Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman is dominating MLB leaderboards

On Tuesday night, Kevin Gausman had the kind of outing that simply doesn't happen for most pitchers.

The Toronto Blue Jays ace went seven innings, struck out 13 batters and kept the Houston Astros off the board after allowing a leadoff home run. He absolutely toyed with an above-average offence, drawing a rave review from manager John Schneider for both his results and approach.

"He's just always the same, which you can't really speak highly enough about," Schneider said. "It's workmanlike. It's professional. He's one of the best pitchers in the game."

Gausman is coming off a stellar 2022 season, which makes his success far from shocking, but in the wake of Tuesday's start his effectiveness relative to his peers came into focus. After the outing, Gausman claimed the MLB lead in innings pitched (82) and a share of it in fWAR (3.1) and strikeouts (113).

He also ranks second in K% (34.3%), K-BB% (28.9%), and FIP (2.30). The closest thing he has to a stain on his 2023 resume is an ERA (2.65) that ranks 10th among qualified pitchers. It's hard to argue that a single starter has been more effective than Gausman this year.

Because Gausman was so good in his first season with the Blue Jays, it's hard to find this revelatory — especially considering his production has so closely mirrored last year's in a few notable categories.

Where Gausman is setting himself apart from the 2022 campaign is with his recent work. In his last six starts he's allowed just six earned runs in 40 innings, resulting in the lowest ERA he's had in a stretch that long as a Blue Jay (1.35).

Not only is he keeping runs off the board, there's a notable change in his arsenal that's helping to drive his success. Gausman is using approximately the same pitch mix as he has all season, but his velocity is up significantly.

The right-hander averaged 93.6 mph on his four-seam fastball in April and that number is up to 95.6 mph in his two June starts. That's a significant jump, but that kind of juice isn't a total outlier for Gausman, as this chart showing his average fastball velocity by month through his career demonstrates:

What's more unusual for the veteran is what's happening with his splitter.

Gausman is throwing his signature pitch 2.9 mph harder (87.6 mph) than he did in April (84.7 mph), reaching a level that he hasn't hit before. The only month he threw his splitter harder was May 2015, and considering he used it just four times that month, it seems fair to discard that data point.

It's unclear where throwing a harder splitter can take Gausman, but the early returns are impressive.

The 32-year-old has averaged at least 87 mph on the pitch four times this season. In those starts, it has generated a 56.3% whiff rate and accounted for 26 strikeouts. In terms of overall results, Gausman allowed just three earned runs in 26.2 innings.

Although much of what the right-hander has done this season is reminiscent of his work in 2022, this is new. For instance, last season Gausman threw splitters 88 mph or harder just nine times.

He's already delivered 54 such pitches in 2023. Not one of them has resulted in a hit, and they've often looked downright nasty.

While Gausman's 2023 results aren't unprecedented based on what we've seen in the past, what he's doing with his splitter right now is.

The right-hander has been borderline unhittable lately. If he can maintain his current velocity on his signature pitch he could hang around at the top of the MLB leaderboards in all the categories that matter. In fact, he might just improve on his already eye-popping numbers.