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The difference of a mere two miles per hour isn’t necessarily a big deal when it comes to flying a jet, racing a car, or feeling a gust of wind. But when it comes to throwing a baseball, apparently two mph can be game-changing, career-changing, and even pocketbook-changing.
Veteran pitcher Adrian Houser knows as much as anybody. He added a couple of ticks of velocity to his fastball and became such a solid pitcher last season that Buster Posey and the Giants gave him a two-year, $22 million contract and penciled him into their 2026 rotation.
“If you ask any pitchers across the league, if you told them that they were to gain two miles per hour on their heater or overall pitches, they’d say, ‘OK, yeah, I’ll take that for sure,’ ” Houser said. “So it’s huge, especially in today’s game where a lot of stuff is based on velo and [batters] are able to hit 95, 96 like it’s nothing because that’s what they’re seeing every day.”
Houser, who turns 33 on Feb. 2, made a commitment to turn his career around after a mediocre (to be kind) 2024 season with the Mets. He worked on his mechanics, training routines, eating habits, and mindset to morph into an effective right-hander who posted a 3.31 ERA in 21 starts last season with the White Sox and Rays.
Houser posted a 2.10 ERA in 11 starts with the White Sox last season. | Source: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press
Throughout his repertoire, he gained velocity: 93.6 mph to 95.2 mph with his fastball, 92.5 to 94.4 with his sinker, 79.6 to 81.7 with his curve, and – most dramatically, thanks in part to a grip change – 83.2 to 88.1 with his slider.
Those are significant across-the-board spikes for someone in his 30s who’s approaching his 10th big-league season, and the Giants’ front office was convinced he’d be a splendid fit at hitter-unfriendly Oracle Park, given his propensity to generate ground balls.
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Houser isn’t considered much of a strikeout pitcher – he had 92 Ks in 125 innings – but he pitches well to contact and improved his homers rate and walk rate. In San Francisco, he hopes to take advantage of perennial Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman and shortstop Willy Adames, his old teammate in Milwaukee who played nice defense in his first year as a Giant after a rough start.
Houser credits his time last winter at PitchingWRX, a development clinic in his home state of Oklahoma that emphasizes technique, among other things, for helping him reinvent himself and become a better pitcher in 2025. He now uses more lower-body force, raises his front leg a bit higher to generate more leverage and further separates his hands from his chest while working from the stretch.
In his words, here’s what changed:
“I wasn’t really getting into my back side very well. My front leg was kind of low. I wasn’t raising it up to where it needed to be. Also I got my hands away from my body to get them to work more freely. As we pieced that together throughout the offseason, we were able to get to a real good spot.
“Just got taller in the back side, got the front leg lifted higher. I was getting out of my quad. I was super in my quad, and now we’re getting more glute and hamstring like it’s supposed to be.”
Simply put, he’s taking advantage of the right muscle groups and proper mechanics to better reach his potential and peak velocity.
There’s more to it, of course. There were countless reps, a full commitment to get it right, and a newfound confidence to prevail. Through it all, he embraced a (mostly) carnivore diet with some fasting. Basically eating better.
It all paid off with his new Giants contract, which is a far cry from last winter, when he received nothing more than a minor-league deal with the Rangers and then got released in mid-May.
He got his big break when the White Sox signed him and inserted him into their rotation, where he went 6-2 with a 2.10 ERA in 11 starts. After his trade to the Rays, he slipped (2-3 record, 4.79 10 starts) but still had a strong overall season, which made him a target for the Giants, who had discussed him before the July 31 trade deadline.
Now he’s in the rotation with Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and Landen Roupp, and the Giants will either find another starter (or two) from the outside or rely on their young starters to provide depth. Preferably both.
It’s a comfort for both the Giants and Houser that they worked out a two-year deal with a third-year club option.
“I think it came down to knowing the talent was here,” Houser said, “and also the front office and Buster were pretty adamant and pretty consistent throughout the offseason, keeping in constant contact. I could just tell they really wanted me.”