4-11-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
The Reds open the weekend series in Cincinnati with one of their top offseason acquisitions, Brady Singer, on the bump for the Friday evening game with the Pirates.
Following 5 seasons with the Kansas City Royals where he went 36-44 with a 4.28 ERA in 685.1 innings, Singer was traded to Cincinnati for former Rookie of the Year, Jonathan India which provided a top-of-the-order bat for KC and another rotational piece for the oft-injured Cincy squad.
Singer has had two excellent starts to open his tenure in the Queen City, posting a 2.25 ERA and 2-0 record with 15 strikeouts to just 3 walks over his 12 innings pitched this year.
His ERA has him ranked 35th among starting pitchers with 10+ innings, his xFIP is the 21st lowest among this group and his FIP ranks 2nd best, indicating potential sustainability behind his early 2025 success.
Last time Singer faced the Pirates on September 15, he allowed 4 runs in 5 innings off 6 hits and 4 walks with 6 strikeouts but he’s made some changes since moving to Ohio.
Previously, Singer primarily relied on a low-90s sinker and low-80s slider combination, mixing in a 4-seamer in the low-90s, a low-80s sweeper and an infrequent and ineffective changeup that averaged 88.
Now, he’s ditched the changeup which was hit at a .429 clip last year and added a cut-fastball which he has deployed as a weapon against lefties and has proven successful in the early going, generating the lowest average exit velocity among his offerings.
He’s also picking his pitches better overall, focusing on getting strikeouts over just generating weak contact. His jump from 22.3% K rate last year to 30.6% this season is one of the highest increases among qualifying pitchers from last season while subsequently reducing his walk rate from 7.1% to 6.1%.
It’s just two starts and not necessarily a gold standard for how he will perform moving forward but early returns are strong for Singer.
Keys to winning will be going heavy with lefties and trying to force Singer off the cutter in those instances.
Lefties are batting .261/.308/.348 compared to .182/.217/.227 for righties against Singer. And the cutter has been the most effective pitch at neutralizing left handed hitters as they’ve hit .375 against the slider this year while, despite only batting .125 against the sinker this season, hit the pitch at a .288 rate last year.
He is going to try crowding hitters with these offerings, working the sinker/slider when he’s behind in counts to get into the zone. The team has to be ready to pounce when he puts something out that is music to their ears.
Steel City Pirates 
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