Diamond Echoes Extra: The Great Velocity Climb

Today's column followed baseball's hardest throwers across 114 years. This Extra steps back and asks a wider question. How much has the typical pitcher changed? Using data from MLB Statcast and the research of FanGraphs, the answer is clear. The average pitcher in 2026 throws almost 3 mph harder than in 2008.

The Numbers
The table below shows the league-wide average velocity of the four-seam fastball, the pitch most hurlers use as their hardest. MLB's pitch-tracking data starts in 2008, so that is where the table begins. The yearly averages come from Statcast through Baseball Savant, with the 2025 and 2026 figures reported by the Associated Press.

Average Fastball Velocity, 2008 to 2026

A word on method. From 2008 through 2016, cameras tracked each pitch. In 2017, TrackMan Doppler radar became the official source, and it reads the ball at the moment of release. A tenth of a mile per hour between neighboring years may reflect that change. The big picture, a steady climb, holds up either way.

Why 3 mph Matters
The league average was 91.9 mph in 2008 and reached a record 94.8 mph in 2026. That gain of 2.9 mph sounds small. It is not. The average fastball now arrives faster than the hardest pitches of many careers once did.

The best evidence is at the very top of the scale. In 2008, big league pitchers threw only 214 pitches at 100 mph or faster. In 2026, they threw a record 5,687, more than 26 times as many. The old record was 3,880, set in 2023. In 2025, Mason Miller of the Athletics threw 43.4 percent of his pitches at 100 mph or more.

Baseball America's J.J. Cooper found another way to see it. In 2008, a pitcher who averaged 92 mph threw harder than 58 percent of his peers. By 2023, the same 92 mph beat only 17.8 percent. Speed that once marked a hard thrower now marks an ordinary one.

What Comes Next
The trend shows no sign of slowing. In 2026, right-handers averaged 95.3 mph and relievers averaged 95.0. Left-handers lagged at 93.5. Pitchers age 25 or younger averaged 95.9 mph, a sign that the next wave arrives even harder. October brings more heat still. Postseason fastballs averaged 92.1 mph in 2008 and 95.3 mph in 2022.

Velocity does not guarantee success, as Brewers manager Pat Murphy has noted. Still, every extra mile an hour takes a little time away from the hitter. Over nearly two decades, that has changed how pitchers are trained, how bullpens are built, and how batters prepare.

Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, and Nolan Ryan each held the title of baseball's hardest thrower. Today, the whole league is closing in on them, and Jacob Misiorowski is the proof of how far the climb has come.

Credit for the data belongs to MLB Statcast and FanGraphs, whose work has made this history measurable.

Sources
MLB Statcast and Baseball Savant, four-seam fastball velocity, 2008 through 2023, as published in J.J. Cooper, "Ever-Climbing Velocity Pushes Hitters to the Brink," Baseball America, September 27, 2023.

Ronald Blum, Associated Press, citing MLB Statcast, "The fast get faster: MLB pitchers again set fastball velocity record by averaging 94.8 mph," September 29, 2026; and "Flamethrowers rule mound as right-hander average 4-seam fastball reaches 95 mph," September 30, 2025.

Devan Fink, "Fastball Velocities Are Already Up," FanGraphs, April 9, 2021.

The 2024 average is approximate, based on the AP's report that the 2025 average rose 0.2 mph.