Toronto Blue Jays bullpen have found themselves a new hero
Photo credit: Toronto Star
One of the Blue Jays' bullpen arms has quietly become a crucial piece in their late-game success, emerging as a key contributor in a standout relief corps.
Braydon Fisher was claimed off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays on March 22, 2024.
Blue Jays' bullpen found its unexpected hero.
Damon from Blue Jays Nation writes that once Fisher joined the Blue Jays, the coaching staff made some slight adjustments to his mechanics. The main change was to his arm slot, raising his release point to give his curveball and slider sharper, and more effective movement. The tweak has played a key role in unlocking more consistency and deception in his breaking pitches.
"This change paid immediate dividends, as Fisher almost instantly lowered his walk rate by nearly 3% while losing nothing off of his swing and miss ratios. Blue Jays brass seemed to take notice, too, especially during spring training. John Schneider's name-dropped Fisher multiple times during the spring as someone who had impressed him during his bullpen sessions and even in game action." -Damon
Since receiving his call-up to the big leagues, Fisher has done nothing but dominate on the mound.
"If you filter all Blue Jays relievers by a minimum of 10 innings pitched this season, you'll find Fisher's name at the top of multiple key categories, including: K% (41.7), BB% (2.1), K-BB% (39.6), and SIERA (1.11). However, the most impressive metric of them all may be that he's second on the team in fWAR, and trails Brendon Little by just .2 despite pitching in 17 fewer innings." -Damon
While it's still a small sample size, all the underlying metrics suggest that Fisher's strong performance is no fluke.
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