Throw the Yankees a fastball at your own peril.
The Bronx Bombers have been crushing the hard stuff all season at a level that's almost hard to believe. It's a big reason why they lead the Majors with 60 home runs -- 46 of which have come against fastballs -- despite the loss of Juan Soto in free agency and the season-long absence of Giancarlo Stanton due to injury.
The Yankees have been so dominant against fastballs that they might even be forcing opposing pitchers to rethink their plan of attack against them, but we’ll get to that in a bit. First let’s take a look at how much damage they’re doing when pitchers dare to challenge them, because the numbers are absolutely staggering.
For as long as pitch-tracking has been a thing (since 2008), no team has posted a higher slugging percentage against fastballs in the opening month of a season than the Yankees just did. Moreover, the Yankees’ .603 SLG against fastballs in March/April was the fourth highest any team has recorded in any calendar month (grouping each of March/April and September/October as single months) during the pitch-tracking era.
Highest SLG against fastballs in a calendar month, since 2008
Min. 500 PAs ending on fastballs
1-T. 2019 Yankees: .631 in August
1-T. 2023 Braves: .631 in June
3. 2019 Rockies: .615 in May
4. 2025 Yankees: .603 in March/April
5. 2020 Dodgers: .601 in September/October
They entered Wednesday’s matchup against the Padres (an MLB Network Showcase Game) with a .589 SLG against fastballs on the year, 90 points higher than the next-closest team (the D-backs at .499).
One of the driving forces behind their dominance in that department is their elite plate discipline. New York ranks among MLB’s best in laying off breaking and offspeed pitches, and no team chases heaters out of the zone less often. That combination is forcing pitchers to come over the plate with the fastball, and the Yankees are making them pay -- with a .663 SLG and 44 homers on fastballs in the zone.
It also helps that the Yankees collectively have the fastest bat speed of any team -- allowing them to catch up to velocity and do damage when they connect.
They’re not just feasting on one type of fastball, either. They’re destroying all three types -- four-seamers, sinkers and cutters. In fact, if you look at MLB’s batting run value leaderboard -- which takes the result of every pitch thrown and measures its impact on run scoring -- and filter it into individual pitch types, the Yankees appear three times in the top five.
Those three pitch types? You guessed it. All fastballs.
Highest batting run value on individual pitch type, 2025
1-T. Yankees: +20 against cutters
1-T. D-backs: +20 against four-seamers
3. Giants: +19 against sinkers
4. Yankees: +16 against four-seamers
5-T. Yankees: +15 against sinkers
5-T. Phillies: +15 against four-seamers
Positive number = Runs created for hitters
Of course, it starts with Aaron Judge, who has his sights set on his third American League MVP Award. The slugger leads MLB in average (.412) and OPS (1.275) and is tied for first in both homers (12) and RBIs (34).
While Judge has mashed fastballs better than anyone else throughout his career, he has taken it to another level this year, hitting .519 with nine home runs and a 1.000 SLG against them. But Judge is far from the only threat pitchers have to worry about when facing New York. Up and down the lineup, the Yankees are stacking hitters who punish fastballs.
All told, the Yankees have eight hitters who are slugging over .500 against fastballs. The Tigers (six) and Guardians (five) are the only other teams who have more than four hitters slugging at least .500 against fastballs (minimum 40 PAs).
Judge leads the way at 1.000, but Ben Rice (eighth at .745), Trent Grisham (tied for ninth at .731), Anthony Volpe (17th at .657) and Austin Wells (27th at .614) are also up near the top of the MLB leaderboard.
That brings us to the pressing question: What is the rest of MLB going to do about it?
The Yankees’ recent series against the Orioles and Rays may have hinted at a shift in how some teams plan to counterpunch. Both clubs dialed back their fastball usage against New York -- Baltimore to 48.5% and the Rays to just 40.9%, well below the season average for each team and a drop from the 54.7% rate Yankees hitters saw from Opening Day through April 27.
New York scored 15 runs in a win against Baltimore on April 29 but had just 17 runs across the other five games (3.4 runs per game) in those two series, going 1-4 in those contests.
We could start to see more clubs lean into the approach the Orioles and Rays used, attacking the Yanks with more breaking and offspeed pitches. New York hasn't been nearly as effective against those classifications, with a combined .339 SLG.
Granted, the Padres didn't follow suit in the first game of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium on Monday, a 4-3 San Diego win in which the Friars threw fastballs nearly 60% of the time and limited the Yankees to two hits in 18 at-bats ending on fastballs.
However, it's unclear how much the rest of MLB can glean from that game. First of all, the weather was terrible. The Padres also started Nick Pivetta, who leads all pitchers in fastball run value (+11) this season. They closed with Robert Suarez, who is tied for first among relievers in that category (+6). That's probably not a blueprint opponents are going to be able to replicate on a regular basis.
The Yankees were back to their regular tricks on Wednesday, going 6-for-19 (.316) against fastballs, with three of those hits coming in their 10-run seventh inning.
In any case, pitchers have been put on notice. It will be fascinating to see what comes next in the cat-and-mouse game as they try to contain the Yankees' lineup.