A Deep Dive Into Brandon Pfaadt's First Outing of 2025

The D-backs righty made his season debut on Saturday and showcased some fascinating changes

Mar 29, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Pfaadt (32) throws against the Chicago Cubs in the first inning at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images / Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

Brandon Pfaadt took the mound for the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday evening, making his 2025 debut. While the Chicago Cubs won the game 4-3, the young righty's outing has a larger story to tell.

At only 26 years old Pfaadt is easily the youngest member of the Diamondbacks rotation, behind a group of dominant veteran arms. Still, he has proven himself over the last two seasons to be capable of holding his own in the most pressing situations.

2024 was a step up for Pfaadt, leading the club in innings pitched and improving steadily across the board from the year prior.

In his first outing of 2025, he pitched well, going six solid innings while allowing three earned runs. While he was beat by the long ball, something he has struggled with throughout his short career, there weren't many moments where he was truly defeated by the Chicago lineup.

The biggest sore spot of course was a two-run blast from Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker, his first since joining Chicago this winter. "I think when you show the same pitch to a good hitter like him he'll eventually take advantage of it," Pfaadt told Diamondbacks ON SI's Jack Sommers postgame.

"I felt good," the right-hander continued, "I was a little amped up at first, but I was able to get out of that. I had the curveball working which was a big thing I spent this offseason working on."

Known for his incredible command, Pfaadt boasts a career 2.2 BB/9. He walked one hitter early on Saturday, but settled in wonderfully and refused to give free passes as the game progressed, pitching quite efficiently.

His pitch mix did vary from his 2024 usage quite a bit. Of course in a one-game sample things will naturally differ due to his game plan against certain players. Still, his increased confidence in the curveball showed up in an increase from 5% usage rate in 2024 to 12% Saturday night.

Pfaadt also relied less heavily on his fastball against Chicago, instead opting to throw not only more curveballs, but more changeups, and sinkers as well. This created a more even distrubution across his pitch spread, and may have helped keep batters off his incredible sweeper which has been relied upon so heavily in the past.

While he has been a workhorse for the Diamondbacks throughout his career, as mentioned above, Pfaadt was pulled after 6 innings of work. "I felt good enough [to go back out there]," said the righty. "The pitch count was right where it needed to be. But at the end of the day, it's Torey [Lovullo]'s decision."

The D-backs' manager had to make the hard choice to pull his young star from the game, not because of performance, but for precautionary reasons. "Brandon was really good. It's a quality start. I thought about running him out there for the seventh inning," said Lovullo.

"But I saw his numbers were dipping a little bit, and he hadn't had seven up-downs yet, so just, at this time of the year, we've got to be super cautious with keeping guys healthy, and he's way too important to us."

This was Brandon Pfaadt's first start since signing his recent extension with the Diamondbacks, which will keep him in the valley potentially as long as 2032 if all options are exersized. The deal was signed at a $45 million base value.

When asked if the contract situation had any impact on him Pfaadt responded, "No. I'm still trying to be the same pitcher regardless of all of that stuff. I'm grateful for the opportunity, and everything that's come the last few days. I'm trying to go out there and be the same guy, and be the same pitcher."

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