Bryan Hudson Likes His Third Pitch Better Than Ever, But Has Added a Fourth for Good Measure

It's excruciatingly hard to be a lefty starter in the big leagues without a changeup, so back when Bryan Hudson was trying to make it as a starter, he had one. It was never exactly the first option, though.

"It was always my least favorite pitch, right?" Hudson reflected, in the Brewers' spring training clubhouse in Maryvale Sunday. "Hard to get confidence in it. It’s not a swing-and-miss pitch. I don’t really care to throw anything that gets hit very often. And the changeup was just one of those."

When he made a switch to the bullpen, therefore, the changeup was the first bit of fat he cut out of his arsenal. In short bursts and with some selective matchup usage, Hudson could get righties out even while living mainly on his fastball and sweeper. Once he developed the cutter to force a third thought into opponents' heads, he was able to live without the change relatively comfortably—for a while.

As Jack Stern noted after Hudson's 2025 Cactus League debut, though, there's change afoot. Hudson busted out the changeup a few times in that first appearance, creating a new movement pattern altogether.

"I worked on it last year. Just kinda worked on it a little bit, and then kind of got away from it, just in-season. You know, I had my three pitches working," he said. "And then this offseason, I just went to work on that. Just being able to add something that goes left into my arsenal."

The process of adding a pitch can be a long one, for a relief pitcher, though. Hudson worked on the change frequently throughout 2024, but never actually brought it into a game. Unlike starters, relievers have to be ready to pitch almost any day, which interferes a bit with the process of racking up reps on a new project pitch. Hudson feels finding the time to try it is one thing, but feeling good enough to trust it is another.

"You just gotta find the right time to use it. I’d throw it in catch play and before, everyday, and that kind of stuff," he said. "But just because I’m doing all that doesn’t mean I’m gonna use it in the game—which I still probably will, but maybe not every day. It just kind of depends. The changeup’s a big feel pitch. It’s kind of a day-to-day basis with it right now. I throw it every day in catch play, and it all feels good, but do I feel good enough to throw it in a game and trust it over some of my other pitches? That differs day to day."

The version of the pitch he's found at least some comfort with is a fairly typical circle-change, but Hudson holds it slightly offset, off one of the seams. That's how he feels he can best achieve the effect he wants, while still keeping the pitch on the plate and forcing hitters to chase it—or even take a called strike, when it catches them off-guard.

"It’s moving good. It’s just, I gotta be consistent with it, have confidence to throw it in the zone," Hudson said. "Right now, I’m throwing it strike, strike, ball pretty often. Just need to get it to where it’s strike, strike, strike."

Even as he works on this fourth offering, though, Hudson isn't backing off his dedication to the cutter, that third pitch he brought along so much in 2024. Throughout last season, the pitch largely worked as a way to subvert hitters who tried to sit on his fastball and sweeper. He had to deploy it carefully, to work back into counts and set up his better pitches without getting hurt on it. With his stuff recharged and his feel for the pitch improving all the time, though, he's hoping that will change in 2025.

"I like my cutter, man. Last year was good trial and error for me," he said. "I kinda learned where I can throw it and where I can’t. I just took that this offseason. Up and in, down and away, I liked it. As long as they keep getting some ugly swings and misses, and I can keep putting it where I want it, I think I’ll be in a good spot with it."

We live in the era of the four-pitch reliever. Even as pitchers seem to gain an advantage with each passing year, hitters are getting better all the time, too. With his offseason work, Hudson is following the latest trend among even those who work one inning at a time, most of the time: have enough weapons in the arsenal to make guess hitters go insane—or at least, go back to the dugout frustrated.