Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Pfaadt had a pretty weird season
Brandon Pfaadt delivered the single best start by a Diamondbacks pitcher all year and the worst start in Major League Baseball.
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Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Brandon Pfaadt experienced a “hot-and-cold” 2025 season after the club inked him to a five-year extension.
It was a campaign filled with juxtapositions:
Pfaadt finished top 12 in wins (13) with a bottom-five ERA (5.25) in Major League Baseball.
He made 12 quality starts and surrendered at least six runs six times.
Pfaadt was a top 25 pitcher at home (3.24 ERA) and the league’s worst on the road (7.71 ERA).
And arguably, Pfaadt delivered the single best start by a Diamondbacks pitcher all year with nine shutout innings on Sept. 17 and the single worst start in MLB with eight earned runs and no outs recorded on May 31.
“Not exactly what we’re looking for,” Pfaadt said after the season finale. “A lot of ups and downs, but a lot to build off of and come back even stronger the next year. I had a lot of ups and downs, a lot to work on this year.”
Brandon Pfaadt’s 2025 overview
Pfaadt is very important to the future of the Diamondbacks’ rotation.
The Diamondbacks gave him a five-year extension just before Opening Day, showing faith in a 26-year-old, homegrown pitcher who introduced himself to audiences during a clutch 2023 postseason.
With Zac Gallen hitting free agency and Corbin Burnes recovering from Tommy John surgery, there is little certainty when looking at the 2026 rotation at the start of the year. The incumbents are Ryne Nelson coming off an excellent season, Eduardo Rodriguez in Year 3 of his $80 million contract that has yet to pay dividends and Pfaadt.
Pfaadt had his ups and downs in 2024 but was a consistent presence. He led the team with 32 starts and 181.2 innings pitched, important for a rotation dealing with injuries.
He continued to prove his durability without missing a start in 2025.
Pfaadt opened the year really well, too, providing a 2.78 ERA through his first six games for a team record of 5-1.
Then his season turned for the worse. He allowed 30 earned runs over 29.2 innings in his next seven appearances, kicking his season ERA above five, which is where it hovered for most of the season.
“There were some moments where he carried this team and then there were some mistakes that he paid for,” manager Torey Lovullo said after his final start. “That shows up in his earned run average and his overall record. We believe in him, and the fact that he went out there and pitched another full season was extremely meaningful. He’s just gonna continue to get better and learn and grow. I know there were some growing pains. It was frustrating for him.”
Pfaadt adjusted his arsenal this season by adding a cutter, lowering his four-seam/sweeper usage and increasing his use of changeups, curveballs and sinkers. The sinker-cutter combination allowed him to split the plate and find answers against both lefties and righties, something to build on as he won’t have to depend as much on the four-seamer.
A big deal, however, was that the sweeper was not nearly as effective as a putaway pitch for Pfaadt this season, as opponents hit .284 with a .370 wOBA (weighted on-base average) against it. Those numbers were .215 and .292 last year, respectively, plus the whiff rate dropped from 36% to 33%.
In general, Pfaadt did not draw enough swings and misses with his breaking balls.
“ I think the slider, that was kind of hit-or-miss all year,” Pfaadt said. “Tightening that up first will go a long way. That’s my best pitch … Just wasn’t moving the right way and we had to resort to other stuff.”
Brandon Pfaadt, 85mph Sweeper (ball) and 94mph Painted Sinker, Individual Pitches + Overlay.
Why you'd take the Sinker. pic.twitter.com/3ptYXuePln
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 23, 2025
Pfaadt maintained that focusing on other pitches did not take away from his work with the sweeper, but that will be a priority going into the offseason.
Not having that swing-and-miss pitch played a key role in Pfaadt’s strikeout rate dropping from 24.3% to 19.2%, which dipped below the 22% league average.
Pfaadt also lowered his walk rate to 4.8%, which was the third best in baseball. The counterbalance, however, was that he allowed the second most hits, seeing his hard hit rate and exit velocity climb to career-high marks.
