It does appear that the days of Spencer Strider reaching back and delivering some electrifying stuff in the form of a four-seam heater are over. Strider has made three starts so far to get his 2026 season going and so far, he’s been sitting in the range of 96-97 mph when it comes to his four-seam fastball. Indeed, it’s looking like the version of Strider who could simply blow away other hitters while touching 100-mph on the radar gun is firmly in the rear-view mirror at this point.
With that being
said, there’s something exciting brewing when it comes to this current form of Spencer Strider and his breaking balls, in particular. During Friday’s walk-off win over the Red Sox, Strider finished with 5.1 innings under his belt and just one run allowed on three hits and three walks. He also struck out four batters but I’m not here to talk about the strikeouts. I’m actually here to talk about the hits. One hit in particular stood out. In the fifth inning, Ceddane Rafaela led things off by hitting a ground rule double.
While a ground rule double itself isn’t shocking, the fact that Rafaela got a hit in itself was shocking. It isn’t because of anything that has to do with him (though he is off to a fine start so far in 2026 so props to him), it has to do with the pitch that he got the hit off of. It was a curveball. That was the first time in 2026 where an opposing hitter got a hit off of a curveball from Spencer Strider.
Not only that, it was the first time that anybody has gotten a hit off of Strider on anything but his fastball. Indeed, Strider has given up eight hits over 14.2 innings pitched so far and only one of those hits came after Strider threw anything but a fastball. In fact, opposing hitters still have yet to hit his slider or his changeup, either. He’s through three starts now and the Batting Average against his slider and changeup is still at .000.
It’s also not like he’s simply been just “getting away with it,” either. Heading into his start on Friday, the xBA against his slider was at .002. The xBA against his curveball was at .005 and while he’s rarely thrown the changeup so far, the xBA on that pitch is still at a paltry .087. It’s been early yet for Strider but at the same time, the fact that his breaking stuff has been quite literally near-unhittable has been very impressive to see so far.
“I think that was some growth during the time after he came back from the injury,” opined manager Walt Weiss when I asked him about the success that Strider has had with his breaking balls lately. “The fastball last year wasn’t what it was and so [he’s had to] get a little creative and work on some of his secondary pitches. He did and he’s better for it now. In the end, I think he’s going to be a more well-rounded pitcher.”
A more well-rounded version of Spencer Strider would be an awesome sight to see. If Strider can continue to get more efficient with his pitches so that he has to really battle to get through six innings, then we might be in the early stages of seeing a special version of Strider on the mound. The fact that his breaking stuff has such good underlying metrics is indicative that he could end up being dominant with that stuff until hitters figure out a way to counter it.
Hopefully it takes opposing batters a very long time to figure out how to crack the code that Spencer Strider has put out there with his breaking pitches because right now, it is giving the opposition a real devil of a time. It’s still early yet for Strider but it’s still very encouraging to see how effective he was against the Dodgers on the road and then to see him build upon that start with what he did in his first home start of the season. This could be the earliest sign so far that would indicate Strider may be on his way back to being one of the most effective pitchers in both Atlanta’s rotation and baseball in general. We’ll see what happens!
