May 21, 2026 at 11:00 AM
With new pitches and competitive attitude, Devin Futrell is 'eager to make hitters look bad'
"Obviously you guys saw the no hits, but I also got a lot of early swings," Futrell said of his no-hit outing. "I actually walked the first batter on four straight pitches, so that kind of sucked. I rebounded right away and got three weak contacts. After that, it was just about getting in the zone early and getting weak contact in that outing."
Coming out of the gates the way Futrell did was very important for him not only to get promoted, but to get in a good rhythm and mindset to set the table for the season.
"I mostly contribute being locked in so early in the season to my competitiveness," Futrell noted. "I don’t want to go out there and get shelled. I just want to go out there and make the hitters look bad. Making yourself look better is what’s going to get you to the next level. I just go day in, and day out and just try to show the hitters that I am better than them."
The 23-year-old has had nothing but success since being drafted in 2024 out of Vanderbilt. Futrell has a career 2.24 ERA with a 1.029 WHIP over 92.1 innings pitched. He has also shown an impressive ability with controlling the baseball, as he has a 1.9 BB/9 over that span.
The part of his game that are works in progress are his velocity and swing and miss. While the two can go hand in hand, Futrell has been showing off a few new pitches that might help in getting more whiffs.
"The splitter has been really dialed to start the season," Futrell said. "In spring training, you want to go through some failure so you can come out on the better half during the season. Surprisingly, the pitch was really good for me during spring and it’s continuing to get better. I got an 80% whiff rate on it down at the complex. I then started throwing a cutter in there towards the end of camp. That pitch is pretty good right now for me and I am throwing it pretty hard."
Along with the new pitches he has added to his arsenal, Futrell has started to attack adding velocity to his pitches. Adding velo was his main goal he set when he sat down with the development staff when he got down to Fort Myers.
"My lowest hanging fruit is my velocity," Futrell noted. "I know it is a big part of today’s game. But there are still guys out there who get outs, and I am one of those guys. As long as I am working on that and keep pushing up the floor throughout all my pitches, I will get to where I need to be. Just recently I decided to switch up my sweeper a little bit. I was chasing the horizontal before and now I am trying to actually get lift to my sweeper. It is something you don’t usually see with that pitch. Most of them hang around the zero line. I am trying to get mine to like five or ten vert. I want it to ride a bit to hitters. It looks like a slow cutter out of my hand. I am getting around a 50% whiff rate on that pitch right now."
Getting off to the great start is partially credited to how he prepared for the season over the winter. Futrell decided to spend it down in Nashville at Vanderbilt with big leaguers and trainers he worked with while in college.
"I was not familiar with all the new school numbers and stuff when I got into pro ball," Futrell said. "I took a deep dive in that this offseason and spent a lot of time with a lot of big leaguers, Just having an understanding of all the new analytics is huge. I developed my splitter that just happened to clock one day over the offseason. It has been my bread and butter so far this season. I also got to work out with Garrett Crochet and got to pick his brain a good amount. Also was training with Justin Slaten, Sonny Gray, and Jack Leiter a bit too. Those guys really taught me about pitch design. They were talking about their sweepers and that they don’t even chase for movement anymore. They just try to throw it as hard as they can. I have been trying to implement that into my game now. I just got better and got two new pitches from the whole experience."
Futrell is no stranger to playing with or facing tough competition as he makes his rise through the minors. From growing up in a talent filled area to going to one of the best baseball schools in the country, he knows what it takes to compete with the best of the best.
"I think the South Florida area is the most loaded with talent in the country. They can recruit and pick players from all over the country. Ever since I was 9, I have played with big leaguers. I played with Enrique Bradfield my whole life. I have played with Gavin and Triston Casas. I played a lot with Colby Mayo. I got to be around Mark Vientos a lot too. I think in my junior year, there was like 20 commits on the team. We were always the team to beat in high school. You had to go out there and play with a chip on your shoulder and make sure you didn’t get embarrassed. It helped me get in the right mindset for college and pro ball."
Photo Credit: Devin Futrell by Kelly O'Connor