No, the sweeper is not dead. Its whiff rate has fallen since its peak, part of that drop is a labeling artifact, and good sweepers still miss plenty of bats. What did end is the period when simply having a sweeper was a big edge. That shift is a useful lesson in how every pitch trend plays out, and it points to where pitch design is heading next.
What happened to sweeper whiff rates?
Using pitch-weighted data from Baseball Savant's sweeper leaderboard, the whiff rate on Statcast-labeled sweepers looks like this [1]:
| Season | Sweeper whiff rate (approx.) |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 36.9% |
| 2022 | 33.6% |
| 2023 | 32.8% |
| 2024 | 31.5% |
| 2025 | 31.5% |
| 2026 | 31.2% |
Analyst Lance Brozdowski, using a slightly different calculation, reports 36.1% in 2021 and 31.7% in 2025 [2]. Either way, about five points of whiff rate disappeared, and the decline flattened after 2024.
Usage tells the other half of the story. Brozdowski estimates the league added roughly 10,000 sweepers per season from 2020 to 2025, with growth slowing sharply: just under 8,000 more from 2023 to 2025, compared with over 28,000 from 2021 to 2023 [2]. Driveline's coaches note that in 2018 the shape was under 1% of pitches with a whiff rate near 40%; as usage rose, in their words, the world caught up [3].
Hitters adjusted, and the labels changed
Two forces explain the drop. The first is hitter adaptation. When a shape is rare, hitters have no reference for it. Once every bullpen has three of them, hitters train against it and learn to lay off the ones that start out of the zone. Driveline retrains its stuff model regularly for exactly this reason [4].
The second is classification. Statcast's labels follow what pitchers and teams call their pitches, so as "sweeper" became fashionable, more ordinary sliders got the name. Brozdowski cites one public analyst's estimate that roughly 60% of the whiff decline comes from labeling and 40% from hitter adaptation. Using a fixed movement definition instead of labels, he finds sweepers grew from about 4% of pitches in 2018 to about 7%, with a much smaller whiff drop of around three points [2].
The pitch was not new, either. Corey Kluber threw what would now be an above-average sweeper, about 84 mph with 2 inches of vertical break and 15 inches of sweep, from 2014 to 2018 [2]. Craig Counsell, quoted by Brozdowski, called the sweeper label "all marketing" back in 2024 [2]. That overstates it, but the shape existed long before the name.
Why the sweeper is still a weapon
A 31% whiff rate is excellent. Driveline reports MLB fastball whiff rates have sat around 21.5% to 22% even as velocity climbed [4]. A good sweeper still gets swings and misses at a rate most pitches never reach.
What changed is the bar. An average sweeper used to be enough because hitters rarely saw one. Now hitters see them daily, so a sweeper has to be good on its own merits: thrown hard enough, and paired with pitches that keep hitters honest. Tread's coaches argue that a 12-inch sweeper thrown harder and with better command can beat a 21-inch version that costs six miles an hour [5], and Bannister coaches less sweep once it passes about 17 inches, the width of the plate [6].
Find your overlap
See which pitches blur together
Pitch AI's Pitch Lab flags overlapping pitches and ranks what to work on next. Log velo, IVB, spin, axis and release, and the movement chart shows whether your sweeper, slider and cutter are doing different jobs.
What pitch is replacing the sweeper?
No single pitch is replacing it, but several trends are growing.
- Splitters. Driveline reports MLB splitter usage roughly doubled after 2022 [7]. On Savant's arsenal leaderboard, splitters rose from about 11,300 pitches in 2022 to about 23,200 in 2025 [1].
- The kick change. Tread Athletics found it in 2023 by pulling outlier changeups out of their data, then refined it with athletes. The ring finger drives the pitch, and it holds velocity at about 8 to 10 mph below the fastball [8].
- The death ball. Tread's name for a hard "downer" breaking ball with almost no horizontal break and real depth, roughly +2 to -2 inches of horizontal and -3 to -9 inches of vertical break. Tread found velocity mattered more than total depth for whiffs on these pitches [9].
- The vertical slider. In 2026, Driveline named this close cousin of the death ball its pick for the next big pitch: within about 10 mph of the fastball, more drop than sweep, and under 4 inches of glove-side movement. Driveline estimates it is about 1% of pitches with a whiff rate near 40%, thrown consistently by about a dozen MLB pitchers. They say it suits higher slots with a slight supination bias [3].
Driveline also points to "missing" shapes nobody throws much. Of 267 pitchers with at least 25 cutters by mid-September 2025, only 57 averaged double-digit vertical break, and only two reached 15 inches, one of them Kenley Jansen [7]. Tread was already describing a positive-vertical "ride cutter" for low-slot sinker pitchers back in 2022 [10], so this idea has been circulating for a while.
