Ryan Helsley, fresh off a record-breaking season with the St. Louis Cardinals, is introducing a new pitch to his already elite arsenal in 2025. After leading the league with 49 saves and setting a franchise record for saves in a single season, the hard-throwing right-hander is determined to keep hitters on their toes. This spring, Helsley has been working on a cutter, a pitch he hopes will provide an additional weapon for his strikeout repertoire. Known for his blazing fastball that reaches the high 90s and his devastating slider,
Helsley’s goal is to further sharpen his pitching approach and become even more difficult to hit, particularly against left-handed batters.
The New Cutter: Ryan Helsley’s Spring Training Experiment
Helsley carved his way to success last year with a dominant one-two punch of a high 90’s fastball and a high 80’s slider. He threw those two pitches about 94 percent of the time according to Baseball Savant while occasionally mixing in a curveball.
Averaging 99.6 mph, Helsley posted the fifth-fastest fastball among all pitchers who threw at least 50 innings last season. Pairing that with a slider that clocked in about 10 mph slower, he earned the 19th-best whiff percentage in the league at 36.1%. This lethal combination also kept hitters from squaring up on his pitches when they did make contact, as evidenced by his placement in the bottom five percentile for barrel rate at just 3.7%.
This spring, Helsley is experimenting with a new cutter, which he believes could become a key strikeout pitch, especially against left-handed batters.
“It’s something that looks like my fastball for a little while longer, and maybe get it on their hands a little more,” Helsley told MLB.com’s Chuck King. “I think it’s always good when you can have another pitch you can throw for strikes.”
Helsley’s Uncertainty on How Often He Will Rely on the Cutter
The 30-year-old had experimented with a cutter during his minor league career and spent this offseason refining it with the help of pitching coaches in the Cardinals organization. He’s looking to see how the pitch performs during spring training to determine how often he’ll incorporate it into his repertoire once the regular season begins.
“I think it could be good,” Helsley told King. “Still need a little work to get a good feel for it. Don’t know if I’ll use it much in season, but I’m trying to see if it’s something I can add. Obviously, Spring Training is a good time to do that kind of thing.”
The cutter sits in the mid-90s and could serve as a useful complement to Helsley’s fastball and slider, filling the gap between the two in terms of speed. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol told King that he believes the pitch would make Helsley even more challenging for opposing hitters to face.
“We’re going to continue to see it,” Marmol said. “He had success without it. You add another variable, it makes it much tougher on the opposition. So, it is something we’ll evaluate as he gets more comfortable with it and we get closer to breaking camp.”
Helsley Entering Final Year Before Free Agency
Helsley was a trade candidate this offseason because he is entering his final year before becoming an unrestricted free agent. He’s also likely to be a candidate for a trade at the deadline unless the Cardinals are in the postseason mix. However, Helsley has maintained he’d like to stay in St. Louis, where he has enjoyed a great deal of success.
“I’m excited, this is all I’ve ever known,” Helsley told St. Louis T.V. station KSDK this Spring. “The expectation for Cardinals baseball has been and always will be to win. I think we’ve got a lot of young talent that is capable of pushing for our division and making the playoffs.”
Helsley is optimistic about the Cardinals’ chances to compete this season. If they do, he’s likely to rack up saves once again. Last year, Helsley made his second All-Star team in three seasons, posting a 2.04 ERA for the season. He was the anchor of a bullpen that was the Cardinals’ strongest unit.
This season, the Cardinals will be without their setup man from 2024, as Andrew Kittredge has departed for the Baltimore Orioles. To fill that gap, the Cardinals signed Phil Maton this week. Despite the change, Helsley remains confident in the bullpen’s ability to perform in 2025.
“I feel like good bullpens have arms both sides and all kinds of arm slots from both sides,” Helsley told KSDK. “Guys have different pitches and batters aren’t getting the same looks over and over again.”
Main Photo: © D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
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