SAN DIEGO — Kyle Higashioka spent seven seasons crouching at the back of house plate for Aroldis Chapman, Gerrit Cole and alternative pitchers with uncommon hands and unusual speed, however in his first season with the Padres, the veteran catcher has discovered himself marveling at what appears like a real anomaly.
Robert Suarez, San Diego’s soft-spoken, hard-throwing nearer, is spamming top warmth like refuse alternative pitcher within the majors. His blended fastball utilization has jumped nearly 30 proportion issues from ultimate season. He has long gone to his four-seamer, which averages 98.5 mph, simply over 80 p.c of the presen. He has jumbled together his sinker (97.9 mph moderate) on akin to 11 p.c of his pitches. And in a single notable eight-game span ultimate year, Suarez reached again for 79 fastballs in a row.
“People don’t even do that in high school,” mentioned Higashioka, who performed prep ball in opposition to Cole greater than a decade prior to the 2 Southern California natives changed into batterymates at the Fresh York Yankees. “It’s pretty crazy.”
It could be much more odd if Suarez, 33, have been having restricted luck with such an method. However the Venezuelan right-hander is neither cussed nor unimaginative. Suarez owns a zero.52 ERA throughout 16 appearances. In an differently shaky Padres bullpen, he’s tie for the major-league manage in video games completed (16), saves (12) and saves of greater than 3 outs (3). Fighters are hitting .250 (1-for-4) in opposition to his plus changeup and simply .093 (4-for-43) in opposition to a four-seamer that has warranted the bulky utilization.
“It’s got the ride, the characteristics, and he’s pitching at the top of the zone,” mentioned Los Angeles Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts. “You know what’s coming, but a lot of the swings, (batters) just can’t catch up to it. I don’t like when he comes into the game.”
Why has a continuously unmistakable fastball been so unhittable?
“I’ve been helped a lot by (Padres pitching coach) Ruben Niebla in using all sorts of analytics towards my pitches, primarily the spin rate,” Suarez mentioned not too long ago via workforce interpreter Pedro Gutiérrez. “That’s allowed me to execute a little bit more.”
Saturday, hours then Suarez threw 11 four-seamers, two sinkers and not anything else in a really perfect inning in opposition to the Dodgers, Niebla defined in additional constituent.
Suarez has got a realistic figuring out of spin potency, Niebla mentioned, since San Diego signed him out of Japan’s supremacy skilled league then the 2021 season. Week there is not any confirmed strategy to considerably spice up uncooked spin fee with out the support of stopped overseas elements, Suarez has greater the energetic spin — a Statcast metric that measures spin that contributes to motion — on his four-seamer from 93.7 p.c in 2022 to 95.9 p.c this season. Because the finish of 2023, the tone has received nearly an inch of moderate vertical motion, the “ride” Roberts discussed.
“If he starts working inside the ball a little bit too much, his four-seamer starts running and we’re going to lose spin efficiency,” Niebla mentioned. “If it cuts a little bit, we’re going to lose spin efficiency. Right now, he seems to be clicking. Like, metrically, he’s behind the ball and really getting that pure backspin.”
Greater than 90 p.c of Robert Suarez’s pitches this season were fastballs. (Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Pictures)
Calibrating Suarez’s supply has been key. Early in spring coaching, Niebla spotted that the pitcher used to be transferring smartly ill the mound together with his decrease part but additionally that his torso used to be “a little bit behind.” Suarez struggled in his first few Cactus League appearances, whilst he and Niebla labored to deal with the foundation reason. It wasn’t till Suarez’s ultimate spring day trip in Arizona that Niebla felt the reliever had absolutely synced up his timing.
“Even when he went to Korea (for the season opener against the Dodgers) … I was still a little bit nervous, and then it was good,” Niebla mentioned Saturday at Petco Landscape. “Then he came out here. And then you just track — I’m just tracking. But right now, I feel it’s pretty simple where I don’t even have to talk to him. It’s just like, ‘You’re in rhythm.’ I don’t even tell him that he is in rhythm.”
