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Nate Pearson is a 27-year-old right-handed pitcher. He was a first-round pick when dinosaurs walked the earth—or in 2017.
He has a deep injury history. Interestingly, he’s had some of everything (oblique, broken arm from a line drive, flexor strain, hernia, mono, a lat strain, and likely a few other things), but then a few have been throwing injuries. You could take that as a hopeful thing, that there hasn’t been much wear and tear on his arm.
Last year, he had a relatively injury-free season. He pitched in 55 games and 63.1 innings between the majors and Triple-A.
In Buffalo, he threw 20.2 innings and had a 1.74 ERA, with 15 walks and 34 strikeouts. A good question is how you can have a 1.74 ERA when you walk 16% of the batters you face.
He pitched 42.2 innings for the Jays and allowed 18 walks with 43 strikeouts. Batters hit .226/.313/.409 against him. He had a 9.1% walk rate and an 18.2% strikeout rate.
Nate was throwing as hard as ever, with a 97.9 mph average on the fastball, an 87.4 slider, and an 80.4 mph curve. His spin rate was in the top 20% of pitchers (2365 rpm).
This spring, he is working on a new pitch:
Nate Pearson's New Splitter is Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/NG1FgVE5ZJ
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) February 24, 2024
He’s had two outings this spring, one that went very badly and one that went well. Working on a new pitch, it’s not surprising that there was a bad outing. we’ll have to see if there are more good outings.
This is his last option year, so he’ll likely be up and down from Buffalo and back. He should be the type of pitcher we’d like; he can pitch two or maybe three innings at a time. but then we don’t tend to use anyone like that.
Of course, will he get playing time in the majors? The bullpen looks pretty packed. But, if the team needs to have fill-ins for Manoah and Gausman at the start of the season, maybe having a reliever who could go more than an inning at a time.
PECOTA figures he’ll pitch in 41 games (44 innings, so not many multi-inning outings), with a 4.98 ERA.
ZiPS figures 45 games, 57 innings (though they have him making 2 starts), 4.42 ERA.
Steamer has 48 games, 48 innings, and a 3.99 ERA.
Poll
Pearson will start the season with
Poll
Will Pearson pitch more innings in the majors or minors?
Poll
If the over/under on innings pitched with the Jays is 40 I’d take the
Poll
This time next year, Pearson
This poll is closed
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67%
Will still be with the Jays.
(141 votes) -
32%
Won’t be in the Jays organization.
(69 votes)
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