Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m going to spend the rest of my day watching Matt Waldron highlights.
In today’s SI:AM:
💰 Analyzing Justin Jefferson’s new deal
⛳ One year since golf’s biggest day
🏌️♂️ A very long streak in serious doubt
San Diego Padres pitcher Matt Waldron may be the last of a dying breed. In an era when MLB teams are training their pitchers to ratchet up their velocity as much as humanly possible, Waldron relies primarily on a dinosaur of a pitch: the knuckleball.
Since the start of the 2020 season, there have been 698 knuckleballs thrown by major leaguers, according to Statcast. Waldron has thrown 575 of them, or 82.4%. Of the remaining 123 knuckleballs, 64 were thrown by position players messing around during mop-up duty. Two were thrown by Seattle Mariners starter George Kirby, who broke out the pitch shortly after the death of famed knuckleballer Tim Wakefield last season. The only pitcher other than Waldron to throw a knuckleball with any sort of regularity during that timeframe was Mickey Jannis, who made one relief appearance for the Baltimore Orioles in 2021, throwing 57 knuckleballs out of 71 pitches. (You may recall that that Orioles team finished 52–110.)
Jannis, who was 33 at the time, allowed seven runs on eight hits, including three homers, in 3 ⅓ innings and was immediately sent back down to the minors. It was the only big league appearance of his career. Waldron, on the other hand, has had much more success—especially lately.
Waldron went 6 ⅓ innings in Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels, allowing one run on two hits with four strikeouts and no walks, although the Angels went on to win 2–1. It was Waldron’s fifth consecutive start in which he allowed two runs or fewer. He’s made 12 starts this season and posted an ERA of 3.98. He’s been roughed up a couple of times, most notably on May 5, when he lasted only three innings, allowing eight runs on eight hits, and saw his season ERA balloon to 5.82. But Waldron has been excellent over his last five games. During that period, he has a 1.84 ERA with 35 strikeouts and just six walks in 29 ⅓ innings. Batters are slashing .198/.248/.283 against him over that stretch.
Matt Waldron's Knuckleball doesn't look real. pic.twitter.com/u0Uer3T1LZ
It’s important to clarify exactly what Waldron’s pitch arsenal looks like. While previous knuckleballers like Wakefield, Jannis, R.A. Dickey and Steven Wright threw almost exclusively knuckleballs, it’s part of a five-pitch toolbox for Waldron. He also throws a four-seam fastball, cutter, sinker and sweeper. But what makes this season interesting is that Waldron has begun to rely more heavily on the knuckleball. When he made his MLB debut last season (throwing 41 ⅓ innings in eight appearances), Waldron threw 26.7% knuckleballs, 23.6% sinkers, 20.5% four-seamers, 16.0% sweepers and 13.1% cutters. This year, his knuckleball usage has shot up to 37.0%. He’s throwing far fewer sinkers (15.4%) and has nearly abandoned the cutter (5.5%).
The knuckleball is a fairly recent development for Waldron. He didn’t throw it in college at Nebraska, or in his first pro season after Cleveland took him in the 18th round of the 2019 draft. But in his first spring training with the Padres after he was acquired in a November 2020 trade, the team was intrigued when Waldron started messing around with the floater in warmups. He first started using the pitch in games that season and eventually honed it to the point that he was ready to be called up to the majors last season.
The knuckleball can be an exceptionally dangerous pitch if a pitcher is able to control it effectively. Because it’s such a rarity, hitters are bound to be flummoxed whenever Waldron decides to break out the knuckleball. Of Waldron’s 64 strikeouts this season, 39 have come on the knuckleball. And when players do manage to make contact, it doesn’t amount to much. The average exit velocity off Waldron’s knuckleball this season is 84.5 mph. It’s a big reason why he ranks in the 81st percentile in average exit velocity and the 87th percentile in hard-hit rate.
The knuckleball can be a fun oddity—there’s a reason why so many position players seize the opportunity to throw it when called upon in mop-up duty—but Waldron is keeping it alive as a legitimate MLB pitch. He’s not going to win a Cy Young Award, and he’s probably not even going to make an All-Star team, but as long as he remains an effective big league pitcher, the variety he brings to the game will make the sport more fun.
… things I saw yesterday:
5. Dabo Swinney forgetting a recruit’s name during a visit to Clemson.
4. Lane Thomas’s strong throw to nail a runner at third.
3. Rhys Hoskins’s reception for his first at-bat in his return to Philadelphia.
2. A fun moment between Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto after Hoskins got tagged out at the plate.
1. Diamondbacks shortstop Blaze Alexander’s diving stop on the other side of second base.
DAN GARTLAND
Dan Gartland writes Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, and is SI’s pro wrestling editor. Dan holds a degree in Communications and Media Studies from Fordham University.
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