Burnes’ Increased Cutter Usage vs Declining K/9 Rate

[sportsfan8703]

So much has been made of Burnes’ K/9 decreasing since 2021. However, in 2021 that’s when Burnes starting throwing his cutter more than 50% of the time. So being as the cutter is such a dominant pitch, and induces weak contact, he started throwing it more, and now gets less Ks, but weaker contact.

Why should we penalize Burnes for inducing weak contact instead of trying to strike everyone out?

I’d say the increased cutter usage has a lot of pros. Less breaking balls equals less strain on his arm. He’s more pitch efficient. We have a strong defense behind him with the WALL. To me, if we were ever going to give a pitcher a big deal, he’s the guy. 

For a risk adverse Front Office, Burnes is about as risk adverse as it gets. But… stuff still happens. 
 

See Screenshots below from Baseball Savant and BBref. 

[TradeAngelos]

What a great post. 

Now watch everyone make excuses to not sign him, because they know.....they won't make any effort to sign him. Then they can feel better saying "yeah never wanted him anyway!". It's a vicious cycle. 

[Aristotelian]

He also committed to the cutter even more as the season went on. When he got in that little slump in August, he basically abandoned the sinker in favor of the cutter, and that worked for him down the stretch.