Gabe Speier, what happened? One of 2023’s biggest success stories came crashing back to earth in 2024, leaving the Speier Choir to sing dirges. Let’s talk it through in reverse. The underlying metric that was key to understanding his breakout 2023 was having MLB’s very best first-pitch-strike rate. Always being ahead allowed him to get batters to chase at an elite rate as well. Both those metrics collapsed last year, going from first to 260th and from second to 395th, respectively. Woof.
Back up from there and it’s clear that a velocity dip had a lot to do with it.