Avoiding walks is great, and it helped him get deep into many starts (6+ innings 15 times), but catching too much of the plate too often wasn’t the most effective trade-off.
He gave up 26 home runs, a career high, but the pattern in which he did was bizarre.
Pfaadt gave up 22 home runs on the road and four at home, despite making one more Chase Field start (17) than road start (16).
Everything was way worse on the road, from his strikeouts (63 to 84), OPS allowed (.945 to .655) and WHIP (1.53 to 1.17).
He was asked several times during the second half what could be happening away from Chase Field, and it was tough to find an answer, especially considering he performed better on the road in 2024.
And his home stats are weighed down by his eight-run, no-out dud against the Washington Nationals. Without that start, his home ERA was 2.50 in 16 games.
To begin the final homestand of the regular season, the Diamondbacks won the first two games against the San Francisco Giants and turned the ball over the Pfaadt in the series finale.
Pfaadt should have received a standing ovation with D-backs Swing playing to close out a sweep, as he delivered nine shutout innings with one hit allowed on 97 pitches, a potential Maddux (complete-game shutout in under 100 pitches). He has had a knack for the big moment since the playoff run.
The D-backs, however, failed to score in the first nine innings of the game and lost 5-1 in 11 frames, one of several heartbreakers the team experienced just in the final two weeks of the season.
“ The nine innings, that’s something to build on,” Pfaadt said. “That’s kind of the good I’m talking about. I think building on those outings and figuring out what went wrong on in the bad ones, you can always make yourself better.”
General manager Mike Hazen explained Pfaadt’s extension by saying the organization felt he was close to reaching his potential in 2024. He evolved in certain ways but ultimately did not make the anticipated leap in 2025, but confidence remains present that he can get there.
The D-backs need him to.
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Comments
6 Comments
Please stop with these “if the dog didn’t stop to take a crap, he would have caught the rabbit.” as well as these selective stats (ie Pfaadt had a 0.0 game era before the start of the game).
The baseball season is 162 games and the playoff teams are based upon those 162 games, not home games, games in April, etc.
The fact is simple: Pfaadt had a bad season, he had the highest ERA among the Dbacks starters at the end and he was one of the 9 worst starters. Stop sugar coating his season. In the real world, he will be put on a PIP…doesn’t improve, he is fired. Hopefully, he will pitch much better than his 2025 season.
Ah no, it seems you are inflicted with the "what have you done for us lately" virus. Do you recall at the start of the season the D-Backs were projected to have one of the best starting pitcher groups in the entire league? The Pfaadt Man was part of that belief.
Here's one for you Mr. Excellence or nothing. Do you now view Billy Billichick as a total coaching failure fraud due to his current colossal failure as a college coach in North Carolina? Should he give back his seven Super Bowl rings? (Or ditch the young babe that's diverting his concentration?)
Sports isn't the mundane business world. There are no fierce 240 pound violent linebackers trying to destroy an employee's objectives and performance. There aren't an army of $25 million dollars of obsessive coaches and video scrutinizers trying to exploit every weakness they detect in your employees to totally destroy their abilities to do their jobs. Different world. You can't equate the two. But nice try.
In the corporate world, I used to give yearly performance reviews. I had employees who used to say "I had one good month" or "I met 50% of my objectives" and etc. My responses were "it is good that you had one good month/one quarter but it is expected to have 12 months of good performance not just one month." or "It is expected to meet all of your objectives."
Pfaadt had some good performances but overall, his performance for the 2025 season was poor...you have to look at the entirely of his boday of work...having an ERA over 5.00 and being one of the nine worst starters in the MLB tell the tale of his overall performance.
If the Dbacks are going to win a NCLS or a WS, they need to have quality pitching...starters, mid-relievers and closers. The pitching for Dbacks for the past six seasons have ranked between # 20 and # 30...in other words, the bottom of the MLB.
It seems like you accept mediocrity...I accept excellence. The Dbacks can't build for the future and compete for the NCLS and WS with pitchers with an ERA of 5.0+.
.