The nastiest pitch at Cards camp? This prospect's changeup stands out

JUPITER, Fla. -- Luis Gastelum's changeup is so filthy, his teammates' reactions to it have to be censored.

The Cardinals' pitching prospect recently faced catcher Pedro Pagés in a live batting practice session at the team's Spring Training facility. Manager Oliver Marmol said it was fun to witness that head to head. Pagés had a very different take on that showdown:

"That was not a fun at-bat, to be honest with you," he said.

Gastelum, St. Louis' No. 29 prospect, started Pagés with a sweeper that landed on the inside half for a strike. He followed that up with a changeup -- his signature pitch -- that Pagés thought was "executed perfectly" down and away for strike two. It was so perfect that when Gastelum came back with a fastball, Pagés thought it was another changeup, one that might fall below the zone this time. Instead, it arrived in the same location.

Pagés never got the bat off his shoulder, largely because of how much he was fooled by that changeup.

Marmol's recap?: "It led to Pages just saying, '[Expletive] this' and walking away."

"Pretty much," Pagés agreed. "... Just three pitches and get out."

Gastelum gets a kick out of seeing those types of reactions from opposing hitters, and he saw a lot of them last year, when he struck out 92 batters over 62 2/3 innings out of the bullpen at Double-A Springfield. One year prior, Gastelum racked up 73 K's in 51 innings across two lower levels. A lot of those strikeouts came on his changeup, which receives a 70 grade on the 20-80 scouting scale. In other words, it is an elite pitch. It is also one of the pitches that has stood out the most to Marmol in camp.

"Gastelum’s changeup is as described," he said. "It’s a real one."

Gastelum, who is a member of Team Mexico for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, began incorporating a changeup into his repertoire about three years ago, just before the Cardinals signed him as a free agent out of Mexico in April 2023. After fooling around with different grips, he found that a Vulcan changeup grip -- with the ball wedged between his middle and ring fingers -- worked best for him. And was the worst for opposing hitters.

"When you finally get to see hitters having a hard time and people talking about it, you get super excited,” Gastelum said via team interpreter and bullpen catcher Kleininger Teran.

The pitch has mid-80s velocity and gets two-plane movement, with significant horizontal drop and vertical break. Gastelum commands the changeup superbly and he tunnels it well off of his other pitches so it's difficult for batters to identify it out of his hand.

It has been the key weapon for the right-handed reliever, who recorded a 28.8% strikeout-minus-walk rate last year, seventh best among Minor Leaguers with at least 50 innings pitched. His ERA was 4.02, but his FIP and expected FIP were 2.19 and 2.31, respectively.

“He's got almost like a lefty breaking ball coming from the right side," said Cardinals prospect catcher Leonardo Bernal, who was Gastelum's teammate with Springfield in '25. "And he knows how to do the job, putting the changeup in the zone. It’s incredible how the hitters swing and miss almost every time."

Bernal has told Gastelum that if he has to face the 24-year-old hurler in camp, "don't throw me the changeup because that's going to make me look like I never hit."

Of course, it's hard to make it in the Majors with just one pitch. Gastelum knows he has the changeup whenever he wants it. Now his focus is on improving his low-90s fastball, his sweeper and sinker. Gastelum said that coaches are telling him to throw those pitches more often. Pagés and Bernal said that while they like the look of those offerings, the key for Gastelum is learning how to mix them effectively.

If he can accomplish that, Gastelum might be up in the big leagues this summer. Pagés believes he will be. The catcher then said that Gastelum "is going to be trouble for a lot of years, that’s for sure."

He would know.