Logan Webb calls it his MVP pitch.
His new cut fastball is among the reasons he is having his best season atop the San Francisco Giants’ rotation. It’s among the reasons his strikeout rate has shot through the roof to rank among the league leaders. It’s among the reasons he is still able to get gnarly swings from Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres hitters who have known him so well and for so long they might have signed his high school yearbooks. It’s among the reasons he is a near certainty to be named to his second consecutive All-Star team — and maybe, now that he has glossier rate stats to go along with his league-leading volume of innings, to break through and win his first Cy Young Award.
It’s also a pitch that opponents are batting .441 against.
Huh?
Webb doesn’t call his cutter the MVP pitch as a boast. It’s because he developed it to use against Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman — and every other left-handed, power-hitting MVP candidate who’d gotten a little too comfortable extending their arms and hunting his elite two-seam/changeup mix at the bottom of the strike zone.
“It really was the MVP pitch,” Webb said. “Against the best hitters in baseball, I had to break something different out.”
The first time he threw the pitch was to Matt Olson in 2020, when Olson was playing for the Oakland A’s. When Webb brought it back in 2024, he peered into the lion’s jaws and tried to back Ohtani off the plate. Before this year, Freeman had seen the pitch more than any other batter. The cutter represented just 2.6 percent of Webb’s pitch mix last season. As his confidence in the pitch grew, it’s nearer to 10 percent of his mix this season.
Webb is the first to acknowledge his cutter is not a great pitch by itself. Research into pitch design has found that glove-side movement on the cutter is crucial to its success. Webb’s cutter has … arm-side movement. Stuff models don’t like the pitch, putting it in the bottom 20 among qualified pitchers.
“They told me for years not to throw it,” Webb said with a laugh. “It doesn’t actually cut, but it looks like it cuts because of my two-seamer.”
The reason Webb credits some of his success this year to the cutter is because of how it fits into his repertoire. It acts like the bitters in a well-crafted cocktail: terrible on its own but improves the flavor of everything else. And you only need a dash of it.
Webb’s cutter features eight inches of difference, horizontally, off his sinking, two-seam fastball. It’s a dual-pitch profile that isn’t too different from what Phillies ace Zack Wheeler throws: Both pitchers have 10 inches of sideways movement on the sinker and cutters near the zero mark. That’s not a coincidence. When Webb was studying the value of adding a cutter, Wheeler was one of the pitchers who drew his attention. Webb noticed how the cutter allowed Wheeler to cover another part of the plate.
“They’d look out over the plate and the cutter gave them something they had to worry about up and in,” said Webb, one day after a June 19 start against Cleveland in which he threw 16 cutters. “Yesterday, I think they were sitting on my changeup some.”
In an era when every pitch is dissected, scrutinized and graded like a PSA mint baseball card, Webb has learned to embrace a dog-eared corner or two. The goal isn’t to maximize the lethality of every pitch type and abandon the pitch types that grade poorly. The goal is to compete against the best hitters in the world and banish them back to their dugout. When blending art into science, sometimes it’s necessary to embrace the wabi-sabi.
There’s no critiquing the masterpiece Webb is painting this season. The 28-year-old right-hander is on pace to lead the NL in innings for the third consecutive year. Through 18 starts, his 2.61 ERA would be the lowest of his career and his strikeout rate (10.1 per nine innings) would be the highest. He has a 1.52 ERA in nine starts at home. He’s already posted three starts with double-digit strikeouts and zero walks — something no Giants pitcher has done in a season since Madison Bumgarner in 2012. Webb’s five career starts with 10-plus strikeouts and no walks are matched only by Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum in franchise history.
Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey caught all those Giants legends. Even as far back as the 2021 NL Division Series, when Posey played his last major-league game and caught Webb in a Game 5 loss to the Dodgers, he didn’t hesitate to put the young right-hander in that class.
“The great pitchers, the great hitters, the great defenders are always looking for ways to tweak their craft,” Posey said in an interview last week. “I remember when he first came up, Webby was trying to throw four-seam (fastballs) at the top of his zone and the curveball, and then the next time he’s up, he’s got a bowling ball sinker and a changeup falling off the table. And it hasn’t stopped. Now you see him taking the next steps by pitching up in the zone.
“I thought he was going to be good because when I saw him pitch down the stretch in big games in 2021, it was almost like his focus was narrowed even more. He’s continued to do that and his confidence has grown and it’s been fun to watch.”
