Splitter

The first time I heard of splitter was probably when former MLB pitcher Manny Hernandez played in Taiwan and the broadcaster indicated that splitter was his weapon. Back then, I was thinking that throwing a splitter was very common. Well, in the 2020 season, 17 pitchers threw at least 100 splitters.

Kevin Gausman threw more than 400 splitters this season, the most in the majors. Alex Cobb, Anibal Sanchez and Tony Gonsolin each threw more than 200 splitters this season. Hector Neris and two other Japanese pitchers Shun Yamaguchi and Masahiro Tanaka each threw more than 190 splitters in 2020.

Who does throw a splitter very often? Yoshihisa Hirano threw splitters 54.4% of time. Oliver Drake threw splitters 50.3% of time. Meanwhile, Hector Neris, Blake Parker, Kevin Gausman and Chasen Shreve each threw splitters more than 40% of time. Shun Yamaguchi threw splitters nearly 40% of time.
 

Chasen Shreve’s splitter generated 11.6% of swing and miss and Hector Neris’ splitter also generated more than 10% swing and miss this season. Gausman’s splitter had a 9.2% swing and miss.

Among those 17 pitchers who threw at least 100 split-fingers in the 2020 season, Taijuan Walker’s average splitter velocity is the fastest, on average, his splitter velocity is 89 mph. Blake Parker’s average splitter velocity is 80 mph this season. Among these 17 pitchers, each pitcher’s average splitter velocity falls between 80 and 89 mph.

Kevin Gausman has a pretty good year, posting a 3.63 ERA and a WHIP of 1.11. His splitter is one of the best splitters in the majors. Opponents only hit .106 against Gausman’s splitter. The Giants would like to see him pitch like this next season. Matt Shoemaker didn’t have a good 2020 due to shoulder injury, but batters only hit .143 against his split-finger. Shoemaker used his split fingers more than any other pitches this season. Against Blake Parker’s splitter, batters hit below .150 as well. Meanwhile, Jeremy Jeffress, Touki Toussaint, Tyler Mahle and Alex Cobb did not let hitters bat over .200 against their split-fingers. Hitters seem to be comfortable against Frankie Montas and Yoshihisa Hirano when they threw split fingers, batters hit over .300.

Hitters can hit Gausman’s splitter well. When we look at xwOBA, opponents’ xwOBA against splitter was only .150 this season. Batters’ xwOBA against Chasen Shreve was also below .200 this season. It’s really hard for batters to make solid contacts against their splitters. Among these 17 pitchers, Blake Parker, Jeremy Jeffress, Shun Yamaguchi, Touki Toussaint, Tyler Mahle and Anibal Sanchez each had an xwOBA below .250 when they threw split-fingers.

xwOBA against Franki Montas’ splitter was .348, it seems that hitters can make quality contact against his splitters.

Hitter didn’t bat over .200 against Alex Cobb’s and Matt Shoemaker’s splitters. However, xwOBA against their splitters were above .300. That difference could be interesting to note.

Masahiro Tanaka is known for using his splitter. Batters only hit .207 against his splitter, but xwOBA against his splitter was .306.

Splitter is not a common pitch in the MLB, but we still can see some pitchers throw it and effectively use it as one of their pitch arsenals. From these 17 pitchers who threw at least 100 pitchers in the 2020 season, we see three Japanese pitchers. Unfortunately, Shohei Ohtani only tossed 1.2 innings this season. Otherwise, we might also see him on the chart.