Yankees demonstrating that velocity isn't everything

The Yankees’ pitching staff is at the top or near the top of every important category in baseball: strikeouts, batting average against, ERA and, of course, victories.

The Yankees also are last in a category in which, just three years ago, they were No. 1.

Fastball velocity.

When it comes to fastball velo, the Yankees went into Friday dead last among the 30 MLB teams at 92.9 mph.

In 2022, they were No. 1 at 95.3 mph. In 2023, they were second at 94.9. Last season, they were 13th at 93.9.

Speed thrills, right? Today’s pitchers are throwing harder than ever, right?

Tom Seaver once said, “The good rising fastball is the best pitch in baseball.”

But the Yankees in 2025 are proving you don’t have to bring the heat to get batters out — especially via the strikeout.

Despite being last in fastball velocity (all stats going into Friday), the Yankees were first in the American League and second in MLB in strikeouts with 465 in 434 innings.

They were first in MLB in batting average against at .206.

They were seventh in MLB and fifth in the AL with a 3.42 ERA.

And they went into Friday with a 30-19 record, with their .612 winning percentage the fourth-best in baseball.

Some of the Yankees’ downtick in fastball velocity is due to changes in personnel (injuries to Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil, Clay Holmes signing with the Mets, for example).

In 2024, the Yankees had 12 pitchers average at least 95 mph with the pitch.

This season, they have two: Jonathan Loaisiga (96.6 mph), who has made only three appearances, and fringe reliever Yerry de Los Santos (95.5 mph in six appearances).

Dialing it back with the heater is not by accident, according to pitching coach Matt Blake, even if the Yankees’ placement at the bottom of the velo list is not what they were striving to accomplish.

“It’s definitely unique,” Blake told Newsday this past week at Yankee Stadium. “Usually, we’re one of the ones near the top, at least in the top third, for fastball velocity. It’s a little bit by design to a certain extent. Just not as focused on the fastball as much as just unique pitches in general. Obviously, we’ve got a bunch of guys with swing-and-miss changeups that they lean on and some off-speed pitches they use quite a bit.

“Obviously, losing Gerrit and Luis Gil definitely impacts the overall velocity. I think it’s just a combination of things. I wouldn’t say anything specifically targeted that direction, as much as the way we ended up with the collection of pitchers we ended up with.”

Among that collection of pitchers are those who have wipeout breaking pitches. Think of Mark Leiter Jr. and Fernando Cruz’s splitters. Devin Williams’ changeup. Carlos Rodon’s slider. They are all swing-and-miss offerings that can overshadow a traditional fastball.

“I think historically, it’s always been like, all right, everything’s built off the fastball,” Blake said. “What’s your fastball like? And then how do you command it? That sets up all your off-speed pitches, because you’re basically throwing your off-speed pitches off of the fastball velocity and fastball movement.

“I think that still holds true to a certain extent — just as far as how you attack the hitter’s timing and what your fastball is kind of sets the barometer for what they’re looking at. And I think the modern game has led to more off-speed pitches in general.”

Under Blake’s tutelage, Yankees pitchers show wide varieties of how often they use the fastball. In the pre-PitchCom era, a catcher would put down one finger for the heater because that was the No. 1 pitch. That’s not necessarily true nowadays.

Clarke Schmidt, for example, throws his 93.4-mph average fastball only 11.8% of the time. He uses his cutter (average velocity 92.6 mph) the most at 42.5%.

“I would say the game has just evolved so much that hitters are so good at hitting high velocities and so good at hitting fastballs,” Schmidt said. “We have so many ways to modify and improve our breaking pitches. If you have elite breaking pitches and off-speed pitches, why not utilize it as much as you possibly can?”

Tim Hill, the stringbean lefty reliever, has a fastball that averages 88.5 mph. Still, he throws it 96.9% of the time.

“And that’s probably because he got bored and threw three sliders,” Blake said. “I think it’s the look. It’s the underneath [delivery]. It’s the angle. It’s really unique. He gets some of the latest fastball timings from swings in the league for a guy who throws 87, 88. I think that speaks to the deception factor.

“Within our group, the fastball velocity is important to a certain extent, because it sets the timing. But I think the delivery deception also impacts the timing. So you can get away with throwing slower if they have a hard time seeing the fastball and timing it up.”

Leiter, whose fastball velocity is up dramatically this season from 91.9 to 94.1 mph, throws the heater 36.4% of the time, up from 24.7% in 2024. The righthander set a goal during the offseason of increasing his fastball velocity, much to the liking of Blake.

“It’s not like we put him on a velo program this offseason,” Blake said. “He just got after it in the offseason with his weight training and really started to move a little bit better. Now he’s a different version of himself.”

Leiter, who has 30 strikeouts in 20 1⁄3 innings, said: “My mechanics were pretty good, but the velo just kind of wasn’t there. Everything was just centered around trying to get my arm to move faster. It’s something I’ve always just struggled with. The work that I put in this winter was kind of centered around that. And, fortunately, it just kind of clicked.”

Still, Leiter is an anomaly on the staff. Most Yankees hurlers are down in fastball velocity, not up.

In 2022, according to a recent article by Jeremy Nielsen of Pinstripe Alley, the Yankees threw 1,860 pitches 98 mph or faster.

This year? They’ve thrown a total of four, which is by far the lowest amount in baseball.

“We have guys who have the ability to touch 100 miles per hour,” reliever Luke Weaver said. “Or at least they have in their past. We don’t really have anybody who necessarily comes close to that on a regular basis. That’s just facts.”

The question, then, is can the Yankees continue getting outs at a high level without lighting up the radar gun?

“I think the way we’re doing it is largely sustainable, assuming we limit the walks,” Blake said. “Last year we weren’t striking a lot of guys out. This year we are. I don’t think it’s as worrisome of like, ‘Oh, that’s going to come back to get us, because the fastball velo is not there.’ ’’

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.