Welcome back to my pitch review series, where I’ll be taking a look at the five best pitches of each pitch type from last year.
If you haven’t read the first article in the series on the five best changeups from last year, that outlines how this series works, what the prerequisites are to be included and all that fun stuff (plus there are some pretty cool changeups in there too!). Also, check out my piece on the five best curveballs of last year and the five best cutters.
Today, we’re going to take a look at the five best fastballs (I’m also including sinkers in this) of last year, as ranked by PLV. So let’s dive in!
To anyone who has watched Hunter Greene for about five seconds, it shouldn’t be a surprise that he would be included on a list of the best fastballs in the league, because his fastball is incredible.
It averages 99.5 mph, comes in with good extension, very good ride, and a solid HAVAA, and even better, he controls it really well, throwing it in the zone 62.9% of the time last year.
You don’t always see fastballs used as a swing-and-miss pitch, but Greene’s very much is that. It had a 34.8% chase rate last year (96th percentile among fastballs) and a 13.5% swinging-strike rate (87th percentile), and even when hitters did make contact, they didn’t do much with it, posting a .260 wOBA against the pitch (95th percentile among fastballs).
Obviously, health has been and continues to be a question for Greene, but when he’s out there, he’s got one of the nastiest fastballs around.
4. Tanner Scott
After two straight years of being one of the most dominant relievers in baseball, Tanner Scott had a bit of a step back in 2025, pitching to a rough 4.74 ERA and a 25.3% strikeout rate (a career-worst) in 61 games, though he did get 23 saves and eight holds, the former being a career-best.
The fastball wasn’t the problem, though; it was a pretty excellent pitch last year. It comes in around 97 mph on average with loads of spin, a solid ride, and excellent HAVAA (98th percentile among fastballs). And Scott controls the pitch well, landing it in the zone 58.1% of the time.
He isn’t afraid to use it in two-strike counts either; it’s not just a pitch he uses early to set up his slider. Last year, Scott’s fastball posted a 32.3% chase rate (82nd percentile) and a 13.3% swinging-strike rate (77th percentile). Now, his command of the pitch wasn’t the best, as hitters did post a 45.8% ICR against the pitch (34th percentile), meaning they teed off on it sometimes, but overall, it was an excellent pitch.
The problem child last year was the slider. It lost a bunch of its movement and became an eminently more hittable pitch, but if Scott can get his slider back into shape, he could easily go back to being one of the more dominant relievers out there.
3. Reid Detmers
After a couple of years as a starter, Reid Detmers was thrown into the bullpen last year and was…fine, posting a 3.96 ERA with a 30.1% strikeout rate (that part’s awesome), 13 holds, and three saves in 61 appearances.
With the move to the bullpen, Detmers tweaked his approach a good bit, all but ditching his changeup and sweeper in favor of using his slider and curveball a lot more. From a PLV perspective, his fastball/slider/curveball combo was pretty excellent (more on the slider in another article), so let’s dive into the fastball.
The pitch comes in around 96 mph on average, which marks a two-tick bump from 2024 (which makes sense given the move to the bullpen). The extension on the pitch is a bit lacking, but the ride on it is excellent, and it worked surprisingly well as a swing-and-miss pitch, one that Detmers threw in two-strike counts about a third of the time.
Similar to Scott, Detmers’s fastball did get clocked occasionally when it wasn’t located well, posting a 44.8% ICR last year (39th percentile among fastballs), but a chase rate and swinging-strike rate both in the 94th percentile help make up for that a bit and make this a pretty great fastball.
Ronny Henriquez had a pretty incredible year out of the bullpen last year for the Marlins, posting a 2.22 ERA with a ridiculous 32.3% strikeout rate on his way to 26 holds and seven saves in 69 appearances, and honestly, this fastball was a big driver of that success.
The pitch comes in just shy of 97 mph on average with 17.8 inches of induced vertical break (which is a ton), pretty decent extension, and it comes in super flat with an excellent 1.9 HAVAA (98th percentile).
This was a pitch Henriquez liked to throw early in counts to snag an early strike, and it worked great for that, posting a 21.2% called strike rate (86th percentile). And even if hitters did make contact, it was generally pretty weak contact, posting a 38% groundball rate (62nd percentile) and a 38% ICR (38%).
And while it’s second on this list, it’s the best four-seamer of the group, as our number one fastball is a sinker.
1. Josh Hader
Josh Hader has had one of the best sinkers in the game for some time now and has been one of the best relievers in baseball for years (aside from a weird blip in 2022). Last year was no different, as he posted a 2.05 ERA with an insane 36.9% strikeout rate in 48 appearances with 28 saves before missing the end of the season with a shoulder capsule strain.
But while he was out there, he was dominant with his sinker/slider mix. The sinker comes in just shy of 96 mph on average with an insane amount of induced vertical break to it (17.7 inches, 99th percentile among sinkers) and a lot of extension.
He also used it in two-strike counts plenty, throwing it 34% of the time in two-strike situations (by comparison, he threw his slider 38% of the time in the same situations). It worked beautifully as a swing-and-miss pitch, posting a 39.4% chase rate (91st percentile) and an 18.1% swinging-strike rate (99th percentile).
And even if hitters made contact, they didn’t do anything with it, as the pitch had a 31.8% ICR (70th percentile) and a .295 wOBA against (76th percentile).
It was an absolutely dominant pitch, and it’s well-deserved to be considered the best fastball in the league.
Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire | Featured image by Ethan Kaplan (@djfreddie10.bsky.social on Blue Sky and @EthanMKaplanImages on Instagram)
