It wasn’t long ago that the Yankees were the face of the no-fastball pitching trend now widespread through MLB. Sure enough, the Bombers’ pitching corps had the lowest fastball rate (47.4%) of any team in 2018. This approach was even more pronounced in their rotation, as the Yankees’ starters opted for the heater just 41.3% of the time overall, more than 12 percentage points below the MLB average.
However, the 2019 Yankees rotation projects to buck this trend. Simply by virtue of re-signing J.A. Happ and welcoming James Paxton, the Yankees’ starting pitching as a whole should experience a significant uptick in fastball rate.