Jhoan Duran might throw even harder in 2023.
The electrifying Minnesota Twins reliever led the majors in 2022 with an average four-seam fastball velocity of 100.8 mph. At TwinsFest in Minneapolis on Saturday, Duran said he thinks he can heat his fastball up to 105 mph this season.
Last season, Duran's hardest pitch was a 103.3 mph fastball that he threw to Cleveland's Franmil Reyes on May 14.
According to Baseball Savant, there were 23 pitches of at least 103 mph in the big leagues last season. Duran had 10 of them. Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals threw nine and the other four belonged to Andres Munoz (2), Felix Bautista and Jordan Hicks.
Helsley was the only pitcher to have his fastball clocked at 104 mph. He did it twice.
Nobody hit 105 mph.
Duran's average splitter velocity also led the majors at 96.4 mph. The next closest was 92.5 mph and only four pitchers threw a splitter averaging 90-plus mph. What's crazy is that Duran was the only pitcher in the majors to hit 98 mph with a splitter in 2022 and he did it 29 times.
He threw six splitters at 99 mph and one of those hit 100 mph.
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