SARASOTA, Fla. -- Spencer Strider understands there are countless baseball fans hoping he’s able to get back to where he was before he underwent a second major right elbow surgery two years ago. Nobody wants him to re-establish himself among the elite more than he does.
At the same time, he has been around long enough to know that the best way to prepare for a 162-game season is to pace himself throughout Spring Training.
So, as Strider made his Grapefruit League season debut in the Braves’ 7-5 win over Orioles on Saturday at Ed Smith Stadium, he didn’t concern himself with where his velocity stood on this final day of February. He was instead simply pleased to show he still has two good breaking balls and the fastball shape he’s been trying to regain.
“It’s going to take time to get things where I know everybody wants them to be,” Strider said. “In the meantime, I’ll keep hiding the radar guns and we’ll go from there.”
Strider wasn’t happy with the social media insinuation that the radar guns were purposely turned off during one of his recent live batting practice sessions. So, he sarcastically mentioned “hiding the radar guns” a few times after limiting the Orioles to one run and two hits with two strikeouts over two innings.
Strider is right, there’s no reason to overly concern yourself with any pitcher’s velocity during the first few weeks of Spring Training. Especially a pitcher who had Tommy John surgery in 2019 and then had the same ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow repaired after making just two starts in 2024.
And when a high-energy athlete like Strider decides to begin pacing himself, there’s no reason to be concerned about how hard he is throwing a full month ahead of his regular-season debut.
But there’s obvious intrigue surrounding Strider. This is the guy who led the Majors in strikeouts from 2022-23, despite being used as a reliever during the first two months of this two-season stretch. He struck out a MLB-best 37.4 percent of the batters he faced during this span with the help of a four-seam fastball that averaged 97.2 mph in 2023.
So, how hard was Strider throwing on Saturday? His four-seamer touched 94.3 mph and averaged 93.1 mph. These numbers will rise over the next few weeks. This pitch averaged 95.5 mph last year, when he returned from the second elbow procedure.
Strider’s focus has always been about regaining the shape of his fastball. The heaters he threw last year didn’t have the late life we’d seen in the past. This is measured via induced vertical break. This number was 18.4 in 2023, 16.4 in 2025 and 17 on Saturday.
Where the IVB stands once the velocity rises remains to be seen. But Strider was pleased.
“Every year you throw your first bullpen in the offseason, you throw your first bullpen in the spring, you throw your first game in the spring,” Strider said. “They’re all data points. You’ve got to start somewhere.”