This past season though, he quickly declined. One potential explanation was his sharp decrease in velocity. According to Pitch Profiler, his average fastball velocity was 93.9 miles per hour. This year, it dropped to 92.4. Correspondingly, his strikeout rate dropped from 20.3 percent to 15.8 percent. With less velocity on his fastball, Irvin's stuff led to contact and did not get Major League hitters out with success.
2024 had a lot of struggle bug-esque moments for the Braves, but one of the big ones was their inability to do... much of anything against Nationals starter Jake Irvin. The Braves and Irvin faced off four times, and while the Braves came away with two victories, the part where they hit against Irvin wasn't very fun. He dominated them in May (Braves won 2-0 late), had an okay start that the Braves lost in June, had a legitimately bad outing in August, and then beat up on the Braves again in September.
