Braydon Fisher is emerging as a reliable arm in the Blue Jays’ bullpen

June 7th, 2024 – the day the Toronto Blue Jays designated Cavan Biggio for assignment, ending a seven-year tenure with the organization. Five days later, on June 12th, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a double-A reliever by the name of Braydon Fisher. At the time, it seemed inconspicuous enough. A 26th man on the roster is getting dealt for a depth reliever who was pitching in double-A. Fast-forward one year, and Braydon Fisher has turned into one of the key relievers in a very good Blue Jays bullpen.

How did we get here?

Fisher was a former fourth-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers back in the 2018 amateur draft straight out of Clear Falls High School. He entered pro ball and made nine starts with the ACL Dodgers that same year. The following season, the Dodgers turned Fisher into a full-time reliever, believing his stuff would play up in shorter spurts. Throughout his time in the minor leagues, Fisher consistently missed bats with proficiency, averaging 12.5 K/9; however, he also ran high walk rates simultaneously (averaging 5.87 BB/9). The Dodgers farm system has consistently been in the upper echelon amongst Major League Baseball so Fisher had seen his stock drop as other arms in the system passed him by over the years, which made it easy for them to cut bait on the right-hander when an opportunity arose to acquire a super-utility player in Biggio for their bench.

Once the reliever joined the Blue Jays, they did some slight tinkering to his mechanics, mainly changing his arm slot so he would start releasing the ball at a higher release point to better the movement of his curveball and slider. This change paid immediate dividends, as Fisher almost instantly lowered his walk rate by nearly 3% while losing nothing off of his swing and miss ratios. Blue Jays brass seemed to take notice, too, especially during spring training. John Schneider’s name-dropped Fisher multiple times during the spring as someone who had impressed him during his bullpen sessions and even in game action.

It seemed all the young right-hander needed was an opportunity to showcase himself, and that opportunity came on May 7th when the team designated Dillon Tate for assignment and picked up Fisher’s contract.

Since getting the call-up to the show, all Braydon Fisher has done is absolutely shove. If you filter all Blue Jays relievers by a minimum of 10 innings pitched this season, you’ll find Fisher’s name at the top of multiple key categories, including: K% (41.7), BB% (2.1), K-BB% (39.6), and SIERA (1.11). However, the most impressive metric of them all may be that he’s second on the team in fWAR, and trails Brendon Little by just .2 despite pitching in 17 fewer innings. How has he done this, you may be wondering? With a devastating slider/curveball mix. Both pitches have returned a 30% whiff rate or better, both pitches have extremely low expected batting averages against (.212 for the slider and .231 for the curveball), and most importantly, hitters are making extremely soft contact against those two offerings (86 MPH average EV).