The breaking ball was supposed to dive. Instead, it hung there, waist-high, waiting for Giancarlo Stanton to punish it.
On May 30, 2014, Julio Teheran watched Stanton launch a first-inning slider over the center-field wall in Miami. The pitch had none of its usual bite. Two runs were in, and Atlanta’s young starter suddenly had a problem.
Behind the plate, Evan Gattis faced a decision no scouting report could make for him. Stanton was dangerous enough against a complete pitching arsenal. Now Teheran’s slider had become something the slugger could feast on.
The battery changed course.
Gattis and Teheran attacked Stanton with more fastballs, and the slugger grounded into a double play in the third before popping out in the sixth. Teheran worked 7⅓ innings without allowing another run. Atlanta won 3-2.
Afterward, Teheran admitted his slider hadn’t worked the way he wanted. Rather than keep forcing it, he trusted his fastball.
That sounds simple until you’re the catcher staring at a hitter who can send one mistake halfway across the bleachers. Abandoning a trusted pitch means rewriting the game plan while the opponent watches every adjustment.
The First Warning Comes Through the Catcher’s Mitt
A catcher usually recognizes a dying breaking ball before the scoreboard reflects the damage.
The warning might arrive as a slider that backs up toward the middle. Perhaps a curveball bounces three feet short of the plate. Sometimes the pitch spins beautifully out of the hand but refuses to finish its movement.
Those are different problems, and treating them alike can get a starter shelled.
A sweeper might travel more than a foot sideways when everything clicks. Take away that horizontal bite, and hitters can track it more comfortably. A traditional 12-6 curveball creates a different challenge, plunging beneath barrels when the pitcher gets on top of it.
Lose the movement, and the hitter gains time.
One Hanging Slider Doesn’t Mean the Pitch Is Dead
A single mistake shouldn’t force a catcher to scrap his entire game plan. Even elite pitchers occasionally hang a slider or yank a curveball into the dirt.
The real concern emerges when the pattern repeats.
Maybe the starter has missed glove-side with three consecutive sliders. Perhaps his breaking ball keeps floating across the same waist-high lane. The catcher might also notice a hitter recognizing spin early and refusing to chase.
Those clues carry more weight than one hard-hit baseball.
Modern Statcast data gives teams another way to diagnose the trouble. Analysts can examine spin rate, horizontal movement, vertical break, and release-point consistency to see whether something has changed.
The numbers become meaningful when they match what the catcher sees.
Imagine a starter whose slider suddenly loses 200 RPM compared with his normal baseline. That hypothetical decline might suggest something has changed with his grip or delivery, but spin rate alone cannot diagnose the problem.
The dugout could examine movement data and video to see whether the pitch has flattened out. A lower release point or reduced glove-side break might support the catcher’s suspicion.
Still, the decisive evidence often comes from the hitter. If three straight sliders produce comfortable takes instead of desperate swings, the battery has a real problem.
When the Scouting Report Becomes a Liability
Pregame preparation gives catchers a detailed roadmap. Analysts identify vulnerable zones, preferred pitch sequences, and the counts where hitters become aggressive.
Then the starter loses his breaking ball.
Suddenly, half the roadmap becomes useless.
Consider a fastball-slider pitcher like Dylan Cease. Baseball Savant’s 2025 tracking data recorded 1,283 four-seam fastballs and 1,243 sliders from Cease, accounting for nearly 83% of his pitches.
That pairing gives hitters two very different problems. His fastball arrives with upper-90s velocity, while the slider breaks away from a right-handed batter’s barrel.
The two pitches also create a tunneling effect. When properly executed, they can share a similar initial flight path before separating, forcing hitters to make decisions before fully identifying the pitch.
Take away the slider, and the fastball becomes easier to anticipate.
Fastballs Alone Won’t Save the Night
You can’t simply spam heaters and expect major league hitters to cooperate. Once they realize the breaking ball has vanished, they start hunting velocity.
The catcher needs to change the location and purpose of each fastball.
An elevated four-seamer might exploit a hitter’s tendency to swing underneath high velocity. A fastball on the inner corner can jam another batter. Against certain hitters, a low sinker offers a better chance of producing a ground ball.
The objective isn’t necessarily to overpower anyone. It’s to keep hitters from getting comfortable.
That requires precision. A 96-mph fastball at the letters presents a different challenge from the same pitch leaking over the heart of the plate.
