SAN DIEGO – Kyle Higashioka He spent seven seasons behind the plate during Aroldis Chapman, Gerrit Cole and other pitchers with unusual arms and unusual velocity, but in his first season with the parentsThe veteran receiver has been surprised by what seems like a true anomaly.
Roberto SuarezSan Diego soft-spoken, hard-throwing closer, is throwing spam like no other pitcher in the majors. His combined fastball usage has increased nearly 30 percentage points from last season. He has turned to his four-seamer, which averages 98.5 mph, just over 80 percent of the time. He has mixed his sinker (97.9 mph average) into about 11 percent of his pitches. And in a remarkable eight-game span last month, Suarez hit 79 straight fastballs.
“People don't even do that in high school,” said Higashioka, who played prep baseball against Cole more than a decade before the two Southern California natives became battery mates in the New York Yankees. “He's pretty crazy.”
It would be even more peculiar if Suárez, 33, had limited success with that approach. But Venezuelan law is neither stubborn nor lacking in imagination. Suárez owns a 0.52 ERA in 16 appearances. In an otherwise shaky Padres bullpen, he is tied for the major league lead in games finished (16), saves (12) and saves of more than three outs (three). Opponents hit .250 against him (1 for 4) more changes and just .093 (4-for-43) against a four-seamer who has warranted heavy usage.
“He has the run, the traits and he's pitching at the top of the zone,” he said. Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “You know what's coming, but a lot of the swings (hitters) just can't hit it. “I don't like it when he comes into the game.”
Why has an oft-seen fastball been so unbeatable?
“(Padres pitching coach) Rubén Niebla has helped me a lot to use all kinds of analysis on my pitches, mainly spin rate,” Suárez said recently through team interpreter Pedro Gutiérrez. “That's allowed me to execute a little more.”
On Saturday, hours after Suárez threw 11 four-seamers, two sinkers and nothing else in a perfect inning against the Dodgers, Niebla explained further.
Suárez has gained a practical understanding of spin efficiency, Niebla said, since San Diego removed him from Japan's top professional league after the 2021 season. While there is no proven way to significantly increase spin rate without the help of banned foreign substances, Suárez has increased the active spin – a Statcast metric that measures the effect contributing to movement – on his four-seamer from 93.7 percent in 2022 to 95.9 percent this season. Since the end of 2023, the field has gained almost an inch of average vertical movement, “ride” Roberts said.
“If you start working too much inside the ball, your four-seam machine starts working and we're going to lose spin efficiency,” Niebla said. “If it is reduced a little, we will lose efficiency in the effect. Right now, he seems to be clicking. In metric terms, he's behind the ball and really gets that pure backspin.”
More than 90 percent of Robert Suárez's pitches this season have been fastballs. (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
Calibrating Suárez's delivery has been key. Early in spring training, Niebla noticed that the pitcher was moving well down the mound with his lower half but also that his torso was “a little bit back.” Suárez struggled in his first appearances in the Cactus League, even as he and Niebla worked to address the root cause. It wasn't until Suarez's last spring outing in Arizona that Niebla felt the reliever had completely gotten his timing right.
“Even when he went to Korea (for the season opener against the Dodgers)… he was still a little nervous, and then everything was fine,” Niebla said Saturday at Petco Park. “Then he came here. And then you just follow… I'm just following. But now I feel like it's pretty simple and I don't even have to talk to him. It's like, 'You're in rhythm.' I don’t even tell him that he is in rhythm.”
Higashioka played six seasons with Chapman, who still holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest pitch in the major leagues, a 105.8 mph ball thrown to Tony Gwynn Jr. at Petco Park in 2010. “He puts in quite a bit of effort,” Higashioka said. “You could tell he was using every ounce of his strength to accomplish everything.” Suárez, meanwhile, possesses what approaches the textbook definition of “easy gas.”
“Sometimes,” the Padres starting catcher said. Luis Campusano“it almost teleported to my glove.”
Those who have passed through Suárez point out something else.
“He has really good control,” Roberts said.
“The first bullpen I caught, I was surprised by the command,” Higashioka said. “It was almost precise. And for a guy to throw 100 with above-average command, it's pretty special.”
“There's a combination of being able to get to 100 but being able to get to 100 when this guy puts it at the top of the zone and then he goes to the outside half of the zone, and suddenly there's a double seam that he can lock you in,” Niebla said. “It's like, 'Oh shit, was it that one or was it the other one?'”
During his streak of 79 consecutive fastballs, Suárez threw 74 four-seamers and five sinkers. He allowed no runs, two singles and two walks. (The only race against Suárez this season came on March 28 when Michael Conforto (he made a changeup for a solo home run.) He managed only five strikeouts, but he induced consistent weak contact and kept hitters off balance by varying the speed of his pitch.
At some point around the 40th or 50th consecutive stretch, several of Suárez's teammates began talking to each other: something different was happening.
“I thought we were all just monitoring,” Higashioka said. “We realized he wasn't really throwing anything else, but he was still dominating. It was great”.
“I know that the use of the fastball is high, but it has been his best weapon. He is his best weapon,” Campusano, Suárez’s main battery mate, said April 22 before a game at Coors Field. “So just mixing up all the timing on the plate makes it a lot more effective. I feel very confident using it until someone can prove that it will swing well.
“You know there are 100 coming. You just don't know where it's coming from.”
Robert Suárez 100 mph ⛽️⛽️ pic.twitter.com/ZMSQtDHInk
– Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 7, 2024
A prudent competitor, of course, never reveals too much. Several hours after Campusano spoke, the catcher called for a 1-2 changeup instead of what would have been Suárez's 80th consecutive fastball. Sean Bouchard I stomped on it. Then, against the next throw, the Colorado Rocky Mountains the outfielder doubled.
It was the only extra-base hit that Suárez allowed this season with his fastball. Now, three weeks later, he still is. And Suárez has only increased his use of that shot. So far in May, he's throwing the four-seamer nearly 90 percent of the time. This month's batters have gone 0-for-14 against him.
“It's like this is my strength,” said Niebla, who maintains that Suárez continues to work between games on his changeup and cutter/slider, a pitch he has yet to throw in a game this year. “As a reliever, you have to use it.”
Since the pitch-tracking era began in 2008, only a dozen pitchers have thrown a four-seamer, sinker or cutter with at least 90 percent of their pitches (minimum 500 pitches total). Mariano Rivera, widely recognized as the greatest closer of all time, leads the way at 98.5 percent; His famous cutter included 87.6 percent of his pitches during that span.
Over the past 16 seasons, no one threw a four-seamer or a sinker more than 86.7 percent of the time. In 2024, Suárez (68.3 percent during his major league career) is 91.3 percent. The only pitcher throwing no-cut fastballs more often this season is the former Padres reliever. Tim Hilland the lefty's four-seam average is 8 mph slower than Suárez, who has recorded 13 pitches of at least 100 mph.
There may come a time when opponents' adjustments or other factors prompt Suárez to reduce extreme reliance on the fastball. For now, who knows when his next off-speed pitch will arrive: One of baseball's most automatic closers arrived Sunday after throwing 32 consecutive fastballs.
(Top photo by Robert Suárez: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
