These are the nastiest pitches in this year's FA class
David Adler
@_dadlerWe have some elite pitchers on the free agent market this offseason -- from MLB stars like Corbin Burnes, Max Fried and Blake Snell to international aces Roki Sasaki and Tomoyuki Sugano.
But we also have some of the nastiest pitches up for grabs. There are elite fastballs, breaking balls and offspeed pitches available this offseason. Here's who has the best pitch of each type.
These are the nastiest pitches in the 2024-25 free agent class.
4-seam fastball -- Tanner Scott
Even with Roki Sasaki's triple-digit fastball coming to the Major Leagues, and Aroldis Chapman's historically fast fastball also on the market, the best heater in free agency this winter is Scott's.
Scott has extreme velocity, too. His four-seamer averaged 97 mph in 2024, making him one of only five left-handers at that mark. He also allowed a hard-hit rate of just 29% against his four-seamer, the lowest of any pitcher with at least 100 plate appearances decided on fastballs.
Scott raised his fastball to an even higher level in the playoffs, averaging 98 mph and maxing out at over 100 mph. He overpowered Shohei Ohtani three different times, striking out Ohtani with heaters at 97 mph, 97.4 mph and 99.1 mph.
Between the regular season and postseason, Scott's four-seamer generated a +19 run value, per Statcast, making it the second-most valuable fastball among relievers, behind only the Guardians' Cade Smith.
Sinker -- Sean Manaea
You don't need elite velocity to have a great fastball, and Manaea's sinker, which averages "only" 92 mph but gets 16 inches of arm-side run, shows it. The sinker allowed Manaea to become the Mets' most dependable workhorse last season. The left-hander relied heavily on his sinker-sweeper combo throughout the Mets' postseason run, especially after dropping his arm slot down the stretch to mimic Braves sidearmer Chris Sale.
Manaea ended up with the fourth-most valuable sinker in baseball across the 2024 regular season and postseason) generating a +16 run value that ranked only behind Paul Skenes (with his "splinker"), Zack Wheeler and Logan Webb. His 82 strikeouts on sinkers were by far the most of any pitcher, with Josh Hader second with 68. Eleven of those sinker K's came in the playoffs alone, with Manaea striking out stars like Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Kyle Schwarber, William Contreras and Willy Adames.
Cutter -- Corbin Burnes
The most dominant cutter thrown by any starting pitcher in the game today belongs to Burnes, who just so happens to be a marquee free-agent starter.
It's his signature pitch. No one threw more cutters in 2024 than Burnes (1,348). No one recorded more outs on cutters (275). No one had more swings and misses on cutters (133).
Over his five seasons as a starter, going back to 2020, Burnes has 421 strikeouts on cutters. That's more than double anyone else. (Kenley Jansen is second with 193.) Burnes' cutter is also one of the hardest thrown by any starter, averaging 95.6 mph.
Slider -- Yusei Kikuchi
Shane Bieber's slider could be the best one here if he bounces back from Tommy John surgery, but that's a big question mark. So we'll go with Kikuchi's upper-80s lefty slider, which was the key pitch behind his dominant run for the Astros after Houston got him at the Trade Deadline.
With the Astros, Kikuchi racked up 31 strikeouts on sliders over the final two months of the season, fourth-most among all MLB pitchers in August and September, trailing only Chris Sale (41), Dylan Cease (36) and Carlos Rodón (34). Kikuchi's 63 slider K's for the season were third-most among left-handers behind Sale and Rodón.
Kikuchi increased his slider usage dramatically with Houston, throwing 37% sliders with the Astros after throwing just 17% sliders with Toronto. By September, the slider was Kikuchi's most-used pitch type. All those sliders are what helped him reach the 200-strikeout mark for the first time in his career.
Sweeper -- Blake Treinen
Treinen's sweeper -- the variety of slider defined by its large amount of "sweeping" horizontal break -- was one of the most valuable sweepers in baseball during the regular season. But it took center stage on the Dodgers' World Series run.
Treinen racked up 15 strikeouts and 26 swings and misses on sweepers in the 2024 playoffs -- both the most K's and the most whiffs by any pitcher on any pitch type this postseason. Treinen was throwing his sweeper, on average, at 85 mph with 17 inches of horizontal break -- that combination of velocity and movement on a breaking pitch makes it almost untouchable.
