"There were not many expectations for Hayden coming into 2025. He was coming off of a dominant stretch for Mississippi back in 2024, but struggled in his stint with Gwinnett, with an inability to garner whiffs with his secondary offerings to play off of his unique fastball. The result was that he entered 2025 back in Double-A, this time Columbus, to see how he would progress this season. The strikeouts had always been there for Hayden, who had a strikeout rate of nearly 15K/9,"
"The 2025 campaign was nothing short of absolutely phenomenal. Hayden put together one of the most impressive pitching campaigns ever by a Braves pitcher, yet alone specifically reliever. Hayden showed a massive increase in his ability to locate his sweeper to both LHB and RHP inside the zone, and as a result his splitter usage was throttled and it became even more of a strikeout / weak contact pitch because he wasn't relying on it nearly as much."
Hayden Harris signed as a non-drafted free agent in July 2022 after using LinkedIn to attract team interest. He followed a dominant 2024 stretch with struggles at Gwinnett, where secondaries failed to produce whiffs and walks rose to 5 BB/9 despite nearly 15 K/9. He started 2025 back in Double-A Columbus. During 2025 he substantially improved locating his sweeper to both left- and right-handed hitters, reduced reliance on his splitter, leveraged a unique vertical fastball approach to get ahead, and converted swings into strikeouts and weak contact, finishing with a 0.52 ERA (2.07 FIP) over 43 games (52 innings).
Read at Battery Power
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