#pitching-performance

#pitching-performance

Garrett Whitlock absolutely stood out as a star from his time on the mound in March, though his run ended with heartbreak and fair concerns for the upcoming season.

His fastball in particular was excellent. It has solid vertical movement and great velocity with big extension. In 2025, the swinging strike rate was among the best in the league at 15.6%, while the ideal contact rate was a great 31.3%. His cutter was a reliable strike-getter and also limited hard contact.

In an unbelievable display of "bend-don't-break" pitching, the Kentucky staff allowed St. John's to put runners on base in eight of the nine innings and still walked away with a shutout. That is incredibly hard to do. Between Friday's Jaxon Jelkin gem and Saturday's bulldog of an effort, the Cats have now allowed just one unearned run in 18 innings against the Red Storm.

The rumours have been swirling for over a week now, but the official word has come down from the Toronto Blue Jays: right-hander Yariel Rodriguez will be pitching for Team Cuba at the World Baseball Classic later this spring. Rodriguez is no stranger to the WBC stage, making two starts for the national squad at the 2023 tournament. Across 7 1/3 innings, Rodriguez allowed just five hits and two earned runs with 10 strikeouts.

He made his long-awaited Major League debut just 364 days after the Nationals drafted him. He excelled in college at San Diego State University, where Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn coached him, and in his MLB debut, oh boy, did he shine. In just seven innings of work, he struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates, allowed two runs on four hits, and didn't walk an opposing batter. The anticipation for greatness built, and although injury cut his rookie season short,

Weigel, 31, made four big league appearances a few years ago. One of those came with Atlanta in 2020 and three with Milwaukee in 2021. Put together, he allowed four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings via six hits, seven walks and one hit-by-pitch while striking out nine opponents. The Brewers outrighted him off the roster in 2021. Since then, he has been bouncing around professional baseball by playing in the minor leagues, indy ball and the Mexican League.

Sigh, this is a depressing one of these to do. Everything about Spencer Strider was, in theory, so awesome, that it didn't seem like a little thing like a year-long layoff due to elbow troubles was going to derail his career. Surely someone so diligent in being in tune with his body and mechanics could hit the ground running, right? Well, not exactly. After an uneven 2025, Strider's outlook is uncertain, and pretty fraught.

The Dodgers agreed to a minor league deal with reliever Nick Robertson, reports Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News. The righty returns to the organization that drafted him in the seventh round in 2019. Robertson briefly reached the majors with Los Angeles. He made nine appearances before being traded to the Red Sox alongside minor league pitcher Justin Hagenman in the deal that brought Kiké Hernández back to the Dodgers.

Beede, 33 in May, has had a uniquely winding career but is not coming off a good year. He signed a minor league deal with the Twins in April of 2025. He made seven appearances for Triple-A St. Paul but allowed eight earned runs in nine innings via 12 hits and nine walks while striking out seven opponents. He was released in June and then landed a deal with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League.

Let's remember where the Blue Jays were when Lauer made his first start on May 17. They were two game under .500. Max Scherzer had only thrown three innings and wasn't set to rejoin the rotation for at least another month. And Bowden Francis was floundering as the number five starter. But at Rogers Centre, in that game against the Detroit Tigers, Lauer pitched three innings of three hit ball and allowed one run in an eventual 2-1 walk-off win for the Blue Jays.