Dodgers' Ryan Yarbrough on Brink of Rare Feat for a Relief Pitcher

Maren Angus-Coombs | Jun 28, 2024

Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports

In a day of pitchers training to throw the hardest and highest-spinning breaking pitches, Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Ryan Yarbrough delivers the slowest average fastball in the game.

His 86.5 mph fastball average ranks last among 149 pitchers with at least 45 innings through Wednesday, according to FanGraphs. Of Yarbrough’s 21 appearances through Thursday, 17 had lasted more than one inning.

“It’s kind of like ping-pong,” Yarbrough recently told The Athletic, explaining his approach to pitching. “Something soft comes in and you’re mixing speeds, keeping them off balance and right in between. Anytime you can keep guys uncomfortable and especially put them in bad counts, it makes it really fun.”

Yarbrough is on pace to become the first pitcher in 18 years to work 100 innings out of the bullpen. As the Dodgers reached the halfway mark of this season, Yarbrough has pitched 49.1 innings. The last pure reliever (not a bulk guy following an opener, that is) to work 100 innings in a season was the New York Yankees’ Scott Proctor in 2006.

“He’s been a linchpin for us,” manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic. “There’s some other guys that we don’t use back-to-back (days), so to be able to have him take down two to four innings has been huge. That multi-inning role is an outlier these days. He’s a different guy, which is a nice change of pace.”

When Proctor eclipsed 100 innings, he did it in 83 appearances. Yarbrough won't come close to that number of appearances but would love to reach the 100-inning mark. However, his goal is simpler than that.

“We have so many good arms,” Yarbrough said. “Whatever I can do to help fill that void, I’m all for it.”