Change your team, change everything. Have these five pitchers unlocked hidden upside post-deadline?

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So much can change for a starting pitcher who is traded at the deadline. Not only do they get a new set of defenders behind them, a new lineup supporting them and a new lease on life (for those leaving bad teams for contenders), but they also get to interact with a new coaching staff.

The acquiring team almost certainly had a plan in place for the pitcher when he was acquired. Good enough is not good enough — the new pitching coach and his staff are usually eager to change the pitch mix, alter some mechanics and see if they can squeeze a little more quality out of their new arm.

Let’s take a look at five of the starting pitchers who made the most aggressive changes since they were dealt and see if they’ve uncovered some hidden upside in the three weeks since. I’m Eno Sarris — welcome to The Windup!

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Tarik Skubal, LHP, Los Angeles Dodgers 

No pitcher traded at the deadline saw their stuff numbers improve from July to August as much as Skubal has thus far. (Here’s a refresher on what “stuff” means.) And when something like that happens, you look first to the velocity.

In July, Skubal’s fastball dipped to 96.4 mph, the lowest average velocity in a month for him since April 2024. In every game with the Dodgers since, he’s averaged over 97 mph and recovered the kind of velocity that spurred him to two straight Cy Young wins.

That’s not the only thing that changed when Skubal moved west. His changeup, which had been flattening out, gained an inch of drop, and he started featuring it more than he had all year. But even that made him more like he was last year and less like he was earlier this season with the Tigers.

Maybe he’s a little further out from the elbow surgery he had earlier this year and is feeling healthier. Or maybe moving to a team with another championship on its mind spurred another level of competitiveness.

“Pressure has always been a privilege to me,” Skubal said in his first comments after joining the Dodgers. “I’m excited. It’s what fuels me.”

José Soriano, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays

How much should you throw a pitch that is not great by itself but opens up better possibilities for your other pitches? This is a core question that has had different answers over time. Baseball has shifted back and forth between “just throw your best pitches the most often” and “throw as many pitches as possible.” And it looks like the Angels and Blue Jays may have had different perspectives on this debate.

Soriano is, at heart, a sinker guy. He throws a high-90s bowling ball that has five inches more drop than average, and few starting pitchers get more ground balls from their sinkers. But strikeouts still matter, and to open up the bottom of the strike zone for his curveball and splitter, he’s thrown an OK four-seamer at the top of the zone.

But the four-seamer has been his worst pitch this year by results, allowing a .487 slugging and getting the fewest whiffs among his primary pitches. So the Jays seem to have decided that the ideal amount of meh four-seamers is lower than what he’d been showing with the Angels.

Has it worked? The book is unwritten. His strikeout rate is down, his ground-ball rate is up, his walk rate is down and the overall results looked pretty good until an outing against the Yankees on Sunday in which his bullpen did not help things. The debate continues.

Tyler Mahle, RHP, Atlanta Braves

Modifying a starting pitcher’s mix is the easiest way to effect change quickly. So when Mahle came to the Braves, they saw the slugging percentage over .500 on the cutter, and the poor stuff model numbers, and they made an easy decision. They immediately cut its usage in half, favoring the splitter that Jeff Fassero taught Mahle in Cincinnati when he changed Mahle’s fortunes as a starting pitcher.

Boom, new starting pitcher. Mahle’s been a revelation for Atlanta, with strikeout and walk rates better than he’s seen since 2023 in Minnesota, and a sparkling 1.52 ERA to boot. Job’s done, high fives for everyone, time to go home.

Not quite. Mahle had been throwing a little harder over the course of the season, treading water above 93 mph for his last three starts with the Giants. He’d also completely turfed his slider, which wasn’t working for him. So there were some good signs going into this — and there is still some risk in being a two-pitch pitcher with a 94-mph fastball in today’s game — but the Braves did help him get better, and that’s the name of the game.

Freddy Peralta, RHP, Tampa Bay Rays

The process of onboarding Freddy Peralta to the Rays has made him more a Ray and also more himself.

To become more of a Ray, he’s thrown the changeup more. The Rays throw more changeups than anyone in the game right now, and the pitch has been a good one for Peralta. No pitcher traded at the deadline altered their usage of any one pitch as much as Peralta did with this pitch. 

But the pitch and the pitcher had been struggling this year, so other changes are going on underneath the hood. In particular, Peralta has always been known for great extension — releasing the ball close to the plate — and that’s dropped this season. The Rays found a way to get him going back down the mound.

This one hasn’t turned into success in the box score yet. No peripherals support the idea that he’s just been unlucky with the Rays, either. But it’s still exciting, the possibility of getting him back to the Freddy of yore while also making him fit in with a staff that has been a top-10 unit in the big leagues this year.

Robbie Ray, LHP, San Diego Padres

The changes due to the ABS challenge system this year have been largely at the top of the strike zone. At one point, that led Ray to all but abandon his best pitch, the four-seam fastball, because of the difficulty of getting called strikes on the top rail. He told me the top of the zone was dead and started going all in on sinkers. 

The good news is that the Padres have reversed that trend. While the strategy was working in top-line results for Ray, it was reducing his strikeout rate and increasing his walk rate, and didn’t look like it was a great recipe for lasting success. He’s thrown more four-seamers with every game with the Friars.

It hasn’t changed the peripherals, though. Ray has struck out 10 batters against 11 walks in 15 innings in San Diego, and that ratio needs to change if he’s going to be part of what looks like a good story for Padres fans.

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Handshakes and High Fives

Every team has one big looming question left to answer in this week’s Power Rankings. Here’s what we ask every franchise.

Cal Raleigh had his best game of the season against the Phillies, hitting three home runs. Is he finally heating up? Just may be.

Speaking of … bye bye, Phillies win streak.

“I think it’s a little bulls— when it comes from a coach.” D-Backs pitcher Merrill Kelly accused the Cubs of relaying signs.

And Ketel Marte is on track to be activated off the 10-day IL early next week.

We also got another gem from 12-year-old Kinley Rasmus in the Little League World Series. Yesterday, she tied the record for most strikeouts by a girl in series history.

Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Kyle Schwarber’s demure posture after his walk-off homer in an epic Phillies comeback.

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