Fit beats fashion
The bigger trend is a change in philosophy. Driveline argues the next phase of pitch design is individualizing arsenals: fitting the right existing shapes to each pitcher's release, with fewer brand-new pitches being invented [7]. Its tools measure how alike two pitches look out of the hand (linked to whiffs) and how distinct they are (linked to called strikes). Trevor Rogers, for example, had pitches that looked alike out of the hand but lacked enough contrast, so he worked on a sweeper to add a different look [7].
For an individual pitcher, chasing whichever pitch is trending is a weak plan. A shape that fights your hand takes longer to learn and usually comes out slower. A shape your release reaches easily will hold velocity and repeat. If you are a high-slot pitcher with a natural tendency to get around the ball, a hard downer may suit you better than a sweeper. If you are a low-slot supinator, the sweeper may still be your best breaking ball [9][3][11]. Our guide to arm slot and pitch shapes explains why.
What this means for your sweeper
- If your sweeper works, keep it. Results against hitters outrank league trends.
- If it is slow and huge, try a harder, tighter version. Compare whiffs and strike rate, and see our guide on how to throw a sweeper.
- If it blurs into your slider or cutter, separate them or drop one. Two pitches in the same lane give hitters one thing to look for. Our slider guide and cutter guide cover the alternatives.
- If you need depth, look at off-speed options. A splitter or kick change might solve the problem a second breaking ball cannot. See splitter or changeup.
To understand why the grading models keep shifting, read what Stuff+ measures. Next in this series, we follow three pitchers through full seasons in how Ben Brown and Kyle Harrison transformed their pitches.
Frequently asked questions
Is the sweeper still a good pitch?
Yes. Statcast-tagged sweepers still produced a whiff rate of about 31.5% in 2025, well above the roughly 22% MLB fastball whiff rate Driveline reports. Average sweepers get exposed faster than they used to, while good ones still work.
Why did sweeper whiff rates go down?
Two reasons. Hitters adjusted as sweepers spread across the league, and more pitches were labeled sweepers, including weaker versions. Using a fixed movement definition, Lance Brozdowski found a whiff drop of only about three points.
What is a vertical slider?
Driveline describes it as a hard breaking ball within about 10 mph of the fastball, with more drop than sweep and under 4 inches of glove-side movement. It is close to the pitch Tread calls the death ball, and Driveline says it suits higher-slot pitchers with a slight supination bias.
Should a high school pitcher learn a sweeper?
Only if it fits the hand and slot and solves a real matchup problem. Brian Bannister coaches less sweep once it passes about 17 inches because command suffers, and a harder, more compact breaking ball is often the better project.
Fit over fashion
Build the arsenal your release reaches
Pitch AI's Pitch Lab flags overlapping pitches and ranks what to work on next, and it logs every grip change so you can see whether a trendy shape actually suits your hand.
References
- Baseball Savant, MLB Advanced Media. Statcast pitch-level search and Pitch Arsenal Stats leaderboards, 2021 to 2026 seasons; retrieved and summarized by Pitch AI on October 14, 2026. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com
- Brozdowski L (2026). The Sweeper is Dead. YouTube, February 13, 2026. https://youtu.be/ndnV6RNZcR0
- Driveline Baseball (Lambert J, White C) (2026). What's the Next Sweeper? YouTube podcast, July 28, 2026. https://youtu.be/QPzFR4GNxdk
- Lambert J (2024). Revisiting Stuff+: An Update on Driveline's Methodology to Quantifying Pitch Design. Driveline Baseball, May 31, 2024. https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2024/05/revisiting-stuff-plus/
- Tread Athletics (2025). Top Pitching Velocity Hacks To Try. YouTube, November 23, 2025. https://youtu.be/SLZe8s4uSkY
- Tread Athletics (2022). Brian Bannister: Mastering Pitch Design (podcast). YouTube, December 22, 2022. https://youtu.be/E0yoPt42A5Q
- Sawchik T (2025). The search for missing pitches. Driveline Baseball, September 22, 2025. https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2025/09/the-search-for-missing-pitches-has-pitch-design-given-the-game-all-the-shapes-it-needs-or-are-we-at-the-end-of-the-beginning/
- Tread Athletics (2024). What Is The 'Kick Change' And How Do You Throw It? YouTube, August 20, 2024. https://youtu.be/nXHXvtLelR4
- Tread Athletics (Zombro T) (2024). What Is The 'Death Ball' And How Do You Throw It? YouTube, October 31, 2024. https://youtu.be/THd6Ch2VMks
- Tread Athletics (Zombro T) (2022). Grips And Tips On How To Dominate Hitters With Your Cutter. YouTube, May 31, 2022. https://youtu.be/PLjMb6s4tQM
- Pitch AI (2026). Pitch Design Playbook, with Pitch Trial Log and Pitch Decision Log templates. Internal coaching synthesis, September 2026.