Abner Uribe Hasn't Found His Slider, and It's Limiting His Effectiveness

He has pitched better than his 4.42 ERA suggests, but even from a process standpoint, Abner Uribe hasn’t been the dominant late-inning force he was last season. His 3.60 FIP, 3.37 SIERA, and 92 DRA- look more like the ERA estimators of a solid middle reliever, not a high-leverage arm. His 25.3% strikeout rate is still above average, but his 22% whiff rate only ranks in the 27th percentile of qualified pitchers.

All of those marks are far cries from last year, when Uribe posted a 1.67 ERA, 2.75 FIP, 2.89 SIERA, and 77 DRA- with a 30.2% strikeout rate. He induced whiffs on an excellent 32% of swings and ground balls on 54.3% of batted balls.

Uribe owed much of that breakout to a more balanced pitch mix. He used his sweeping slider a career-high 46% of the time, even making it his most-used pitch to right-handed batters. According to Baseball Savant, it held opponents to .203 wOBA, yielded a 46.8% whiff rate, and was worth 7 runs. This year, Uribe has slashed his slider usage and reverted to the sinker-heavy mix that was less successful earlier in his career.

With its elite velocity and late movement, Uribe’s sinker is a good fastball, but it’s not a great one. Pitch modeling metrics regard his slider as his nastiest pitch. It induces more swings and misses and weak contact than his sinker, making it an important equalizer in Uribe’s arsenal that prevents opponents from sitting on velocity. The slider hasn’t been as useful this year, however, entering the weekend with a -1 run value. That has prompted Uribe to lean more than ever on his sinker this month.

Uribe’s slider hasn’t actually become a worse pitch. Last season, it had a 130 Stuff+ and -1.4 StuffPro; this year, it’s at a 127 Stuff+ and -1.3 StuffPro. The difference has been that he’s stopped throwing it competitively. After throwing it for a strike 67.5% of the time last year, Uribe has managed just a 59.4% strike rate with his slider in 2026. He’s falling behind in counts with it and failing to put hitters away, which is why it suddenly has a negative run value despite minimal damage against it.

Sweeping breaking balls are useful in-zone pitches against same-handed hitters, who will struggle to stay on the pitch as it breaks away from them. Opposite-handed hitters can square them up more easily as the ball breaks back toward their barrel. Right now, too many of Uribe’s sliders are missing outside the zone to right-handers and inside the zone to lefties.

Compared to last season, right-handers have looked just as feeble when swinging at Uribe’s slider, recording zero hits with a 47.6% whiff rate, but its in-zone rate has fallen from 47.1% to 28.6%. The nasty sliders that once started over the plate before sweeping out of reach are now starting on the corner and breaking into the other batter’s box, making them easier for most of those hitters to take.

On the flip side, Uribe’s slider neutralized lefties last year because he threw it at or below the knees or near their back foot, where it had more perceived depth and generated more swings over the top of it. This year, he’s thrown a whopping 66.7% of his sliders to lefties in the zone, many of them around the belt. As a result, they’re slugging .615 against it with just an 11.1% whiff rate.

The current version of Uribe is still a useful pitcher, but a limited one. His ground ball rate has bounced back this month, largely thanks to that sinker, but his heater does not miss enough bats or force chases outside the zone. For things to truly start clicking again, Uribe’s breaking ball must become a weapon again. His feel for that pitch could have a pronounced ripple effect on the back end of Milwaukee’s bullpen this summer.