Remember the name of Cardinals prospect Darlin Saladin

Secondary Pitches

Saladin's secondary stuff leaves something to be desired at the moment. His changeup is his best secondary, and he throws it 22% of the time against lefties. The movement profile isn't special, but he tunnels his fastball well off it, and his pitch command is solid. He zones the pitch 50.9% of the time, often locating the pitch low and away from lefties (Data: TruMedia).

Much like his fastball, the pitch induces a ton of chase, racking up a 37% chase rate. Left-handed hitters are whiffing 36.4% of the time against the offering.

Saladin's go-to secondary against righties (23.8% usage) is his slider. Baseball Savant classifies the pitch as both a slider and curveball, but the movement profile is pretty much the same. The offering grades out poorly stuff-wise, and the command of it is not great either. Saladin is zoning the pitch 40% of the time. He often misses location far outside to his glove side (Data: TruMedia).

The offering averages only 81.5 mph with 0.7" IVB and minimal sweep (gyro-slider). At that velocity, I seriously question the viability of the pitch, and it has been his worst-performing offering.

Wrap-Up

Although Saladin's secondary stuff is a work in progress, I am enarmed by his fastball, which gives him a solid foundation to build off of. Saladin has produced throughout his young professional career, and in 21 innings pitched this year for Palm Beach, he has a 3.00 ERA while striking out 27.4% of batters and only walking 6% of hitters. Darlin Saladin is a fascinating 21-year-old right-handed pitcher, and you will learn to remember the name.