Little couldn’t throw strikes consistently, batters weren’t chasing his curveball, and he was giving up back-breaking home runs. Many Blue Jays fans called for his release this offseason as the proverbial scapegoat in a bullpen that ultimately cost the team a World Series title.
That release never came as Little is still with the team, and something has changed. He’s throwing a new four-seam fastball in the upper nineties, well over four mph faster than the sinker he threw 46% of the time in 2025. This could be a game-changer if it’s here to stay.
Brendon Little was up to 98.4 mph with his new four-seamer in today’s spring game.
He’s never thrown that hard in a regular season game and peaked at 94.6 mph last season with his sinker. #BlueJays
Understanding why this fastball matters for Little starts with understanding what went wrong in the second half of last season. Before the All-Star break, he had a 2.03 ERA with 65 strikeouts in 44 ⅓ innings pitched. Afterwards? A 4.88 ERA with 17 walks in just 24 innings.
Hitters were swinging at pitches outside the zone against Little roughly 45% of the time in April, but by October, that number had dropped to around 30%. Their overall swing percentage declined from above 50% to 40%, yet they actually made more contact when swinging at the pitches he did throw in the strike zone. Further exacerbating this was that Little’s first-pitch strike percentage declined considerably over the course of the season.
Enter the new four-seam fastball that Little has been throwing up in the zone with serious velocity this spring. It should keep hitters more honest by changing their sight level, but also on their heels because it’s coming in fast enough to generate swinging strikes. Very few batters can sit curveball and then just react to 98 mph. That’s legitimate heat.
The caveat here is that Little is a smaller guy with limited extension; he ranked in just the 2nd percentile in this metric in 2025. Hitters have longer to track the ball out of his hand, so he needs the extra velocity more than a taller pitcher. Still, even if his new fastball plays more like 96-97 mph, it should be a massive upgrade over his sinker.
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