Josh Hader
Hader's peak was so dominant that his 2021 campaign ranks among the greatest relief seasons in modern history. That 1.23 ERA came with a microscopic 0.75 WHIP, and his 346 ERA+ means he was nearly four times better than the average pitcher that year.
The southpaw's career 193 ERA+ tells the story of sustained excellence across nearly a decade. His 14.6 strikeouts per nine innings reflect the kind of swing-and-miss stuff that separates elite closers from merely good ones. Six All-Star selections don't happen by accident.
At 32, Hader remains one of baseball's premier late-inning weapons. The key metric to watch is his strikeout rate — when it dips below his career norm, that's when age might finally be catching up to one of the game's most reliable shutdown artists.
| Date | IP | H | ER | BB | SO | HR | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 18 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | — |
| Jul 12 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | L |
| Jul 7 | 0.333 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | S |
| Jul 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | S |
| Jul 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | W |
| Jun 30 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | S |
| Jun 28 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | W |
| Jun 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | S |
| Jun 24 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | S |
| Jun 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — |
Career · Hitting
8 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | — | 35 | 4 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2018 | — | 55 | 2 | 0 | 0 | — | 1.000 | — |
| 2019 | — | 61 | 2 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2020 | — | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2021 | — | 60 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2023 | — | 61 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2024 | — | 71 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2025 | — | 48 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| Career | 412 | 8 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | |
Career · Pitching
12 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | — | 35 | 47.2 | 2 | 3 | 2.08 | — | 68 | 0.99 |
| 2018 | — | 55 | 81.1 | 6 | 1 | 2.43 | — | 143 | 0.81 |
| 2019 | — | 61 | 75.2 | 3 | 5 | 2.62 | — | 138 | 0.81 |
| 2020 | — | 21 | 19.0 | 1 | 2 | 3.79 | — | 31 | 0.95 |
| 2021 | — | 60 | 58.2 | 4 | 2 | 1.23 | — | 102 | 0.84 |
| 2022 | — | 37 | 34.0 | 1 | 4 | 4.24 | — | 59 | 1.12 |
| 2022 | — | 19 | 16.0 | 1 | 1 | 7.31 | — | 22 | 1.63 |
| 2022 | — | 56 | 50.0 | 2 | 5 | 5.22 | — | 81 | 1.28 |
| 2023 | — | 61 | 56.1 | 2 | 3 | 1.28 | — | 85 | 1.10 |
| 2024 | — | 71 | 71.0 | 8 | 8 | 3.80 | — | 105 | 0.96 |
| 2025 | — | 48 | 52.2 | 6 | 2 | 2.05 | — | 76 | 0.85 |
| 2026 | — | 18 | 16.1 | 3 | 1 | 1.10 | — | 28 | 0.86 |
| Career | 542 | 576.1 | 39 | 37 | — | — | 938 | — | |
Each pitch type this pitcher throws regularly, placed by how the ball moves — sideways break across, rise or drop down the side. Each dotted ring holds about the middle 85% of the league’s pitches of that type, so a cluster sitting outside its ring is movement most pitchers don’t have.
The dots — a sample of this pitcher’s regular-season pitches, placed by movement: left–right is horizontal break, up–down is induced vertical break (what the pitch does beyond gravity). The view is handedness-neutral — positive break is toward the pitcher’s arm side for lefties and righties alike, so every sinker runs right and every sweeper breaks left, whoever throws it.
The dotted rings — about the middle 85% of where each pitch type lands league-wide (a 2-standard-deviation spread), measured from 7.5 million regular-season pitches since 2015. A cluster sitting well outside its ring is movement most of the league doesn’t get. Spring training and the postseason are excluded.
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.