Treinen induced a 51% whiff rate and 54% strikeout rate with his sweeper in the postseason, striking out star hitters on every team the Dodgers faced -- from the Padres' Manny Machado to the Mets' Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso to the Yankees' Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. He capped off his playoff performance with one final sweeper to strike out Anthony Rizzo and protect a one-run lead for the Dodgers in the eighth inning of the clinching Game 5 of the World Series.
Curveball -- Blake Snell
Max Fried might have the prettiest curveball in the free-agent class, but Snell's has been even better. From the start of his 2023 Cy Young Award season through 2024, it's probably been the best curveball in the Major Leagues.
Snell has the most valuable curveball in MLB over that timeframe, with a +31 run value. His 179 curveball K's since 2023 are second only to Charlie Morton (226). He's allowed a batting average of just .093 on curveballs over the last two years, and a .159 slugging percentage -- both the best among pitchers with at least 100 plate appearances decided on curveballs.
Snell's curveball is one of the best chase pitches out there -- 141 of his curveball K's since 2023 have been out of the strike zone (and 138 have been below the zone specifically). The only pitches to produce more chase strikeouts than Snell's curve over the last two seasons are Sonny Gray's sweeper, Kevin Gausman's splitter, Morton's curve and Dylan Cease's slider.
Knuckle-curve -- Jack Flaherty
A knuckle-curve is just a curveball with a slightly different grip, but Flaherty's is nasty enough that we wanted to give it its own spot on the list.
Flaherty's knuckle-curve held hitters to a .164 batting average during the regular season, as he collected 52 strikeouts on knuckle-curves while allowing only five extra-base hits, and just one home run. He generated a 44% swing-and-miss rate.
When it came time to get the biggest outs in the postseason, the knuckle-curve was the pitch Flaherty turned to. Flaherty increased his knuckle-curve usage from 22% in the regular season to 33% in the playoffs, and he threw it 41% of the time with two strikes, making it his most-used putaway pitch in the postseason. Flaherty got six K's on knuckle-curves in the playoffs, including four in his strong start in Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees.
Changeup -- Tommy Kahnle
When you can throw 61 changeups in a row in the middle of the postseason, like Kahnle just did for the Yankees, you have to have a nasty changeup. Kahnle does. He threw 73% changeups in the 2024 regular season. He threw 90% changeups in the postseason. And hitters were still helpless against it.
Kahnle allowed just a .157 batting average and .264 slugging percentage vs. his changeup in the regular season, and a .185 batting average and .259 slugging percentage in the playoffs. He totaled 42 strikeouts on changeups; the only reliever with more across the regular season and postseason was his teammate, Yankees closer Luke Weaver.
Kahnle's changeup comes in hard, averaging over 87 mph (vs. his 94 mph fastball), but it has a ton of vertical movement at that velocity. Kahnle's changeup drops 35 inches on its way to the plate, which is about four inches more drop than an average changeup. It also breaks 12 inches horizontally. That's how Kahnle can have the most valuable changeup of any reliever (+12 run value this year) even when hitters know it's coming.
Splitter -- Roki Sasaki
Last but not least. Sasaki hasn't pitched a game in the big leagues, but when he joins MLB in 2025, his splitter might instantly be the best in the Majors.
Sasaki's splitter is the 23-year-old phenom's best pitch. It's been unhittable in Nippon Professional Baseball, and it could be just as unhittable in MLB.
With the Chiba Lotte Marines this season, Sasaki's splitter averaged 88 mph and generated a 57% whiff rate, looking at the available data via the NPB Pitch Profiler app.
We also saw the Sasaki splitter on display vs. Major League hitters in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Sasaki's splitter averaged 91 mph in his WBC games for Japan with Statcast tracking (his fastball averaged just over 100 mph). And he racked up eight strikeouts on splitters -- including K's of big leaguers Joey Meneses at 91.6 mph, Alex Verdugo at 91.2 mph and Eric Sogard at 90.9 mph.
Think of all the great splitters that Japanese aces have brought to the Majors in recent seasons -- Shohei Ohtani's, Yoshinobu Yamamoto's, Kodai Senga's and more. Sasaki's might be the best of them all.