Nationals Pitcher Jake Irvin's Breakout Season

0:00It's March 31st. You're listening to Washington Nationals News today? AI-powered coverage of your squad. Nationals' pictures are heating up under new coach Simon Matthews, showing more velocity, spin, and movement through their first four games. Jake Urban leaves the chart with the biggest glow-up, tossing five innings and allowing just two runs against the Cubs, at Rigglyfield in his 20, 26 debut. Urban bumped his fastball velocity over one mile per hour above last year's average and most breaking balls in off-speed pitches gained a few ticks. Two, he's also dropped his arm angle for the four straight season down to 25 degrees from 32 when he debuted, totally reshaping how all. His pitch is move, that arm tweak hit his slider hardest, trading nearly two miles per hour for nine extra inches of vertical break, turning it into a true sweeper. Pitch tracking models rate at top 50 in baseball now, with a stuff plus score of 111 of nine points from 2025.

1:00Urban smartened up his pitch mix too, dialing back fastballs and curveballs while leaning on sinkers, cutters, sliders, and changeups. Against righties, he pounded sinkers 30% of the time and attacked outside to dodge barrels. Versus lefties, he slashed fastball used to 26%, ramped up cutters by 16 points and mixed locations to keep them off balance. If Urban holds this velocity and keeps sequencing like a boss, he could channel his strong first half from 2024 all season, giving the, that's a real shot at climbing the standings.