{"id":659563,"date":"2026-04-02T21:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659563\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T21:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:20:32","slug":"cade-cavalli-has-shown-why-the-washington-nationals-are-so-high-on-him-in-his-first-couple-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659563\/","title":{"rendered":"Cade Cavalli has shown why the Washington Nationals are so high on him in his first couple starts"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has only been two starts, and neither of them have been dominant, but Cade Cavalli is showing exactly why the Nats are so high on him. Through 9.2 innings, Cavalli has posted<\/a> a 2.79 ERA with 8 strikeouts and a .229 opponents batting average. He has also shown us the stuff that makes people so excited about him.<\/p>\n

While Cavalli\u2019s fastball velocity has been slightly down to start the year, his 95-98 MPH heater still has plenty of juice. It has a bit of a cut-ride shape and does a good job setting the table for his secondary pitches. Against righties, Cavalli also throws more of his sinker. I think he could stand to throw it even more against right-handed hitters. It has nasty movement and high velocity.<\/p>\n

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Despite having a fastball in the mid to upper 90\u2019s, I think the secondary pitches are the real star of the show here. Cavalli\u2019s power 12\/6 curveball has long been his best pitch. He can throw it in the mid-80\u2019s while getting the movement of a slower curve. It is a true hammer pitch where the bottom drops out of it. He can throw the pitch to righties and lefties, but I actually think it plays better against lefties.<\/p>\n

That is part of why Cavalli had reverse splits<\/a> last year. Lefties only hit .221 against him, but righties hammered him at a .381 clip. I do not think the curve is inherently worse to righties, it was more about the rest of his mix. Against lefties, Cavalli could rely on his changeup as a real third pitch and an offering that moved away from left handed hitters.<\/p>\n

He did not really have anything that moves away from righties. The fastball is straight, the curve goes up and down and the sinker comes in on them. That made his mix pretty predictable. To combat that, Cavalli added a sweeper this offseason. Cavalli actually talked about the issues he had against righties during Spring Training.<\/p>\n

In a limited sample size, Cavalli has been tougher on righties so far this season. He has issued more walks against them than you would like, but he has only allowed<\/a> one hit to a righty so far. Cavalli is throwing<\/a> his 4-seamer, sinker, sweeper and curve at least 16% of the time to righties. Those are four distinct weapons that have different movement patterns. This allows him to stay unpredictable.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of that sweeper, the actual movement profile of the pitch is interesting. It is almost like a second variation of his curveball. His sweeper has much more drop than the typical sweeper, but still gets that side to side movement. A reason for that could be how he throws it. Cavalli has said he throws it similarly to his curve, he just has a slightly different grip.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the pitch is distinct enough to be effective. I also think his usage patterns and maybe even some of his shapes will evolve as he learns more about his new arsenal. We have not seen Cavalli\u2019s A game yet, but he has still shown why he is so highly touted.<\/p>\n

He dealt with the Phillies lineup pretty comfortably yesterday. With all of the big names in that lineup, this is no easy task. Cavalli also did not really seem to have his best stuff until the fifth inning. He was surviving in those first four innings, but in the fifth and sixth inning, he was dominating.<\/p>\n

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I actually think Cavalli could be even more unpredictable with his pitch mix. His changeup and sinker are both pitches I like, but he has not been throwing them a ton this season. The sinker usage is only at 14% and the changeup usage is only at 6%. I think he should use the sinker as his primary fastball to righties and he could mix in his changeup even more to lefties.<\/p>\n

In 2025 and early 2026, Cavalli\u2019s changeup has been a whiff machine. He had a 41.8% whiff rate<\/a> on the pitch last year and it is up to 60% this year. Cavalli\u2019s changeup was one of his best pitches in the minors, but it has been underutilized in the big leagues so far. I also think his sinker plays better against righties than his 4-seam does. Having the sinker moving in, the curve moving downward and the sweeper moving away would be a nasty combo against righties.<\/p>\n

Cavalli can do so many different things with the ball, so I think his pitch mix will be constantly evolving. Keeping hitters off balance needs to be a big part of Cavalli\u2019s game. The biggest weakness I think Cavalli has is his command. His strike-throwing is solid, but his command within the zone is spotty at times. He will also have more bad misses than some other pitches.<\/p>\n

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However, I think Cavalli has the velocity, pitch mix and overall stuff to make up for that. If he can improve that command, especially with two strikes, I think he can take off. Even if Cavalli is what he is right now, that is a solid pitcher.<\/p>\n

It took a long time to see the payoff, but the Nats have what they hoped they would get from Cavalli when they drafted him in the first round. He is a big righty with a power fastball, a pair of nasty breaking balls and a surprisingly good changeup. At 27 years old and finally injury free, Cade Cavalli is finally coming into his own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has only been two starts, and neither of them have been dominant, but Cade Cavalli is showing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[145,5,3573,4,415,25,22502,414,71,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-659563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cade-cavalli","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-nationals","13":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","14":"tag-the-phillies","15":"tag-washington","16":"tag-washington-nationals","17":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116337208533587976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}