A couple of days ago, we already reviewed some pitchers who generated a lot of strikeouts via their fastballs. Indeed, their fastballs worked well over the last several seasons and helped them fool the hitters in the majors. However, some pitchers relied more on their offspeed pitches.
This time, let’s take a look at which pitchers had used their offspeed pitches well to generate many strikeouts over the last 5 seasons.
Kevin Gausman has thrown 2000+ strikeouts so far in his career. In particular, he struck out 200+ batters in each season from 2021 to 2023. From 2021 to 2025, Gausman threw more than 1000 strikeouts. Most of those strikeouts came from his offspeed pitches. Gausman frequently used his split-finger to generate strikeouts and over the last 5 seasons, his split-finger created more than 500 strikeouts. Also, from 2021 to 2025, there were 4 times that he generated 100+ strikeouts via his split-finger in a single season.
Moreover, Logan Webb has 1000+ strikeouts thus far in his career. From 2021 to 2025, he created 300+ strikeouts via his offspeed pitch, which is his changeup. At the same time, Michael Wacha used his changeup to generate 300+ strikeouts over the last 5 seasons as well. So far in his career, Wacha has never reached 200 strikeouts in a single season. Nonetheless, his changeup does help him generate strikeouts.
In addition, Cristopher Sanchez made his MLB debut in 2021. In the first 5 seasons of his career, he struck out 509 batters. Nearly 300 strikeouts came from his changeup. In particular, last season, Sanchez used his changeup to create 100+ strikeouts.
Furthermore, Tarik Skubal won the AL Cy Young award in 2024 and 2025. He threw 200+ strikeouts in each of the last 2 seasons. From 2021 to 2025, he threw 800+ strikeouts and more than 270 strikeouts came via his changeup. Last season, Skubal used his changeup more than 30% of the time and created 110 strikeouts.
Finally, Tyler Anderson used his changeup to create 270+ strikeouts from 2021 to 2025. Tyler Anderson hasn’t pitched in the majors so far this season. In his career, he has 1045 strikeouts thus far. Additionally, Lucas Giolito has 1000+ strikeouts so far in his career. From 2021 to 2025, there were 2 times that he finished a season with 200+ strikeouts. Also, he threw 250+ strikeouts via his changeup.
Looking back at the last 5 seasons, it’s quite clear that Kevin Gausman utilized his split-finger and he created 500+ strikeouts via his split-finger. That might be one of the most difficult offspeed pitches to hit in the major. In the meantime, other pitchers used their changeups to generate strikeouts. Over the last 5 seasons, Logan Webb and Michael Wach each used their changeups to create 300+ strikeouts. And we can’t ignore 2 great left-handed pitchers, Cristopher Sanchez and Tarik Skubal. In particular, they each created 100+ strikeouts via their changeups in 2025. Well, Skubal missed some time this season. Nonetheless, we can keep watching if Sanchez will use his changeup to generate 100+ strikeouts in 2026. Of course, Gausman’s split-finger is worth watching as well.
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