Will Chris Bassitt Scale Back His Eight-Pitch Arsenal?

Chris Bassitt has always been a very captivating person. He not only excels at baseball but is a self-proclaimed full-time outdoorsman too. Along with the rest of his family, he has done incredible charity work with the Jays Care Foundation and the "Bassitts Pitch In" program, in which he pledges $10,000 for every win the Blue Jays get when he pitches. He’s even a good sport when it comes to losing his fantasy football league. 

Bassitt the pitcher is no different, since 2019, his 917 innings pitched are the ninth-most in baseball. He earned an All-Star selection in 2021, and has finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting three times in the last five years. Any description of the 36-year-old would have to include the word 'consistent.' But the way Bassitt pitches is anything but consistent, There is no specific stat that can measure a pitcher's consistency, but if we take a deeper look into his 2024 season we see some examples of this, Just look at his ERA by month:

April: 5.64
May: 2.40
June: 1.95
July: 7.01
August: 5.34
September: 3.26

If you look at the game log, you’ll see even more examples. Bassitt had four starts last season where he gave up five or more earned runs, but he also had four starts where he gave up zero earned runs. Consistently inconsistent.

Part of the reason for this might be because Chris Bassitt relies on an eight-pitch mix to get his results: sinker, cutter, curveball, sweeper, changeup, slider, four-seamer and splitter, all of which he threw at least 4% of the time in 2024. Having such a diverse pitch mix comes with some major benefits, as well as some potential drawbacks. If you have several pitches in your arsenal, then it becomes much harder for opposing hitters to know what pitch is coming next, which in turn makes it harder for other hitters to square it up consistently. It also means that you have a pticher for every situation and every type of batter. We’ve seen this from Bassitt before. Back in 2022, his average exit velocity was 85.7 mph, which was in the top 5% in all of baseball.

There is also some downside to this too. In theory, if you are throwing eight different pitches then it becomes harder to master each individual one. You could argue that if you’re only throwing three or four pitches then you could use all of your energy to narrow your focus, doing your best to truly master each pitch, working on making it repeatable so that your command doesn't suffer. Last season, Bassitt’s command was the biggest reason for his struggles. His walk rate jumped from 7.1% in 2023 to 9.4% in 2024. His chase rate fell significantly, and he also just hit the zone less often, as his zone rate fell from 52.6% in 2023 down to 50.1% in 2024, his lowest mark since 2016. In fact, Bassitt walked a batter in every single start he made last year, with the only exception being the start he made against the White Sox in Chicago (and that team walked less than any other team in baseball). There’s more to this than just the pitch mix, but it could be part of the problem. 

“I was trying to figure out lefties and do too much stuff last year, just kind of tinkering with things,” Bassitt told reporters during spring training. “It was a weird part of the part of the year for all of us, so I was just figuring stuff out and a lot of it just didn't work. I think me and Pete [Walker, Blue Jays pitching coach] have a really good game plan right now, and it's just still tinkering, but I think it's a lot more structured rather than kind of throwing stuff at a wall and hoping it sticks.”

Bassitt made his spring debut on Friday, going 2 2/3 innings while striking out four and allowing one hit. Afterwards, Keegan Matheson of MLB.com noted that manager John Schneider talked about the possibility of limiting his mix to three or four pitches. “Pitch efficiency,” Schneider told reporters. “We always talk about the number of pitches that he has and I think it’s about honing in on three or four of them instead of five or six of them. That, and locating, being efficient. Last year, he fell into a lot of deep counts with foul balls and balls, things like that. He can stay on the attack and that’s what we’re looking for.” Bassitt's comments on the topic consisted of two words: “We’ll see.” For what it's worth, Bassitt did use all eight pitches in his start. Per baseball savant, he threw:



Notably, of his 36 pitches, 23 were strikes, including seven whiffs on 15 swings. That is the exact type of strike-throwing the Blue Jays will be looking for from the veteran pitcher this season. This will be a big season for Bassitt, as he is entering the final season of his three-year, $63-million deal. On top of that, the Blue Jays don't have the most starting pitching depth, and they will rely on him to stay healthy and effective and keep pitching at a high volume as they stare down a very competitive AL East.

One thing is for sure: we’re going to see a lot more from Chris Bassitt this spring. Whether or not he makes changes to his pitch mix remains to be seen, but if the walks become a bigger issue again this season, or if he loses the feel for some of his pitches, then maybe we will see him pare down his repertoire. If consistency continues to be a problem, that is something he and Walker may have to work on. No matter how the 2025 season shapes up for Bassitt, his first Grapefruit League start is a step in the right direction.