Zack Britton

Averaging 94.7 mph, Britton’s sinker is down more than 2 mph in velocity since his perfect save streak in 2016. It still notched a 30.3% O-Swing rate, but a more than 15% jump in O-Contact led to his first SwStr% below 10% since 2013. Britton had his highest walk rate of his career on the pitch and lowest strikeout rate since 2013, leading to a -0.9% K-BB rate. Britton will likely need to repeat his career-best .221 BABIP to recreate anything near the 14.8 pVAL it earned.

Britton complements his bowling-ball sinker with a putaway slider to devastating effect. The pitch racked up an 80.6% strikeout rate in 2019 as batters scuffled to a .033/.065/.033 slash line against the breaking ball. When not punching out opponents, Britton’s slider effectively kept the ball on the ground, to the tune of a 60% ground-ball rate.

Britton’s main offering left a little to be desired. The sinker only accumulated a 2.2 pVal despite being thrown over 600 times.

Although used rarely, Britton’s slider was an effective compliment pitch to his main sinker, racking up a 50% K rate and allowing a minuscule .077 AVG.

Britton threw his four-seamer only 9 times all season and for the first time in any season since 2014. It is not a true part of his arsenal.