Pitchers are throwing harder than ever.
With each passing year, the number of hard-throwers in MLB seem to go up and up. These days, starters who don't sit in the upper-90s are hard to come by. Relievers who don't throw at least 100 mph are perhaps even more rare.
Just how much has pitch velocity gone up? Here's a look at the change overtime in fastball velocity in each league year, including from all pitchers, and starters and relievers separately, since 2007, per Fangraphs.
Baseball in 2023 features no shortage of high-velocity hurlers. Any time Reds young standout Hunter Greene takes the mound, he lights up the radar gun. Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks might own the league's fastest pitch. Aroldis Chapman's fastball is still one of the most difficult pitches with which to catch up.
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There are plenty of pitchers who make fans ogle at the radar gun in MLB stadiums. But which player holds the record for the fastest pitch ever recorded? Here's what you need to know.
Fastest MLB pitch ever thrown
Velocity might be at an all-time high in the sport, but the fastest pitch in MLB history is actually several years old.
According to data from Baseball Savant, the hardest thrown pitch since 2007 (the beginning of the pitch tracking era) belongs to Chapman, who hit 105.8 mph on a fastball against the Padres on Sept. 24, 2010. The pitch was initially labeled as 105.1 mph, but was later adjusted to 105.8 mph.
Per Baseball Savant, there have only been 10 pitches in the pitch-tracking era that have reached 105 mph. Chapman has thrown eight of them (the top eight, to be exact). Hicks has the other two, with each reaching 105.0 exactly.
Of the 1,000 hardest pitches ever tracked, Chapman threw 583 of them. Hicks is the next-closest pitcher with 172.
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But while pitch speeds are readily available today with the use of a radar gun, there were still some other forms of measurements that might have had pitches thrown harder than Chapman's 105.8. The documentary, "Fastball" reported that with modern day pitch tracking technology, a fastball from Nolan Ryan that originally was clocked at 100.8 mph would be measured at 108.1 mph.
"Pitching Ninja" Rob Friedman attempted to debunk the theory that Ryan threw that hard, but he said that while he is skeptical of theory that Ryan hit 108, he said he doesn't feel he can definitively rule out that Ryan didn't.
And Ryan might also be joined by famous Cleveland flame-thrower Bob Feller. ESPN reported there were some estimates that Feller was once recorded as having thrown as hard as 107.6 mph, though, again, with plenty of skepticism due to the uncertainty of the older methods of tracking pitch velocity.
Fastest pitches in MLB 2023
Through games on April 11, Hicks paces the leaderboard of the fastest pitches in the 2023 season.
Baseball Savant reports that a pitch thrown by Hicks on March 30 against the Blue Jays clocked in at 103.8 mph. The second-fastest pitch came during the same appearance by Hicks, when he hit 103.6 mph. Chapman is the only other pitcher in 2023 to reach 103 mph when he threw a 103.5 mph fastball on April 4 against the Blue Jays.
Of the 20 fastest pitches thrown thus far in the season, Hicks has nine of the fastest. Chapman is second with six and Jhoan Duran has five.
Jordan Hicks fastest pitch
Hicks is in very exclusive company as one of only two pitchers to have been officially clocked at having thrown a pitch at 105 mph. He has done it twice, both coming on May 20, 2018, against the Phillies. Hicks also has 10 more pitches between 104 and 105 mph.
Baseball Savant reports that Hicks averages 100.7 mph on his four-seam fastball on 31 total pitches, but his primary pitch for velocity is his sinker, which averages 100.1 mph.
Hicks' fastball velocity average is the second-fastest in the pitch tracking era, per Baseball Savant, behind Duran's four-seam fastball (100.8 mph), while his more commonly used sinker ranks sixth, trailing Mauricio Cabrera's four-seamer (100.7), Chapman's sinker (100.5 mph) and Andres Munoz's fastball (100.1).
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Hunter Greene fastest pitch
Greene might not have logged any pitches as fast as Hicks or Chapman, but unlike the other two pitchers, he's tasked with throwing harder for longer stretches of time. And even still, his fastest pitch is no slouch.
While Greene might not have actually hit 105 mph like the radar gun initially showed on Opening Day, he has topped out at 102.6, which he hit on Sept. 17, 2022, against the Cardinals. To date, he has logged 11 pitches at 102 mph or faster. He averages exactly 99.0 mph on his fastball, per Baseball Savant.
What stands out the most about Greene is his ability to consistently rev up the pitch velo. In the pitch tracking era, no one has thrown more 100-plus mph pitches in a single outing than Greene, who had 47 pitches at 100 mph or faster against the Cardinals in that September outing. He also owns seven of the top 10 appearances with the most 100-plus mph pitches. Jacob deGrom (33, seventh), Hicks (29, eighth) and Chapman (28, 10th) round out the top 10.
Aroldis Chapman fastest pitch
Chapman's fastest pitch might also be history's fastest. That 105.8 mph fastball of his against the Padres, if nothing else, is at least the fastest official measurement in league history. Chapman has tallied eight pitches of at least 105 mph, and has 59 other pitches between 104 and 105 mph.
His primary pitch has historically been his four-seam fastball, which has an average of 99.2 mph, per Baseball Savant. However, he has recently added a sinker, which averages at 100.5 mph.
Even at age-35, Chapman has shown no dip in his fastball velocity. He has topped out at 103.5 mph this season, and has averaged 99.6 mph on his four-seam fastball so far in 2023.
