Braves' Maier showcases elite spin rates in Fall League
PEORIA, Ariz. – When the Braves selected Adam Maier in the seventh round of the 2022 Draft out of the University of Oregon, they handed a hurler with just 34 2/3 collegiate innings under his belt a massive overslot amount of $1.2 million to forego his remaining eligibility and begin
PEORIA, Ariz. – When the Braves selected Adam Maier in the seventh round of the 2022 Draft out of the University of Oregon, they handed a hurler with just 34 2/3 collegiate innings under his belt a massive overslot amount of $1.2 million to forego his remaining eligibility and begin his pro career.
Nineteen of those frames may have come for the University of British Columbia in the Cascade Collegiate Conference, but Maier had “feel for spin” -- a relatively recent buzz phrase indicative of his ability to snap off a hammer of a breaking ball.
A former two-way player who had an internal brace put into his right elbow during his stint with the Ducks, Maier spent all of his first season in the Atlanta organization on the rehab track. Understandably, he was champing at the bit to debut on the mound in 2024, even if he was something of a blank slate as a pro pitcher.
The Braves decided that after Maier worked 83 1/3 frames between Single-A Augusta and High-A Rome, he would be well served to conclude his year with a stint in the Arizona Fall League. Beyond numbers and how he fared, he got the chance to face elevated competition, even if it meant prolonging his return to his native Canada by another six weeks.
Of all pitches thrown in the Fall League in which Statcast data is available (four of the six parks), Maier sports six of the top 20 and eight of the 25 in terms of spin rate, with seven of those pitches coming in his final start for Peoria on Monday night. The Braves’ No. 17 prospect has ripped off 30 pitches with a spin rate of at least 3000 rpm – in just three starts.
“To be honest, that's the same breaking ball I've been throwing all my life. The same curveball that my dad taught me when I was 10 years old or whatever,” Maier said. “I pretty much have the exact same grip and I think my arm slot has kind of dropped a little bit over the years. So it's turned into more of that sweeper instead of your kind of traditional curveball, but I mean, it's always been a good pitch for me. I didn't really know that I had that much spin on it I suppose until I got into college and saw a TrackMan report.”
The average spin rate on a Major League curveball this past season was 2545 rpm. It was just nine years ago that the highest recorded spin on a breaker in the big leagues was 3086 rpm (Garrett Richards), a mark Maier has exceeded seven times in the Fall League alone.
One year after Richards, Seth Lugo set the record for the highest rpm on a curveball (3458, a mark he has broken multiple times over) and has continued to spin his way into a top three AL Cy Young Award finish in 2024, a season in which he was one of 10 pitchers to average north of 3000 rpm on breaking balls.
But just how vital is spin to success? The below stats show as spin rate increases so does swing-and-miss while the average-against and slugging percentage go down.
MLB average curveball: 2,545 rpm
31.7% whiff rate / 30.7% strikeout rate
.220 BA / .370 SLG
Curveballs with 2,750+ rpm spin rate (more than 200 rpm above the average):
34.0% whiff rate / 35.9% strikeout rate
.205 BA / .336 SLG
Curveballs with 2,350 rpm or lower spin rate (more than 200 rpm below the average):
29.3% whiff rate / 26.0% strikeout rate
.228 BA / .391 SLG
Charlie Morton has served as the Braves’ spin doctor for the past four seasons. He threw each of the 69 pitches by Atlanta hurlers in 2024 that generated the highest rpm on breaking balls, with the club ranking fourth in the Majors in average rpm (2570). The 825 strikeouts the staff generated on all types of breaking balls were far and away the most in the big leagues (143 more than the Cardinals, the next closest club), and dating back to the 2020 regular season, the club leads the Major Leagues in breaking-ball punchouts.
But for as exciting as it can be to craft a pitch in a lab like a chemistry student finding a potion that fizzes, there’s a lot more to pitching than just having a sky-high spin rate.
It’s a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum: Are teams teaching spin better or do certain clubs target pitchers who are more susceptible to have success with their breaking stuff?
“You can see the data and say, ‘Oh, that's probably gonna be a successful pitch,’” Maier said. “But then again, you’ve got to learn how to use it. You gotta learn when to use it and where to throw it and how to combine it with other pitches and learn what pitches kind of tunnel with others in certain counts and what specific hitters are looking for. There's a lot that goes into it, to be honest.”
Which is where Maier’s downtime has come in. As his elbow healed, his mind was engaged at the club’s complex in North Port, Fla. An unintended benefit of big league hurlers missing time during the regular season -- Max Fried in 2023, among others -- is that young pitchers can absorb knowledge from them in person, as opposed to watching from afar.
“There's always big league guys kind of circulating through the rehab group, which I spent a lot of time in,” Maier said, “so it's cool to be able to pick up things from them and just kind of learn what it means to be a pro.”
Maybe unsurprisingly given his lack of innings on the mound at any level, Maier fluctuated dramatically between success and being hit hard during his first pro year. The 22-year-old didn't allow more than one earned run in nine of his 19 starts, finishing with a 4.10 ERA largely due to the three outings in which he gave up five or more runs.
📩 CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO BEN'S BIZ
His run in the Fall League yielded forgettable numbers (11.20 ERA, 2.42 WHIP) but Maier took it as a learning experience that will help him in 2025 and beyond.
“I think it's good to kind of design pitches -- more so the early stages -- and see what kind of locations and what kind of shapes will give you the best success,” Maier said. “But I mean, at the end of the day, you’ve got to execute pitches, and I can see when my ball is moving and I don't really need the data to tell me. But then again, it does help to know that certain shapes are more favorable than others. I guess it’s a ‘best of both worlds’ kind of thing – I like to use both.”
