the pitch and watch them blow the crowd away with new tricks up their sleeves.
Amazing pitchers come and go in the MLB. As one of the most prestigious professional sporting leagues in the world, it is highly competitive and dynamics change all the time. The ones known as the best pitchers now may not include some of your favourites from the previous season. Get to know some of the highly anticipated pitchers in 2025:
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Ben Joyce sets the fastest strikeout pitch at 105.5 mph
Ben Joyce of the Los Angeles Angels just made the 3rd fastest pitches known in the MLB. There have rarely been any pitchers to reach 105 miles per hour (mph) besides Aroldis Chapman and Jordan Hicks so Joyce is a refreshing addition to that list.
Not only did he manage to keep up with them, but his pitch reached the top 3 as of writing just under two of Chapman’s. The 23-year-old pitcher hit those numbers in September 2024 in the Angels’ game against the Dodgers. On top of being a high-velocity pitch, it is also the fastest strikeout since pitch tracking started in 2008.
Ben Joyce was especially amped that day against batter Tommy Edman but he’s a consistent fast-ball pitcher. He’s regularly throwing triple-digit fastballs since college and continues to do so in his professional performances. It’s yet to see how this will affect the Angels’ Pythagorean winning rate but the odds are high of a favourable trend.
Jesús Luzardo debuts a new sweeper this Spring
While not recognised for having the fastest pitch ever, Jesús Luzardo is renowned for his unpredictability. He will switch between a four-seam fastball, a changeup, a slider, and a sinker. Some are more common than others but he’s ultimately reliable at striking out batters. For 2025, he has reportedly added a nasty sweeper to his arsenal.
Luzardo has left the Miami Marines and is playing for the Philadelphia Phillies for the MLB 2025. He’s had his sweeper moments before but his old team were unable to utilise them, often resorting to just his sliders properly. This time, the Phillies could call for his sweepers occasionally, making it much harder for their rivals to adjust to their rotation.
Roki Sasaki splitter confuses MLB pitch-tracking system
The pitcher’s arm movement gives the batter a dead giveaway to where the ball will go, giving them ample time to swing. A knuckleball is a great pitch style to throw off players because it gives the pitcher better control to subvert the batter’s expectations. However, it’s rarely fast enough with R.A. Dickey being the only one capable of doing it at 80 mph.
Roki Sasaki changed that with his new splitter. It’s not a knuckleball but it works in the same principle. The pitch has less spin than most non-knuckleballs, allowing it to break in multiple directions between pitches. Sasaki’s splitter has the reputation of being one of the best in the world as of spring training before MLB 2025 begins.
During training in Arizona, Sasaki threw 4 scoreless innings and 41 pitches. He managed to get 2 strikeouts and just one hit from the Cleveland Guardians. No one in the teams or the MLB cameras knows what to do with Sasaki’s pitch yet. He is consistent enough to throw 18 splitters in his first start which got 8 swings, and 7 whiffs.
Blake Snell’s arsenal named ‘best curve ball’ in the MLB
Joining Sasaki in the Dodgers’ rotation this season is Blake Snell with 3 qualifying pitches namely the changeup, curve, and four-seam fastball. He is mostly known for his changeup and four-seam fastball having marked ‘A’ grades by MLB scouts and organisations. However, those became his weakest in the 2024 season while his curve received an ‘A++’.
Snell’s curveball was way above average having 66 adjusted contact scores and almost 3 standard deviations higher than all 38 qualifiers with 22.5% of bats missing. No qualifier has ever reached Snell’s performance in the MLB. Framber Valdez of the Houston Astros came the closest with an ‘A+’ grade and 17.8% bats missing.
Max Scherzer adds a new sinker to his arsenal
Max Scherzer, 3-time Cy Young winner, just signed up for a 1-year contract with the Blue Jays. The team hoped that he could give them an aggressive edge this season even for just a short time. Their investment is well placed because Scherzer not only met expectations in the offseason but also introduced a new pitch for 2025.
Scherzer already has an arsenal worthy of the Hall-of-Fame but this time, he showed a sinker averaging about 90 mph with 28 inches drop. His normal drops were 18 inches, making this new sinker 10 inches more than his usual but already impressive pitches. Anticipate these sinkers in your mathematical strategy betting for a total over/under points.
The Blue Jays got to see it at least 5 times in the offseason when Scherzer used it on 2nd March during their games against the Phillies. Scherzer threw that sinker exclusively to left-handed batters averaging 89.7 mph with a top speed of 90.3 mph. It’s a nasty sinker but there’s no clear indication how often he plans to use it in the MLB.
What makes a good pitcher in professional baseball?
Professional league scouts have both official and unofficial criteria for scoring pitchers. It’s how they present players to teams looking for a certain talent to fill what their team needs. However, there are elements that can easily separate good pitchers from elites. Here are some examples and why they are important in professional baseball:
The speed of the pitch
Speed is an undeniable decisive factor in baseball. The batter only has around a second to react and swing their bat between the ball being thrown and arriving at the catcher’s glove. If it goes any faster than 80 mph, then that reaction window is significantly reduced.
The average pitcher speed is around 94.2 mph. Many high-profile players can reach triple digits on a fastball. However, it’s rare for anyone else to reach 105 or faster than Jordan Hicks, Aroldis Chapman, and Ben Joyce. In the MLB, 90mph is already considered great.
Versatility of one’s arsenal
Technique can mean a lot of things but it often refers to how the pitcher modifies their throw. Being fast isn’t all there is in a pitch because an amazing baseball player can modify the way a ball works. That’s why experts identify pitches by categories like curve, splitter, sinker, sweeper, and more.
A professional pitcher cannot specialise in just one kind of pitch. They need to know all of them. However, some players will excel at one or two but an elite will be great at at least 3. They become especially more impressive if they have at least two B or A-grade pitches.
Reliability of the pitch
Accuracy of a pitch is standard in professional baseball and the speed is a big metric for separating elite players from good ones. However, it’s not enough for the pitcher to reach triple digits in miles per hour or succeed once in a curve ball. They can only be acknowledged for these feats if they can do them regularly and at will.
A team needs a pitcher’s arsenal to be ready whenever possible. It’s a team game and the catcher and coach should communicate with the pitcher about what their next throw is going to be. A mistake could be detrimental to the team’s chance to win and that’s why they invest in talented pitchers who can reliably do impressive pitches.
How important is a good pitcher in the MLB?
Batters usually get the glory from the audience for their home runs reaching the bleachers or beyond. However, the pitcher is what’s often considered the crucial element in professional baseball, especially in a highly competitive league like the MLB.
There is a cliché idea among baseball fans that the pitcher affects 75% of a match. Some argue that it’s 90% because a great pitcher can end an inning quickly. If successful, it robs the opponents a chance to score, shutting down their offence. They set the tempo of the game and the other players follow it.
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