But a cutter could help Kirby reverse two tendencies that came to a head last August when he gave up three homers per nine innings and had an ERA near seven and everyone wondered what was going on.

The biggest takeaway from Kirby's start was a new cutter. Kirby threw the cutter just 11 times out of 2,967 total pitches in 2024, according to Baseball Savant. Kirby is already one of the best ...

From the blade-throwing Cutter to the hard-pounding Stone, the prickly-bodied Needle to the electrifying Spark nearly all of Kirby's classic transformations owe their origin to this late 1992 NES ...