Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports
The Milwaukee Brewers called up lefty Josh Hader. How will he be used and what does his future look like?
Player Profile
The Milwaukee Brewers became the third organization for Josh Hader when they acquired him at the trade deadline in 2015.
Hader was initially drafted in the 19th round of the 2012 draft out of high school in Maryland by the Baltimore Orioles. In his draft season, Hader made 17 relief appearances, throwing 28 2/3 innings between the Orioles' GCL club and their Aberdeen affiliate in the New York-Penn League, posting a combined 1.88 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 8.18 percent walk rate and 43.63 percent strikeout rate.
The Orioles moved Hader to the rotation in 2013, and he stayed in low-A when moved to the Astros, simply moving from the South Atlantic League to the Midwest League. Between the two teams, he made 22 starts, throwing 107 1/3 innings, posting a 2.77 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 11.69 percent walk rate and 20.56 percent strikeout rate.
Hader continued his rise through the minor leagues in 2014, conquering the typically difficult-on-pitchers California League before heading to AA in the Texas League. Between the two levels, he made 27 appearances, 19 of them starts, throwing 123 innings and posting a 3.29 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 10.49 percent walk rate and 26.41 percent strikeout rate.
In 2015, Hader spent the season in AA with two organizations, pitching with Houston before he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. Overall, he made 24 appearances, 17 of them starts, throwing 104 innings with a 3.03 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 8.01 percent walk rate and 27.23 percent strikeout rate.
Hader then went to the Arizona Fall League, where he made a positive impression, throwing 16 innings, with a 0.56 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 11.67 percent walk rate and 31.67 percent strikeout rate. He was ranked by MLB Pipeline as the #61 prospect in the game.
The Brewers had Hader open with AA Biloxi in 2016, but he moved forward quickly after completely dominating the level. He found sledding at the AAA level much more difficult, but still he finished the season with a combined total between the levels of 25 starts, 126 innings, a 3.29 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 10.52 percent walk rate and 30.78 percent strikeout rate.
Baseball America ranked Hader as the #33 prospect in the game after the season, MLB had him as #38 and Baseball Prospectus ranked him the #19 prospect. He was ranked the #80 prospect in the Call to the Pen top 125 early this season, obviously the low ranking on Hader.
Hader has struggled again back at AAA Colorado Springs this season thus far, throwing 52 innings with a 5.37 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, 13.6 percent walk rate and 22.37 percent strikeout rate.
Scouting Report
Size/Delivery/Control
Size – Hader is listed at 6'3″ tall and 185 pounds. I'd wager he's likely 15-30 pounds heavier now, but he's still built long and lean with longer-than-usual arms and legs.
Delivery – Hader is most known for his unique arm angle, but he has an interesting delivery to get to that angle.
Hader starts with a fairly traditional leg kick up to his waist, but then he twists his upper body hard toward second base, with his right hip pointed nearly right at first base before he begins pushing toward home.
His peak point of his delivery forces a hard turn of his hips toward the plate as he comes to home, generating a ton of torque, which in turn generates plenty of movement and velocity on his pitches.
That explosive drive to the plate does lead to some issues with his landing foot not hitting consistently, as he'll often overshoot a direct line to the plate and end up a touch toward third base, leaving his body opened up and putting extra stress on his arm to generate movement and velocity.
The long hold in his delivery away from the plate does generate some deception, as does the lower arm slot Hader employs. He comes from an arm slot that is not a true side arm, but definitely below 3/4. Some have classified the slot as "low 3/4", but he would be about as low a "low 3/4" delivery that I've noted in a starting pitcher.
Control (45) – Hader's long arms and legs along with his odd arm angle have always made control an issue. His slider does get tremendous movement, so while he sometimes features better command on that pitch, he still struggles with the control because of the movement he gets due to his arm slot with the pitch.
I was impressed with how consistent Hader is with his arm slot, seemingly always from the same slot, though his leg positioning did cause different stress on that slot, which could flatten out the ball.
More from Call to the Pen
Pitches
Fastball (65) – Hader works with a fastball that ranges from 93-97 MPH. He has touched 99 MPH in short stints and there are reports of triple digits in pure velocity. Working in short stints, the fastball would certainly sit more 95-98 and probably lean over that triple-digit number.
I was impressed with the raw movement on the pitch, especially when looking back at Hader's AA fastballs. He tends to get glove-side movement on the pitch, with some wicked movement that can bury the ball at a righty's feet low in the zone or dance away from a lefty up in the zone.
Change Up (45) – While Hader can flash a plus change in rare moments, he typically has a below-average feel for the pitch, primarily due to his arm slot. One of the difficulties with his arm slot is being able to get on top of a change in order to get the same action as a fastball without the same velocity. The difficulty in throwing a change is why so many guys from the arm slot that Hader employs end up in the bullpen.
Slider (60) – Hader's slider is quite impressive, and if he could keep the movement of the pitch within the zone, it'd be a 65 or even a 70 pitch. As it is, Hader works with a wipe-out slider that he can bury from left to right.
From my viewing, he tended to bury the pitch in the middle of the plate to lefties and at the toes of righties.
MLB Player Comp
The common comparison for Hader actually makes some sense. While it sounds lazy just due to arm slot, Chris Sale is a legit comparison with Hader.
Sale was called up to pitch as a reliever initially with the White Sox and threw at the top end as Hader has shown in short stints in velocity. However, Sale has been able to turn over his change well, which has allowed him to work as a starter.
Sale also works primarily with a two-seam fastball, which gives him unique movement from the low 3/4 arm slot. I would imagine that Hader will have a lot of work to get to the level of Sale as a starter, but the work Sale did as a reliever for the White Sox could be expected from Hader.
Questions about what role Hader would have initially were answered quickly by Milwaukee Brewers GM David Stearns (per the Brewers MLB.com beat writer, if you're not familiar with who Adam McCalvy is!):
Josh Hader is joining the Brewers bullpen, per David Stearns. No starts scheduled as of now. More Stearns: pic.twitter.com/TMxblR2X1t
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) June 9, 2017
I think that will be a wise way to bring Hader into the big leagues, and it's interesting that his role is the way the White Sox initially introduced Chris Sale into the big leagues. It could be a very interesting thing to see whether he does transition back to the rotation or finds a permanent home in the bullpen, where he could be absolutely dominant.