Without the breaking ball disrupting timing, those few inches become even more valuable.
Finding Another Way to Finish Hitters
The hardest adjustment often comes with two strikes.
A catcher who planned to bury sliders down and away suddenly needs another finishing pitch. If the starter has a dependable changeup, he might use that offering below the zone instead.
Other situations call for an elevated fastball or a cutter that moves just enough to miss the barrel.
The key is finding a pitch the starter can command, not blindly replacing one ineffective offering with another.
Sometimes the catcher must lower his ambitions. Instead of chasing another strikeout, he calls an early-count fastball that gives the defense a chance to make a play.
A routine groundout looks ordinary in the box score. With a compromised arsenal, it can feel like an escape.
Max Scherzer’s October Lesson in Improvisation
Even the best pitchers discover that their favorite weapons don’t always show up when needed.
During Game 1 of the 2016 National League Division Series, Max Scherzer faced the Dodgers with Washington’s postseason hopes resting on his right arm.
The early innings went badly.
Corey Seager attacked a first-pitch fastball for a solo homer. Justin Turner later punished a hanging curveball, and Los Angeles built a 4-0 advantage through three innings.
Scherzer’s usual slider wasn’t cooperating, either.
His catcher, Pedro Severino, explained afterward that the pitch lacked its typical effectiveness. Washington had to lean harder on Scherzer’s changeup and curveball, offerings he generally used less frequently.
The switch helped him settle down.
After Turner’s third-inning homer, Scherzer retired 10 of the final 11 hitters he faced. He completed six innings with five strikeouts and no walks.
Washington still lost 4-3, but the adjustment prevented the afternoon from unraveling further.
That outing exposed the central difficulty of in-game pitch calling. A catcher cannot always rescue the result, even after finding a workable alternative.
Sometimes the best he can do is stop the bleeding.
Scherzer’s recovery also showed why abandoning a struggling slider doesn’t mean abandoning every breaking pitch. His curveball offered a different movement profile, while the changeup gave hitters another speed to respect.
Severino had to work with the pitches available, not the arsenal Washington expected before the first inning.
Reading the Hitter Before He Figures It Out
The opposing batter is solving the same puzzle from the other side.
He begins the game expecting a particular combination of pitches. Once the breaking ball disappears, his approach may change.
A catcher has to recognize that shift before the hitter capitalizes.
Suppose a right-handed batter takes two sliders that fail to reach the strike zone. On the next pitch, he turns aggressively on a fastball and sends it foul into the third-base seats.
That reaction tells the catcher something.
The hitter might be gearing up for velocity because he no longer respects the breaking ball. Throwing another predictable fastball could give him exactly what he wants.
But calling an ineffective slider isn’t necessarily safer.
This is where pitch sequencing becomes more art than formula.
Using the Hitter’s Adjustments Against Him
The catcher might try a changeup that initially resembles the fastball before fading beneath the barrel. If the starter lacks a reliable changeup, changing fastball height could still disturb the hitter’s timing.
An elevated four-seamer followed by one at the knees forces the batter to cover two very different locations.
Another approach involves attacking earlier in the count. Rather than allowing hitters to sit on a predictable two-strike pitch, the catcher searches for quick contact.
That approach carries risk. A fastball left over the plate can disappear into the bleachers just as quickly as a hanging slider.
Still, refusing to adjust creates a different danger: predictability.
Good catchers watch swing paths, body language, and timing from pitch to pitch. They notice the batter who starts leaning toward the outer half or the one who suddenly crowds the plate.
Those details influence the next call.
The original scouting report remains useful, but it no longer gets the final vote.
The Conversation That Can Save a Start
Reading the hitter solves only half the problem. The catcher also needs to know what his pitcher believes he can throw.
A veteran might recognize that his fingers aren’t getting around the slider. Another starter could feel his mechanics slipping and begin tinkering between pitches. Some pitchers keep demanding their favorite weapon long after it stops working.
The catcher has to sort through that uncertainty without letting the inning unravel.
Sometimes he walks to the mound. Other times, a glance toward the dugout or a different pitch call does the job.
Modern PitchCom technology has changed that conversation, especially for pitchers who want more control over their selections.
When the Pitcher Takes Control
During Spring Training in March 2023, Detroit left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez experimented with calling his own pitches through PitchCom.