Webb’s cutter received plenty of notice when he threw it 26 times in a winning effort June 13 at Dodger Stadium — a victory that briefly moved the Giants into a share of first place in the NL West. The implementation of the pitch stands out among the changes to Webb’s repertoire.
But it’s just one of several improvements he’s made to his game this season.
There’s another terrible pitch that’s become one of his handiest tools.
Webb’s four-seam fastball was his primary offering when he made his MLB debut in 2019. It got whacked for a .339 average and .581 slugging percentage while generating a whiff rate of just 14.9 percent. The pitch was just as ineffective during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. When Webb worked to reinvent himself under the guidance of Giants pitching coach J.P. Martinez, as well as former pitching director Brian Bannister and former pitching coach Andrew Bailey, the four-seamer appeared to be permanently shelved. Bailey would jokingly beg Webb not to throw it. But to his chagrin, Webb would pridefully dust it off on rare occasions in two-strike counts. It was like grabbing driver on a par-4 when a layup is the best move.
Here’s the thing: Webb had the right idea. Pitching up with the four-seamer has its place in his repertoire, too. And because he’s changed the way he throws it, the pitch is a bit hotter and stays on plane longer than before.
“In past years, I’d been trying to go for the vert (induced vertical break) on the four-seam, and I would raise my arm to get it,” Webb said. “Now I throw it from my regular slot and it’s hoppier. It’s only 13, 14, 15 inches, which isn’t great by itself, but it’s got a better vertical approach angle.”
The data backs it up. This is the first year that Webb’s four-seamer release point has been below his sinker release point, and somehow that has produced the best vertical movements of his career. And because these four-seamers have better hop from a lower release point, they come in at a flatter approach angle. That makes it harder for hitters to get on top of the ball. Stuff models like the pitch better than ever.
Webb’s changing four-seamer
2021
11.0
85
2022
7.2
96
2023
8.8
-4.2
88
2024
9.2
-4.0
92
2025
11.0
-3.7
106
And the feedback from hitters? It’s a vast difference from the pitch that got whacked in 2019-20. Opponents are hitting .128 with a .179 slugging percentage against the four-seamer with a whiff rate of 36.6 percent.
It’s become an effective kill pitch. Webb has thrown the four-seamer 128 times this season and 109 have come in two-strike counts.
Of course, there’s no going back to featuring the four-seamer. Webb’s cutter serves a narrow purpose, too. The main reason for his success continues to be his two-seamer and changeup, the latter of which is getting the best whiff rate of his career. There’s also his sweeper, which he developed during those stretches last season when the changeup wasn’t behaving as it should.
“The sweeper got really good and we saw some of the stuff grades pop last year,” Martinez said. “There were games when he leaned on it because the changeup wasn’t totally dialed in. And now he’s got the full mix going.”
A small shift on the rubber is helping, too. Webb used to stand on the extreme first base side of the slab. Now he’s in the middle and it’s creating more room for his sweeper while creating tougher angles for his two-seamer to right-handers. Combing through old Edgertronic footage helped him find subtle grip and mechanical changes to get the feeling back for his changeup, which is catching more seam-shifted wake and going straight down again instead of peeling off.
“It’s all interrelated: a slight rubber shift, using pitches up and not just down, using the full mix, having the sweeper be better — all of it has pushed him forward,” Martinez said. “Even his first-pitch strike (rate) has gone up this year and I didn’t think that was possible for him.”
He’s even gotten better at the peripheral stuff. After years of struggling to hold runners, Webb now ranks sixth among MLB starters with four net bases prevented, according to Statcast. Opponents stole successfully in 20 of 24 attempts in 2023 and 21 of 26 last year. This season, they’re 3-for-6.
“He’s always been excellent,” said rotation-mate Robbie Ray. “But he’s taken his game to the next level.”
It’s one thing to have strikeout stuff. But it helps to have a strikeout mentality, too.
Webb established his value as a volume pitcher who churned efficient outs on the ground. Every spring, though, he’d express a desire to boost his strikeout numbers.
It’s happening now. Webb’s 7 percent uptick in strikeout rate is the second highest among major-league pitchers who have made more than 10 starts, tied with Houston’s Hunter Brown and trailing only Washington’s Mackenzie Gore. Because Webb is racking up more strikeouts while providing the same unmatched volume, he’s the NL leader in Fielding Independent Pitching.
