ATLANTA -- If all goes well during the offseason, Spencer Strider will come to Spring Training ready to show he has regained the overpowering fastball that made him the Majors’ top strikeout artist just two years ago.
But as the Braves' hurler nears the end of his first season back from right elbow surgery, he is proving his heater is far from his only weapon. After struggling with his fastball in the first few innings of a 6-1 loss to the Cubs on Tuesday night at Truist Park, Strider righted himself with a mix of breaking balls.
“Being able to go to what a situation calls for is important,” Strider said.
Instead of continuing to force a fastball that has been problematic all year, Strider successfully adjusted while limiting the Cubs to two runs over six innings. It didn’t look like he was going to get this pleasing result when Chicago loaded the bases before the first out was made and later produced four baserunners before the second out of the third inning was registered.
But everything changed at the end of the third, when Strider escaped trouble with an array of sliders and curveballs. He ended that inning with consecutive strikeouts of Carson Kelly and Willi Castro with the bases loaded. Just two of the nine pitches thrown to these two batters were fastballs.
“It was good to see him clear through six innings,” manager Brian Snitker said. “He really wanted to go back out for the sixth, too. I'm glad we sent him back out there. It’s part of the process. That was good. It was a step in the right direction.”
Strider threw 28 pitches while keeping the Cubs scoreless and limiting them to one baserunner over the next two innings combined. He threw just eight fastballs during this span.
This was just a continuation of the adaptation that was necessitated when Strider realized his fastball doesn’t currently have the velocity or late life it possessed when he led the Majors with 483 strikeouts from 2022-23.
Strider’s four-seamer averaged 97.6 mph and generated a whiff 28.7 percent of the time. He used this pitch at least 60 percent of the time in 35 of 52 starts over these two seasons. He threw the pitch at least 50 percent of the time in all but two starts within this span.
But this year has been different. Entering Tuesday, the four-seamer had averaged just 95.6 mph and it had generated just a 15.7 percent whiff rate. The inability to consistently blow the heater by batters led to opponents hitting .280 with a .473 slugging percentage against the pitch.
So after the Cubs tallied three hits against the fastball, two of which were center cut, in the third inning, Strider went to the other weapons in his arsenal. He ended up throwing his fastball a career-low 41 percent of the time.
Strider’s four-seamer has now accounted for less than 50 percent of his pitches in a game in just nine of his 73 career starts that have consisted of at least 50 pitches. Six of those nine times have occurred this season.
But Strider ended his outing by enhancing confidence in his four-seamer. He threw seven fastballs during a scoreless, 10-pitch sixth.
If Strider’s fastball gets back to where it was, he’ll once again have one of the game’s most impressive arsenals. The Cubs whiffed with 13 of 22 swings against his slider and curveball.
“I’m still trying to compete and get outs,” Strider said. “But you’ve got to grow and get better. My thought process is if I can learn some things and find ways to grow based on where I'm at in the short term, and then go into the offseason and try to put some things back together and really hone in on some more central skills, then I'll be in an even better spot next year.”