Philadelphia Phillies
Lefthander Mavis Graves has been developed as a starter so far, but he was very impressive in relief in the Spring Breakout game, striking out two and generating six whiffs in his inning of work. As a starter, Gravesā stuff is on the light side, but it was up across the board in this single-inning role. His fastball sat 93-95 mph compared to 91.4 as a starter in 2025.
Gravesā best pitch remains his slider, which had a 43% whiff rate last year. In this outing, it was even better, generating whiffs on all five swings against it. He threw it considerably harder, as well, with it coming in 84-85 mph compared to the low 80s last year. Graves rounded out his arsenal with a sweeper at 79-80 mph, which also generated a whiff.
As a starter, Graves has struggled to throw strikes throughout his career, but that was not an issue in this inning, as he landed 10 of his 14 pitches for strikes. It will be interesting to see if the Phillies are tempted to move him to the bullpen full-time in 2026 based on how good he looked in this appearance.
Righthander Titan Kennedy-Hayes showed the most velocity of any Phillies pitcher in their Spring Breakout game against the Twins. He topped out at 99.9 mph and sat in the high 90s with both his four-seamer and two-seamer, complementing his fastballs with a cut-slider at 87-90 mph. He got one whiff with his fastball and another with his slider, but he also had some trouble throwing strikes, walking one hitter and only throwing his fastball for strikes 36% of the time. Control was an issue for Kennedy-Hayes in 2025 when he walked 14.2% of hitters. Heās got major league-quality stuff, however, so if he can take a step forward with his strike-throwing, he could be one to watch as a potential bullpen arm for the future.
