A longtime Money Pitch, Cahill’s changeup posted its worst SwStr% since 2010 last year at 13.3%, and worst O-Swing% since 2013 at 41.9%. Despite it being the same pitch as in years’ past in terms of speed, movement and spin, its contact rates jumped both in and out of the zone, pushing it from a 9.3 pVAL down to -2.2.
Cahill’s curveball, which dropped harder than average at 79.4 mph, started hitting bats outside the zone at a 64.3% rate, by far a career high. His K% on the pitch hit a 10-year low at 27.4%, and the pitch’s pVAL dropped to a -2.6.
His least-used pitch in 2019, Cahill’s four-seamer clocked in at 91.8 mph with 10th-percentile spin and was largely thrown to lefties. While it notched a 13.1% SwStr% on a 48.3% zone rate, he surrendered four home runs while throwing it just 145 times, en route to a -5.7 pVAL. A longtime sinkerballer, his four-seamer did little to earn its place in his broad arsenal last year.
Coming in at 85.8 mph with middling spin, Cahill’s cutter still notched a 16.3% SwStr% and 33.9% O-Swing on a 46.3% zone rate, en route to a 3.3 pVAL, a career best. He cut down on the pitch’s walks in 2019, down from 10 in 2018 to just three in 2019.
His longtime go-to pitch, Cahill’s sinker has seen both its effectiveness and usage cut in recent years. Its O-Swing rate fell by almost a third to 14.9% in 2019, pushing it into the zone at a greater rate and leading to nine home runs on just 481 thrown. Its velocity held steady at 91.7 mph, but its spin did decline to just 2207 RPM as its pVAL dropped to -5.3 after 2018’s -1.6.
Cahill’s go-to pitch is his sinker with incredible horizontal movement. Despite this movement, he lets up 95% contact on pitches in the zone but 55% of all contact ends up on the ground. Like most of his pitches, he allowed less home runs and extra-base hits in general.
As his primary offspeed pitch, Cahill’s changeup is one of his best. He gets batters to whiff over 21% of the time while also keeping the ball on the ground. Cahill also limited home runs, dropping his ISO against by over 100 points.
Cahill has started throwing his slider much more in 2017 but even more in 2018. He saw much improvement over what was a bad pitch in 2017. He started throwing it a couple mph harder making it a bit of a hybrid between a cutter and slider. He doesn’t get swings and misses with it but it still gets outs.
One of Cahill’s breaking pitches is his curve, but he only throws it about 15% of the time. It is an effective pitch and has been for a few years. He gets a good amount of strikeouts but also keeps balls in play on the ground.
Cahill does not throw his four-seam often. This is fine as he rarely throws the pitch for strikes and when he does it is usually hit.