Some years, the leading Cy Young Award candidate is an innings beast like Miami’s Sandy Alcantara. Some years, it’s a rate stat god like Blake Snell. By combining the two, Webb might be moving from a nice top-5 mention on ballots to someone who stacks up well against pitchers like Wheeler and Paul Skenes even though they are having dominant seasons.
Giants right-hander Justin Verlander knows what a Cy Young-winning season looks like. He’s won three and would love to see Webb join the club.
“Honestly, he’s exceeded all expectations,” Verlander said. “He’s really impressive. It’s almost a shame when someone comes out of nowhere (to win) when you have guys like Logan who’ve been there year after year. He deserves to be in that conversation and I know he has been, but it’s hard on the West Coast and I can attest to that. I hadn’t watched him pitch that much until now. And now I watch him night after night, and it’s, ‘Holy (cow), he’s really good.'”
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Webb’s strikeout numbers have jumped while surrounded by two decorated teammates who have made a career out of sitting batters down. Verlander ranks 10th all-time with 3,471 strikeouts. Ray led the AL with 248 strikeouts when he won the Cy Young Award in 2021.
“At the end of the day, it’s a copycat league,” Webb said. “You’re trying to emulate what other teams or other guys do well. So how lucky am I? I get to sit next to JV every day.”
“It happens by osmosis,” Verlander said. “We’ve talked about some of the ways to scout (a lineup) that’s helped. Maybe you’re not relying on the strikeout but you know where to go to when you find yourself in the situation to go for it. The great thing is it’s not changing his mentality. He’s still efficient, and who knows? It might get him more innings. Instead of tinkering around with a guy who’s fouling off your sinker and changeup, it’s like, ‘OK, let’s put him away and move on to the next guy.’
“Some guys just have great feel and have the ability to adapt on the fly and he’s obviously one of those guys. It’ll benefit him for the entirety of his career.”
Webb wants that career to last a long time.
It’s not enough for him to put in the work that goes into throwing a 200-inning season. He wants to pile those seasons up. So, in addition to all his other research on pitch design and usage, he’s consulted with biomechanics experts all over the country to review his mechanics and help him understand the traits that help some pitchers stand the test of time in an era of maximum-effort burnout.
He’s delved into the world of dynamic neuromuscular stabilization with Tyler White, a St. Louis-based chiropractor with Invictus Performance Therapy who has guided Webb’s core workouts. He also consults with Salt Lake City-based biomechanics expert Bob Keyes, who convinced Webb that getting his arm up quickly was vital to staying healthy.
“He worked with Nolan Ryan, and he was showing me that all the guys that stayed healthy, at foot plant they are up here with their arm,” said Webb, as he formed a 90-degree angle with his elbow. “If your arm is lower or too far behind when you land, think about how much torque it takes to get that arm up and out after that.”
While searching for ways to promote good habits, Webb turned to something familiar. He didn’t like using weighted balls, which are thought to help pitchers shorten their arm paths. But he knew he needed something that would encourage him to raise his arm quicker. That’s when he thought back to high school when he was one of the top quarterbacks in the Sacramento area. Pitchers consider the football to be the original weighted ball. But Webb had stopped throwing a football as part of his training routine in 2016 because of discomfort caused by bone chips in his elbow. He was thinking about reincorporating it. And then …
“I saw Paul Skenes doing it, and if Paul Skenes is throwing the football, I’ll throw the football,” Webb said wryly. “I told people I’m going to start throwing harder. And now I’m throwing harder.”
With the football in hand, the former high school quarterback knows what to do. Get it right up to the shoulder and ready to throw. That’s helped him change his mechanics at foot plant to align better with Keyes’ philosophy.
When longevity on the mound is your goal, a little more osmosis from Verlander can’t hurt, either.
“I have a huge appreciation for what he’s doing,” said Verlander, who turned 42 in February and is in his 20th major league season. “Taking the ball every five days and throwing 200 innings a year, feeling like the bulk mattered just as much as all the other stuff, I don’t want that to die off in the game. There’s a lot of appreciation for the guys who mentored him coming up. Hearing him talk about those guys and how he’s carried that torch and it’s meaningful for him to go deep in games, that makes me really happy.
“You don’t hear guys talk like that anymore.”
(Photo illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)