Over the course of his Major League career to date, Graham Ashcraft of the Cincinnati Reds has gone on a bit of a journey. Not around the league – he has always been a Red – but in terms of his role on the team.
Having come up as a young starter, Ashcraft is now a middle reliever in the middle part of his career, and his results have improved accordingly. He had his moments as a starter – albeit in an extremely polarized fashion – yet the full-time move to the bullpen prior to the start of last season looks permanent. With his results getting ever-better, there is no reason to change it.
Ultimately, Ashcraft is now established as a reliever, and becoming a high-leverage option at the end of the games more and more over time. And at the heart of that is one of his pitches in particular, his slider, which the numbers show to be the most unhittable one in baseball.
A One-Pitch Pitcher?
According to research by Reddit user u/Petey34, based off of stat tracking data published at Baseball Savant, there have so far been 21 pitches across the whole of the major leagues that have held opponent batting averages under a .100 batting average, thrown a minimum of 100 times. In his 15.0 innings across 15 outings on the 2026 MLB season to date, Ashcraft has thrown 113 sliders out of his 247 total offerings. And only one of them has yielded a base hit.
This is not to say that the other 112 were all perfect paint on the outside corner. Control has never been Ashcraft’s calling card. What they have done, though, is proved nigh-on impossible to hit. So far, only one hitter has managed it. For a single. And no other slider in the game has been that frugal.
Among the 21 pitches on the research’s list, Ashcraft’s 45.7% usage rate of his pitch is the fifth-highest mark, indicative both of his role as a reliever but also in the lack of confidence in his other offerings. He throws a lot of sliders, by design. Indeed, if anything, he should throw more. Since the start of last season, Ashcraft has only thrown cutters and sliders, putting away the change-up and sinkers that never got to the level required to give him a starter’s arsenal. The disparity between the two is striking; despite the cutter averaging a significant 98.1 miles per hour and having above-average rise, opponents are hitting .345 off of it this season a number in keeping with the .329 and .328 batting averages against in 2025 and 2024 respectively.
Perhaps, then, another evolution is coming. From a two-pitch pitcher, maybe he could go down to a one.
Ashcraft’s Reds Career To Date
Ashcraft debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 2022. That season, he made 19 starts, going 5-6 with a 4.89 ERA across 105.2 innings, allowing 114 hits, 23 walks, and striking out 70. In 2023, he retained his starting spot and appeared in 26 games (25 starts), posting a 7-9 record with a 4.76 ERA over 145.2 innings, 133 strikeouts, 49 walks and 1.42 WHIP.
In 2024, Ashcraft logged 27 starts and finished 5-9 with a 5.24 ERA in 145.2 innings, giving up 167 hits, 52 walks, and recording 108 strikeouts. Across his first three seasons as a starter, he totaled 72 games (all but one of which were starts), a 17-24 record, 397.0 innings, 311 strikeouts and a 4.97 ERA.
In 2025, he shifted primarily to relief, making 62 appearances and throwing 65.1 innings with an 8-5 record, 3.99 ERA, 64 strikeouts, and 1.42 WHIP. So far in 2026, his 15.0 innings have seen him record a 1.20 ERA, a 1.27 WHIP, and the first saved game of his career. The Reds, who are favorites over the Colorado Rockies tonight, currently lead the National League Central with a 20-11 record.
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