Jesse Borek is a reporter/coordinator of prospect content at MLB Pipeline and MiLB. Follow him on Twitter @JesseABorek.
Orioles' Honeycutt joins The Show Before the Show
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Red Sox prospect rips double THROUGH Fenway-esque scoreboard
Red Sox No. 4 prospect Franklin Arias, an infielder for High-A Greenville, REALLY didn’t want to let visiting Asheville score any runs in the top of the eighth inning on Friday night. With runners on first and second base in the bottom of the fourth, Arias showed he apparently held
April's hottest hitting prospects -- one for each organization
The Minor League season is a month old and several of the game's best hitting prospects are off to fast starts. Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony is tearing up Triple-A (just like he did at the end of last year), Padres shortstop Leo De Vries is leading the High-A Midwest
Check out the best -- and wackiest -- Minor League promos happening in May
Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from the Baseball Traveler newsletter, presented by Circle K, is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
MiLB podcast coming LIVE to a Somerset this June
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
New ballparks highlight 2025 MiLB road trip stops
Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from the Baseball Traveler newsletter, presented by Circle K, is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
Minor League Baseball partners with TruGreen
FRANKLIN, Tenn. -- TruGreen, the nation's leading lawn care treatment provider, is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Minor League Baseball that includes activations across all 120 clubs, a makeover of the home dugout in each market, sponsorship of select MiLB team grounds crews, and a new initiative called
Podcast explains why the Syracuse Mets are looking for Jim Morrison
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Dash im-prom-tu promo and Mets' Suero joins the podcast
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Minor League Baseball partners with Circle K
Minor League Baseball announced a new national partnership with Circle K, which will see the convenience store giant become the “Official Convenience Store of Minor League Baseball.” During the 2025 season, the Circle K brand will be integrated into the MiLB in-stadium experience through in-game video board assets at most
These 15 moments led to season No. 15 of Minor League road trips
Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from his newsletter is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
MiLB podcast crew makes Opening Day predictions
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Everything you need to know for Triple-A Opening Day
First, there was big league Opening Day. Now it's Triple-A's turn to take the spotlight. The Minor League season opens Friday when the Triple-A International League and Pacific Coast League seasons get underway for the first of MiLB’s two Opening Days. And right out of the gates, several of baseball's
Top prospects to watch at Triple-A -- one for each organization
It’s Triple-A’s turn up to bat on Friday. The regular season begins for the Minor Leagues’ highest level one day after the action starts on the Major League side. Fun fact: it’ll be the earliest start to a Minor League season since 1951 (March 27). Double-A, High-A and Single-A will
Here's where every Top 100 prospect is expected to start the season
The 2025 Opening Day prospect roster announcements began last week when the Cubs informed Matt Shaw (MLB No. 19) he was making the trip overseas to compete in the Tokyo Series. Roki Sasaki (No. 1) also received the good news, but his assignment was much less of a surprise. Now
Nationals prospect King joins MiLB podcast
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Here are the 2025 All-Spring Breakout Teams
Fifteen games, several jersey swaps and countless highlights later, the second edition of Spring Breakout has officially concluded – and it lived up to its billing. Of the 16 contests sprinkled across four days, only one game (Dodgers vs. Cubs) was rained out. Coincidentally, the Cubs were one of two
Rox young sluggers aim to bring pop back to Coors Field
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Coors Field may provide the best run-scoring environment in Major League Baseball, but the Rockies haven’t taken advantage of it in recent years. Even without adjusting for Coors, they have fielded offenses worse than the league average the past three seasons, and they scored the fewest runs
Astros brass sees potential in consistently 'underranked' farm system
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The last time the Astros landed in the top 10 of MLB Pipeline’s farm system rankings was before the 2019 season. Since those rankings expanded to all 30 teams ahead of the 2020 season -- 11 lists in total -- they’ve never ranked higher than
Complete results and highlights from Spring Breakout
The second edition of MLB Spring Breakout is complete, and there was no shortage of highlights from the future stars of Major League Baseball over the four-day showcase. Here's a complete breakdown of the 16-game exhibition:
Southpaw Spring Breakout: White Sox future on display with Schultz, Smith
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- If all goes as planned for the White Sox, left-handers Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz won’t spend much time following each other to the mound in a single game. Schultz, the No. 1 White Sox prospect and No. 16 overall, per MLB Pipeline, and Smith, who is
In first pro game, Rainer offers pop, promise to Tigers fans
NORTH PORT, Fla. -- Bryce Rainer’s pro career consisted of workouts and batting practice until Sunday.
'Me and Brady on the dirt again': House, King reunite at Spring Breakout
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The 2025 Spring Breakout was a flashback for Brady House and Seaver King. Over 10 years ago, the infielders were travel ball teammates in Georgia who shared the dream of making it to the Major Leagues. Now, they are top prospects in the same organization,
Lambert -- 'an adrenaline guy' -- hoping to be next Mets bullpen gem
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Ryan Lambert loves throwing hard. He relishes the idea of getting to two strikes and blowing hitters away. “Get me in a game,” Lambert said, “cool things will happen.”
Stewart embraces Spring Breakout: 'What's not to love?'
PHOENIX -- Sal Stewart was one fired-up Reds prospect. On Sunday in the first inning during the organization's 9-7 Spring Breakout win over Brewers prospects, Stewart lifted a 2-2 pitch that sailed over the center fielder's head to the wall. Already not known as a speedster, he stumbled running between