NORTH PORT, Fla. -- Bryce Elder pitched at least six innings in six of his final seven regular-season starts in 2025. The six hardest-thrown average four-seam outings of his career all occurred within this same span.
Velocity might not be everything. But the late-season increase combined with the accompanying success gives Elder and the Braves confidence that he can be the pitcher he seemed primed to become when he earned an All-Star selection in ‘23.
“He was popping a lot of 95s late in the season last year,” manager Walt Weiss said. “For a guy like that, who's got the two-seamer, when he can also run his four-seamer up into that territory, that's a big deal.”
Elder’s success will be a big deal for the Braves, who are hoping he proves to be a dependable and effective piece of their injury-depleted rotation. The right-hander enhanced some of the optimism surrounding him as he tossed two solid innings in a 3-1 win over the Pirates in his Grapefruit League season debut on Wednesday afternoon at CoolToday Park.
Elder threw his four-seam fastball just four times in this first outing. But it’s worth noting, it touched 94 mph and averaged 93.3 mph. His ability to throw the four-seamer up in the zone should make his heavy sinker that much more effective.
“I’m never going to try to go out and throw it past people,” Elder said. “There's times where I try to get on it. I'm not ever going to be a swing-and-miss guy with the fastball consistently, But I think there are times where I can kind of go get a little bit more."
Though a small sample size, Elder’s four-seam velo was in line with what we saw last year, when the 26-year-old’s four-seamer averaged 93.7 mph over his final seven starts. As Weiss noted, that’s also when we saw some 95s.
Elder has thrown four pitches at 95 mph or higher in his career. Three of those came during his regular-season finale against the Nationals on Sept. 24. So, at the end of a 28-start season, he was throwing as hard as he ever has.
That seems encouraging. It was certainly a significant difference when you consider Elder’s four-seamer averaged 91.5 mph in 2024 and just 90.8 mph during his All-Star season in ‘23. This pitch averaged 92.8 mph while he posted a 5.30 ERA last year.
When that average ticked up 1.3 mph over his final seven starts, Elder posted a 2.82 ERA. He allowed two runs or fewer over six or more innings five times during this stretch.
So, what keyed the velocity increase? Elder believes it was a product of the communication he began last year with Bob Keyes, a pitching and hitting biomechanics expert who has been helping Major Leaguers dating back to 1988, when he began working with Nolan Ryan.
Weiss encountered Keyes during his post-playing career search for the optimal swing. The Braves’ skipper has since been impressed with the incredible amount of data the guru has collected while analyzing the mechanics of Ryan, Greg Maddux and many other top Major Leaguers over the past five decades.
“I think the information is just so valuable because it’s 40 years of data,” Weiss said. “Nobody has that. So, the stuff we have available today is great, and you're probably evaluating yourself against your own baselines, which is helpful. But how about evaluating yourself against Greg Maddux’s baselines or Randy Johnson’s or Nolan Ryan’s and see what the great ones actually did. That's where the value is.”
Elder -- a native of Decatur, Texas, and a University of Texas product -- isn’t going to suddenly gain Ryan’s fastball or Maddux’s command. But by analyzing the biomechanics of his delivery against those of the greats, he is attempting to maximize his athletic talents and enhance the ability to remain healthy.
Keyes has helped Mike Soroka reinvent his delivery after the pitcher twice tore his right Achilles tendon. Keyes’ bid to reintroduce Elder to the success he had during the first half of 2023 has been focused on adjusting the pitcher’s balance and posture, while also attempting to maximize all of the body segments.
“I got back to being who I am,” Elder said. “It might work and it might not. But I like where I am.”