He started an outing against Philadelphia by throwing 10 consecutive fastballs, using the transmitter attached near his hip to select his offerings.
Rodríguez wasn’t randomly abandoning the rest of his arsenal. He wanted to establish his fastball and build confidence in the pitches that felt comfortable that afternoon.
The approach worked. He delivered three scoreless innings, allowed one hit, and struck out three.
Afterward, Rodríguez explained that calling his own pitches helped him trust the offerings he felt strongest about. He also made clear that his catcher could intervene when another pitch made more sense.
That last part matters.
A pitcher knows how the ball feels leaving his hand. The catcher knows how it looks arriving at the plate. Neither perspective tells the entire story.
In March 2026, Seattle’s George Kirby experimented with a similar setup. He used a PitchCom transmitter to select some of his own offerings during Spring Training.
Kirby’s reasoning centered on conviction. When he strongly preferred a pitch, calling it himself could eliminate repeated shake-offs and keep the game moving.
The technology gave him another layer of control without removing the catcher from the decision.
That’s the delicate balance when a starter loses his breaking ball. A catcher can recognize a hanging slider, but the pitcher might insist he can fix it. The battery must find common ground before the next mistake leaves the yard.
And no matter who presses the PitchCom button, somebody still has to recognize when the pitcher needs help.
The Next Pitch Still Has to Be Trusted
Andrew Abbott offered a revealing glimpse of that balancing act in Cincinnati on July 20, 2023.
The rookie left-hander held the Giants to one hit across eight scoreless innings, struck out six, and retired his final 12 batters. The box score looked pristine. His pitches didn’t feel that way.
Abbott told catcher Luke Maile that his curveball and changeup lacked their usual feel. He kept spiking the pitches into the dirt, leaving him without the reliable secondary command he wanted.
The problem wasn’t visible to anyone scanning his final pitching line.
With help from Maile and pitching coach Derek Johnson, Abbott focused on directing his delivery toward home plate. That adjustment helped him limit the wide misses and attack the strike zone more consistently.
He didn’t need to rediscover every pitch to finish the job.
There’s a quiet kind of authority in that exchange. The catcher must hear what the starter feels, then square it with what the hitter sees. He needs to know when to shelve a pitch, when to sneak it back into the sequence, and when to leave well enough alone.
For a young pitcher, that reassurance can mean everything.
The mound starts feeling smaller when a breaking ball won’t cooperate. Each miss invites another adjustment, another glance toward the dugout, another reminder that the hitter isn’t going anywhere.
A veteran catcher can cut through that noise. He might call three straight fastballs simply because he knows his pitcher needs to feel the ball hit the mitt where he intended.
One strike leads to another. A groundout follows. The pitcher begins working with conviction again.
Baseball keeps giving batteries better tools to diagnose a lost breaking ball. None can manufacture the trust required to survive without it.
The catcher still has to make the call. The pitcher still has to believe in it.
Back in Miami, Teheran and Gattis didn’t repair a slider in the middle of a game. They found another way to face Stanton, even after he had punished them for trusting the wrong pitch.
That’s the hidden work of a catcher: recognizing the moment the game plan dies, then making sure the pitcher’s confidence doesn’t die with it.
And when the next breaking ball spins helplessly toward the plate, the question becomes immediate: Does he trust the pitch that should work, or the one that actually does?
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FAQs
Q1. What happens when an MLB pitcher loses his breaking ball?
The catcher adjusts the pitch sequence, relying on fastball locations, changeups, or other reliable offerings to keep hitters guessing.
Q2. How do catchers know when a breaking ball isn’t working?
They watch for hanging sliders, poor movement, repeated location misses, and hitters who stop chasing pitches outside the strike zone.
Q3. Can a catcher save a pitcher who loses his best pitch?
Yes. A catcher can change pitch selection and restore confidence, as Evan Gattis demonstrated with Julio Teheran in 2014.
Q4. How does PitchCom change pitch calling in MLB?
PitchCom lets pitchers and catchers communicate pitch selections electronically. Some starters, including Eduardo Rodríguez and George Kirby, have experimented with calling their own pitches.
Q5. Why is pitch sequencing important in baseball?
Smart sequencing keeps hitters from anticipating the next pitch. Catchers mix speeds, locations, and movement to create weak contact or missed swings.
