TJ Stuff: Fitting The Bill
Richard Fitts, Jacob deGrom, Max Meyer, AJ Smith-Shawver
Let’s keep on celebrating Opening Day Weekend!
Welcome to “TJ Stuff”, a series which aims to highlight any intriguing MLB players and performances.
Richard Fitts
Richard Fitts is one of my favourite pitching prospects and he showed off his talent in his 2025 debut with a quality start against the Rangers. Fitts gave us a glimpse of his offseason changes this Spring and it was more of the same yesterday.
His fastball underwent some minor tweaks with the most notable being an ~1 MPH increase in velocity and more cutting action. We have also seen some changes to his slider and sweeper. Both these breaking balls are ~2 MPH harder with more refined movement which has skyrocketed their tjStuff+ grades to 107 and 108, both up +4 from last season. The biggest changes were a trio of additions, the first being his revamped “kick” changeup and the others being a pair of new pitches in his sinker and curveball.
The new changeup has immaculate characteristics ranging from its 90 MPH velocity and incredible amount of drop. On the tjStuff+ scale, it improved from a mediocre 97 all the way up to an elite 112. This overhauled off-speed offering should give Fitts a true put away option against LHH. His sinker and curveball were teased in the Spring and he flashed a handful yesterday. The curveball should be an early count strike pitch against LHH while his sinker will primarily be used against RHH to jam them on the inner-third.
Fitts’ calling card has always been his plus command, and that may have been his Achilles heel yesterday. He threw far too many pitches in the zone which allowed Ragners batters to make plenty of contact, including mashing 2 HR. I expect Fitts to adjust next time out and leverage his great control and deep arsenal to finesse batters. He has always struggled with generating whiffs, but I think he has all the tools to be a solid backend starter for the Red Sox right now.
Jacob deGrom
Jacob deGrom is limit testing, but not in the way he typically does. We are used to seeing deGrom go 100% at all times, but he understood his body could not handle the constant stress he exerted. What we saw from deGrom yesterday was a completely new approach that makes me confident that he can both dominate and sustain his health.
First off, his fastball averaged 96.7 MPH. deGrom hasn’t averaged this low on his fastball since his Cy Young campaign in 2019. Although he struggled with generating whiffs and chases on the offering yesterday, he pinpointed it at the top of the zone and did a fantastic job at limiting damage. Not only was deGrom throwing softer, he was also throwing a lot fewer fastballs. He slashed his fastball usage ~11% compared to 2024 and supplemented it with more curveballs and changeups. This modification is usage is notable because it expands deGrom’s arsenal, meaning that he won’t need to rely on his fastball as often.
The deGrom we saw yesterday looked sustainable. He leveraged his phenomenal stuff and excellent command to toss an efficient debut and is taking all the right steps to stay healthy!
Max Meyer
Max Meyer generated a lot of buzz this Spring as he was throwing the hardest he’s ever done in his career while also making significant changes to his arsenal. Now with the regular season underway, we were able to see Meyer’s changes in a meaningful game, and he did not disappoint.
Last season, Meyer was primarily a 4-Seam/Slider arm as both those offerings made up ~80% of the pitches he threw. Yesterday, he kept his slider usage up, but slashed his 4-Seam usage in half. Seeing that his fastball was his least effective offering last season and also his worst pitch in terms of tjStuff+, it made a lot of sense to reduce its usage. The slider was phenomenal yesterday, averaging +2.5 MPH harder compared to last season and returning a gaudy 50.0 Whiff%.
The other changes Meyer made to his arsenal were a revamped sinker & changeup and a brand-new sweeper. The sinker has become Meyer’s primary fastball against RHH while the changeup was used ahead in the count against LHH. His new sweeper builds off his already elite slider as it simply has a few more inches of glove-slide movement. I would expect this new breaking ball to be used heavily against RHH as a put away offering.
Meyer looks like a completely new pitcher this season! The Marlins pitching development team a full overhaul in the offseason and it already looks like it is paying dividends.
AJ Smith-Shawver
AJ Smith-Shawver cracked the Braves rotation after a strong Spring and we finally got a glimpse of his new and improved arsenal. The most notable changes Smith-Shawver made were a decrease in release height and the introduction of a new splitter!
AJSS lowered his release point ~0.2 ft while improving his 4-Seam iVB by ~1”. His fastball also exhibited plenty more arm-side action compared to last season. With all these factors considered, the pitch looks better and tjStuff+ agrees as its grade jumped from 102 to 107. The new splitter was the talk of the town yesterday as it returned a stunning 71.4 Whiff%. The offering gets plenty of depth at 85 MPH which helps it play well of his fastball. Usage was another big talking point yesterday as he traded off his 4-Seam usage for his splitter and curveball. He struggled throwing strikes as he ran a putrid 33.8 Zone%.
AJSS showed off why he is considered one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, but there are still command concerns to work out. He should be given an extended look in the rotation until Strider returns, which is plenty of time to refine his approach and secure a role fulltime.
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