Anyone who watches enough Major League Baseball should be well acquainted with the nastiest pitches in the game today. Think Jacob deGrom’s fastball, Dylan Cease’s slider, Corbin Burnes’ cutter or really any offering that’s as GIF-able as it is effective.
Yet if anyone’s getting a little tired of the usual suspects, here are some happy tidings: All-new filthy pitches are on the way for 2023.
We want to provide an early look at 10 truly nasty pitches thrown by prospects who figure to get extensive looks in the majors this year. The set contains three four-seam fastballs, one cutter, two sliders, two curveballs and two changeups, all of which we’ve broken down using video, scouting reports and statistics.
Starting with a pitch that truly puts the “fast” in fastball, we’ll hit the fastballs first before moving on to the secondary offerings on the list.
Cleveland Guardians: RHP Daniel Espino’s Fastball
- Age: 22
- 2022 MiLB Stats: 4 G, 4 GS, 18.1 IP, 9 H (4 HR), 35 K, 4 BB, 2.45 ERA
- B/R Rank: No. 19
Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com recently did a poll of MLB executives that asked, among other things, which pitching prospect possesses the best fastball. Daniel Espino was the decisive winner, getting more than twice as many votes as the runner-up.
As he sits in the mid-to-high 90s and has gone as high as 103 mph, velocity is naturally a major part of the appeal of Espino’s fastball. But the other thing that should stand out when watching it is the arm-side run that he gets on it. Between that and its velocity, his heater vaguely resembles that of Hunter Greene.
Because he started last year at Double-A, Espino might have made it to the majors if knee and shoulder injuries hadn’t conspired to bring his season to a halt on April 29. But provided he can stay healthy, it shouldn’t be long before his fastball and a slider that also has a case as the best among prospects are overpowering hitters in The Show.
Miami Marlins: RHP Eury Pérez’s Fastball
- Age: 19
- 2022 MiLB Stats: 18 G, 18 GS, 77.0 IP, 63 H (9 HR), 110 K, 25 BB, 3.97 ERA
- B/R Rank: No. 10
Eury Pérez may only be 19 years old, but his youth didn’t stop him from holding his own in 17 starts at the Double-A level in 2022, where the average player was more than five years older than him.
That goes to show what you can do when you’re a 6’8″, 220-pound hurler with a fastball that really gets on hitters.
Pérez’s fastball has good velocity, sitting in the mid-to-high 90s on average. But because his height allows him to release the ball that much closer to home plate, it plays even faster than that. It also has rising action that’s evident even to the naked eye, which isn’t always the case with other rising fastballs.
Pérez’s potential for both extreme extension and extreme velocity call to mind Tyler Glasnow, but even he generally doesn’t light up the movement readings with his fastball. That seems a good omen for Miami’s teenaged prodigy, who’ll also show a slider and changeup that likewise get plus grades when his time in the majors comes.