Mike Burrows had a career-best 11 strikeouts last outing. The 25-year-old made his MLB debut last September, making one appearance, logging 3.1 relief innings. Burrows hasn’t had his second try, but one would imagine that chance is any day now. The 2023 and 2024 seasons were cut short for Burrows due to Tommy John surgery, and he may still be in the later stages of returning. In 2022, he and Gavin Stone were amidst breakout seasons. Both of their changeups impressed over and over and were big parts of their successes, particularly Burrows’ career-long reverse splits. These respective changeup stories may have taken different paths. After reviewing this outing, Burrows’ changeup sucked me in again. Here’s Burrows’ pitch mix on the day:
Burrows’ 17 changeups this day were the most he’d thrown in any 2025 outing. Digging into Savant’s samples, he’s thrown 60 of them on the season, roughly 15% of his arsenal. It’s earned a 37 CSW%, 65.5 Whiff%, and .000 BAA. It’s been put into play three times. One you will see here, one was another weak contact, and once it got hit very hard by Will Benson, but of course, for an out,
Albeit small samples, here’s Burrows 2023, pre-injury:
2024 post injury:mn
2025:
Here are the four hits the change has allowed in this small sample:
Some pretty elite pitch production…but does a 2025 53% strike rate signal a whammy? Let’s see what his best changeup day of 2025 might say. Changeups are in color:
All things considered, Burrows might not be feeling the changeup all that well. Getting there, perhaps. Having taken in many Burrows looks over the years, it’s no surprise that a career day of any sort involves this offering doing some work. Burrows can dominate when this third-ish pitch is pulling weight. Much less exciting for a dynasty owner when it isn’t. It’s my opinion, even though it’s a 15 to 20% offering, it’s a pivotal tool, and Burrows will go as his changeup does when he hits the bigs again. He takes the mound for Indianapolis tonight in one of the doubleheader games, and I’ll be keeping tabs.