Hayden Harris was a non-drafted free agent back in July of 2022. He is known for leveraging LinkedIn to get teams interested in signing him after the draft.
There were not many expectations for Hayden coming into 2025. He was coming off of a dominant stretch for Mississippi back in 2024, but struggled in his stint with Gwinnett, with an inability to garner whiffs with his secondary offerings to play off of his unique fastball. The result was that he entered 2025 back in Double-A, this time Columbus, to see how he would progress this season. The strikeouts had always been there for Hayden, who had a strikeout rate of nearly 15K/9, but his walk rate ballooned up to 5 BB/9, mainly from his inability to locate his sweeper inside the zone. If hitters could get ahead of Hayden, they could foul off his fastball and focus on his splitter and sweeper, which he struggled to execute with leading to long at bats and that high walk rate. He was someone with a path to Atlanta, but lacked the necessary transportation to get there.
2025 Results
The 2025 campaign was nothing short of absolutely phenomenal. Hayden put together one of the most impressive pitching campaigns ever by a Braves pitcher, yet alone specifically reliever. Hayden showed a massive increase in his ability to locate his sweeper to both LHB and RHP inside the zone, and as a result his splitter usage was throttled and it became even more of a strikeout / weak contact pitch because he wasn’t relying on it nearly as much. The uniqueness of his fastball (his unique vertical approach angle) was used to get ahead of hitters, and he was able to put them away with his secondaries – something he lacked in years prior. As a result – all he did was accumulate a 0.52 ERA across 43 games (52 innings!). If you dislike using ERA, you could even use his FIP which was sitting at a sterling 2.07, showing it wasn’t just situational, and luck driving his absolute domination.
Everything. Just, everything. He threw his fastball for strikes, and generated whiffs with it to RHB and LHB. He threw his sweeper to both sides of the plate against RHB and LHB and generated whiffs with it. He was able to keep the splitter low, while maintaining his fastball in the upper third making batters uneasy at the plate and having to defend every inch of the zone on each pitch. Hayden was overpowering in every sense of the word.
Uhhh….it took Hayden some time to gain the confidence throw the sweeper to LHB and RHB? His walk rate did increase upon insertion in Atlanta, but at that point he was already near his career high in innings pitched.
2026 Outlook
With the overwhelming success Hayden had in 2025, it’s safe to assume he will be in discussion to make the bullpen in Atlanta to begin the season. Even if he doesn’t, he will be one of the first pitchers up if he comes close to even replicating the success from 2025.
