Armed With a Unique Fastball, Enoli Paredes Could Ascend Quickly on Brewers Bullpen Hierarchy

Reflecting on the state of his pitching staff at the start of the latest homestand, Pat Murphy offered his thoughts on how the Brewers have stayed afloat amid a rash of injuries.

“We said early on in spring training, one of the things we have – albeit very inexperienced – we have depth on our pitching staff,” he said.

The Brewers have leaned heavily on pitchers who started the season in the minor leagues with minimal big-league experience. The carousel has been more extreme in the starting rotation, where they have called on rookies Robert Gasser, Tobias Myers, and now prospect Carlos Rodriguez, Tuesday night’s starter.

There has also been some shuffling in the bullpen, where the club continues to navigate Devin Williams's absence. With other relievers sliding up a notch on the bullpen hierarchy, the Brewers have rotated through relievers at the back of the bullpen. They may have found a(nother) keeper in Enoli Paredes.

The Brewers signed Paredes, who last appeared in the big leagues in 2022 with the Houston Astros, to a minor-league contract in November. He dominated the International League as the closer for the Nashville Sounds, posting a 1.31 ERA and 41.5% strikeout rate in Triple-A.

After the Brewers designated Thyago Vieira for assignment on May 20, they selected Paredes’s contract, hoping that he could more effectively fill the lower-leverage role in which Vieira struggled.

Paredes has helped stabilize the “B” bullpen, beginning his Brewers career with 8 ⅔ scoreless innings across seven appearances while recording a 28.6% strikeout rate. He’s been thrust into some high-leverage work, too.

The righthander earned a seventh-inning hold in his third appearance, and picked up his first career save against the White Sox on Jun. 2. Murphy gave him the ball on Saturday with a one-run lead, and he recorded the first two outs of the inning for his second hold.

Paredes is already establishing himself as a capable choice to protect close leads. With how heavily the Brewers lean on their bullpen due to a thin rotation, he could be thrust into those spots more frequently the rest of the year.

He has the stuff to do it. Paredes has thrown his slider at a career-high 41.7% rate since his promotion, but his most compelling pitch is his four-seam fastball.

That heater hums in at 95 miles per hour, which (on its own) is not extraordinary by modern standards. Its average induced vertical break of 13.8 inches is unspectacular, too. But due to Paredes’ 5-foot-11 stature and three-quarters arm slot, it plays exceptionally for whiffs up in the strike zone. His vertical approach angle of -4.1 on four-seamers ranks in the 93rd percentile among qualified pitchers, between MLB and Triple-A.

Adding to the effectiveness of Paredes’s four-seamer is that it does not move laterally like a traditional four-seamer. It rarely has much arm-side movement, and is likelier to cut to the glove side. That means hitters often see a pitch that spins like a four-seamer, but moves like a hard, rising cutter. That’s a rare look.

Paredes says the cut isn’t intentional.

“I don’t think to make the pitch [move] like a cutter," he said. "In my mind, all the time, it’s four-seam fastball. [The cut is] natural.”

The cut-ride shape of his four-seamer brings to mind former Brewers reliever Brent Suter, who has ridden similarly unique characteristics to a consistently productive nine-year career despite sitting in the mid- to upper 80s with his fastball.

Paredes’s fastball has that distinctive shape, but he also throws it hard. Those two ingredients can make the pitch a nightmare for hitters. Minor-league opponents whiffed at the cutting four-seamer on a whopping 40.8% of swings. Big-league hitters have whiffed 42.1% of the time--admittedly, in a very small sample.

Since his last big-league stint, Paredes has refined his arsenal and approach to better supplement his cutting fastball. In addition to using his slider more, he has developed a two-seam fastball that averages 12 inches of arm-side movement.

“It’s the same velo, so it’s hard [for the hitter] to figure out when it’s two-seam or four-seam,” he said. “Both pitches break late. The two-seam has the tail late, same with the fastball-cutter.”

Paredes first experimented with the pitch last year in Triple-A, but started developing it as a key part of his arsenal over the offseason. When he arrived at Brewers spring training, he worked with members of the club’s pitching development brass to further refine it and establish more consistent command of the pitch.

Since his promotion, Paredes has thrown the two-seamer 17.7% of the time. That’s not a high usage rate, but it’s enough to keep it in the minds of hitters. The late movement in the opposite direction forces right-handed hitters to protect the inner half of the zone, making the cutting fastballs and sliders thrown toward the outside corner even more lethal.

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For more on the Brewers' success in emphasizing multiple fastball looks for marginal pitchers, see Matthew Trueblood's piece last week on Corbin Burnes and Colin Rea, and Jack's piece last month about the team using secondary fastballs as alternatives to offspeed offerings.

That’s the essence of Paredes’s current plan of attack: show the two-seamer inside, before putting hitters away with a cutting four-seamer at the top of the zone or a slider. Most of the two-seamers he throws are early in counts, to righties.

Paredes has the stuff to get big outs for the Brewers, and could quickly join Trevor Megill and Hoby Milner as minor-league acquisitions to carve out prominent roles in the bullpen in recent years. He’s happy to contribute in any role, though.

“Super excited to be out there,” he said. “Trying to have fun, trying to enjoy every second that this game is given to me.”