{"id":663264,"date":"2026-04-04T19:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T19:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663264\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T19:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T19:06:28","slug":"phillies-jhoan-duran-has-a-new-offspeed-pitch-that-averages-34-inches-of-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663264\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies’ Jhoan Duran has a new offspeed pitch that averages 34 inches of drop"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> are looking to win the World Series in 2026, more so than ever, with their aging core and multiple players hitting the open market after 2027.<\/p>\n

Jhoan Duran, the closer they acquired at the trade deadline from the Minnesota Twins<\/a>, is one of those 2027 free agents. Getting the most out of him now is a must.<\/p>\n

And fortunately for the Phillies, as MLB.com’s David Adler<\/a> shared, Duran should be nastier than ever for the Phillies. He’s added a new pitch, one that has 34 inches of drop to completely fool hitters this year.<\/p>\n

Jhoan Duran adds pitch that drops 34 inches on average<\/p>\n

Adler shared how Duran, who was the “pioneer of the ‘splinker,'” has added a new pitch to his mix in the form of a splut-change.<\/p>\n

“The new split-change (classified as a splitter) averages about 89 mph with 34 inches of drop and 13 inches of run,” Adler writes.<\/p>\n

With Duran having a fastball that can reach over 100 mph, and a sinker-splitter hybrid that averages 97 mph, this new 89 mph split-change should be a huge weapon for the Phillies’ righty closer.<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0Marlins suggested to sign Max Kepler after Phillies<\/a>\u2019 OF was suspended for 80 games<\/a><\/p>\n

Hitters can’t solely rely on fast pitching from Duran; they will have to adjust to offspeed pitches against the Phillies righty more than ever.<\/p>\n

While his start to the season hasn’t been perfect, his 2.45 ERA with six strikeouts, a 1-1 record, and two saves is a good start as Duran warms up for the heart of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Duran looks as good as ever, and if this new pitch can continue to develop and become a weapon, Philadelphia’s closer might be able to overtake Mason Miller as the best closer in baseball.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Phillies are looking to win the World Series in 2026, more so than ever, with their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-663264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116348006357391047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663264","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=663264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}