Strider continues to work on breaking pitches during fourth GFL start
NORTH PORT, Fla. — Braves starting pitcher Spencer Strider continued to increase his workload ahead of opening day, throwing four innings and 61 pitches Wednesday at CoolToday Park in a Grapefruit League game against the Rays.
Strider gave up a walk and two hits in a scoreless outing. The right-hander struck out five — getting two Ks on sliders, two on curveballs (one looking) and one with the fastball. The latter pitch he used just 27 times, topping one out at 96.5 mph with his eighth pitch of the game in the first inning.
“I think everything’s trending in a really good direction,” Strider said of his fastball. “I think that if guys aren’t up there respecting your fastball, whatever it takes to get that from a lineup, it’s a very different and difficult path to success ... So to be able to command the off-speed is gonna help. But yeah, it all comes back to being in the zone with the fastball and making guys commit to that timing, and then just being consistent with the shapes and location of the off-speed stuff.”
Strider struck out Cedric Mullins looking with a backdoor curveball in the second inning. Logan Davidson struck out on a slider in the third and Chandler Simpson whiffed on an 82-mph curveball that same inning. That result was part of a sequence of eight straight off-speed pitches from Strider until Gavin Lux fouled off a 94-mph fastball.
Strider then fanned Lux on another heater, this one clocking 94.7 mph.
After getting a line-out on the first pitch of the fourth, Strider threw six straight balls. But he got out of the inning with a fly out and then a strikeout of Ben Williamson on a slider.
“I thought ‘Baldy’ (Braves catcher Drake Baldwin) did a really good job of sequencing things. Felt like we were on the same page, too. Lot of good sequences,” Strider said. “Change-up is really good. I thought the slider took a step forward shape-wise, so that’s encouraging. But it’s just getting four (innings), I feel like that’s kind of that like big step where it starts to wear on you that fourth time out there. To get out there, get through it, is encouraging.”
Wednesday’s outing could be another indication of Strider’s evolution and maturation as an MLB pitcher. While the fastball will always be his bread-and-butter, getting 99 mph fireballs out of the righty in the eighth inning of a start may be a lofty expectation at this juncture.
In the meantime, the curveball (which Strider threw 188 times in 2025) and the change-up (which he went to 97 times last season) will continue to be part of Strider’s repertoire.
“Last year he had to go to the tool shed and figure some things out, and the secondary stuff got better. And so, you look for silver linings, right? That was a silver lining for him last year,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said Wednesday before Strider’s start. “When he got to us as a kid, his first time in the big leagues, he didn’t really have a breaking ball. A little slider, but it needed some work. Now it’s really good.
“And he’s got a curveball, throws a change-up, and he had to do those things to survive last year because he didn’t have his fastball. And you know, now the fastball is trending like it is, and now you add the other stuff, it’s exciting.”
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