Higashioka performed six seasons with Chapman, who nonetheless holds the Guinness International Document for the quickest major-league tone, a 105.8 mph ball thrown to Tony Gwynn Jr. at Petco Landscape in 2010. “He’s pretty high-effort,” Higashioka mentioned. “You could tell he was using every ounce of his strength to get everything behind it.” Suarez, in the meantime, possesses what approaches the textbook definition of “easy gas.”
“Sometimes,” mentioned Padres inauguration catcher Luis Campusano, “it almost teleports into my glove.”
Those that have spent presen round Suarez indicate one thing else.
“He’s got really good command,” Roberts mentioned.
“The first bullpen I caught, I was amazed at the command,” Higashioka mentioned. “It was just, like, almost pinpoint. And for a guy to be throwing 100 with above-average command, I mean, that’s pretty special.”
“There’s a combination of being able to hit 100 but being able to hit 100 when this guy’s putting it to the top of the zone and then goes to the outer half of the zone, and all of a sudden there’s a two-seamer that he can lock you up on,” Niebla mentioned. “It’s like, ‘Oh, s—, was that it or was that the other one?’”
Throughout his run of 79 consecutive fastballs, Suarez threw 74 four-seamers and 5 sinkers. He allowed refuse runs, two singles and two walks. (The one leave now Suarez this season got here March 28 when Michael Conforto struck a changeup for a solo homer.) He recorded most effective 5 strikeouts, however he prompted constant susceptible touch and saved hitters off stability through various the rate of his supply.
Someday across the fortieth or fiftieth fastball in a row, numerous Suarez’s teammates started speaking amongst themselves: One thing other used to be going down.
“I think we were all just kind of monitoring,” Higashioka mentioned. “We noticed that he wasn’t really throwing anything else but he was still dominating. It was pretty cool.”
“I know that fastball usage is high, but it’s been his best weapon. It is his best weapon,” Campusano, Suarez’s number one batterymate, mentioned on April 22 prior to a competition at Coors Grassland. “So, kind of just mixing up the whole times to the plate, it makes it really that much more effective. I feel very confident just using it until someone can prove they’re gonna put a good swing on it.
“You know 100’s coming. You just don’t know where it’s coming.”
Robert Suárez 100mph ⛽️⛽️ %.twitter.com/ZMSQtDHInk
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) Would possibly 7, 2024
A prudent competitor, after all, by no means finds excess. A number of hours then Campusano spoke, the catcher referred to as for a 1-2 changeup rather of what would were Suarez’s eightieth instantly fastball. Sean Bouchard fouled it off. Nearest, in opposition to the upcoming tone, the Colorado Rockies outfielder doubled.
It used to be the lone extra-base collision Suarez had surrendered this season together with his fastball. Now, 3 weeks after, it nonetheless is. And Suarez has most effective greater his utilization of that tone. Up to now in Would possibly, he’s throwing the four-seamer just about 90 p.c of the presen. Hitters this year are 0-for-14 in opposition to it.
“It’s like, this is my strength,” mentioned Niebla, who maintains that Suarez continues to paintings between video games on his changeup and cutter/slider, a tone he has but to throw in a competition this moment. “As a reliever, you got to use it.”
Because the pitch-tracking life started in 2008, just a batch pitchers have thrown a four-seamer, a sinker or a cutter with a minimum of 90 p.c in their pitches (minimal 500 overall pitches). Mariano Rivera, widely known as the best nearer of all presen, leads the best way at 98.5 p.c; his well-known cutter comprised 87.6 p.c of his pitches right through that span.
Around the while 16 seasons, no person threw a four-seamer or sinker greater than 86.7 p.c of the presen. In 2024, Suarez (68.3 p.c over his big-league profession) is at 91.3 p.c. The one pitcher throwing non-cutter fastballs extra frequently this season is former Padres reliever Tim Hill, and the left-hander’s moderate four-seamer is 8 mph slower than that of Suarez, who has logged 13 pitches of a minimum of 100 mph.
There would possibly come a presen when warring parties’ changes or alternative elements recommended Suarez to dial again the ultimate fastball reliance. For now, who is aware of when his upcoming off-speed tone will come: Certainly one of baseball’s extra computerized closers entered Sunday having thrown 32 consecutive fastballs.
(Manage picture of Robert Suarez: Michael Reaves / Getty Pictures)
