Bryan Abreu Just Makes It Look Easy

Orange Fire post from contributer Jules Hughan. Follow Jules on Blue Sky at @juleshughan.bsky.social

Bryan Abreu faced four batters on Thursday against the Marlins. He struck out three of them on 16 pitches. Simple. Efficient. Two pitches, both working. Nothing forced. Nothing off tempo. Just execution.

The fastball averaged 96.4 mph with 18.6 inches of vertical break and over six and a half feet of extension. It had a little arm-side run, but that wasn’t the point. He kept it up in the zone, threw from a 39-degree slot, and gave hitters a shape they had to commit to early. It’s not overpowering, but it holds its line and sneaks under barrels. He used it just over half the time and picked up a few clean whiffs in advantage counts. Exactly what you want up in the zone.

Then came the slider. 83.8 mph with nearly 10 inches of sweep. He threw it 44% of the time and got swings on almost all of them. Three of the four were whiffs. The spin sat at 2796 rpm. Shape held firm. It moved over 14 inches off the fastball but came out of nearly the same release. Just a five-degree difference in arm angle. The tunnel held all the way through.

He didn’t try to do too much. The slider landed just off the edge or clipped the zone. The fastball kept hitters honest. Everything was quick. Clean. Efficient. No chasing whiffs. No forcing velo. Just shape and timing doing the work.

Outlook for 2025

Abreu enters 2025 as Houston’s setup man behind Josh Hader, but he’s pitching like a closer. The slider is filthy. The fastball holds up. He’s commanding both, and the tempo is locked in. The back of this bullpen looks sharp, and with more save situations likely this year, Abreu should get plenty of high leverage chances. He’d be closing for most teams.