In 2018, Willians Astudillo got thrown into a game to pitch and tried his best to throw hard. He was hitting 84 to 86 miles per hour, rare for a position player, but it backfired. He gave up six runs, two homers, and walked off the mound looking like a man filled with regret. It wasn’t working. He knew it. Something needed to change.
Fast forward to 2021, Astudillo got another shot at pitching, and this time, he came in with a different plan. Instead of trying to blow it past hitters, he went full gravity-defying slowball mode. He lobbed in pitches ranging from 46 to 59 miles per hour, and the hitters had no idea what to do with them. Mike Trout looked confused. JD Martinez fell victim to the soft toss, and another batter, frozen by the mix of off-speed and absurdly slow pitches, went down quietly. Seven pitches, three outs. One of them didn’t even get picked up on the radar gun because it was so slow.
Astudillo learned from his first outing and leaned into the chaos. His pitches weren’t pretty, but they got the job done. No runs, no fireworks, just awkward swings and soft contact. Not bad for a guy who wasn’t even supposed to be pitching.