The changeup is baseball’s great equalizer. A good one looks like a fastball out of hand and dies before it reaches the plate. A great one moves like nothing else in the game.
Statcast is tracking every pitch this spring, and the movement leaderboard for changeups is absolutely filthy.
Key Numbers:
Devin Williams (RHP): 19.4 inches arm-side movement on changeup
Cristopher Sánchez (LHP, Phillies): 17.9 inches arm-side movement, 2,018 RPM spin
Top 5 changeups by movement all exceed 18.5 inches
Changeup Movement Leaders (2026 Spring)
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Williams 19.4″ ████████████████ │
│ Hernández 18.7″ ███████████████░ │
│ Jacob 18.5″ ██████████████░░ │
│ Saucedo 18.5″ ██████████████░░ │
│ Whitlock 18.5″ ██████████████░░ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘At the very top sits Devin Williams. The Brewers reliever has always had one of the game’s best changeups. The numbers just confirm what hitters already know. His changeup averages 19.4 inches of arm-side movement . That’s more than a foot and a half of horizontal fade. Balls start at a righty’s hip and end up at his ankles.
Williams throws 176 changeups out of 176 total pitches tracked. That’s literally all he throws . Hitters know what’s coming and still can’t hit it.
Right behind him is Jonathan Hernández at 18.7 inches, then Alek Jacob and Tayler Saucedo at 18.5 . Garrett Whitlock also sits at 18.5 with above-average spin. These aren’t just soft tossers. These are guys whose changeups move like breaking balls.
For Phillies fans, the name to watch is Cristopher Sánchez.
The lefty sits at 17.9 inches of movement with 2,018 RPM spin on his changeup . That’s elite company. Sánchez has quietly built one of the better changeups in the National League, and the data backs it up. He threw 998 pitches last season, almost all of them with that disappearing act at the end.
Spin rate matters for changeups less than it does for fastballs. But movement is everything. A changeup that doesn’t move is just batting practice. A changeup that moves 18 inches is a weapon.
The leaderboard through early spring action tells us what we already suspected. The best changeup artists in baseball are still the best. The difference is now we have the numbers to prove it.
Devin Williams throws 176 pitches. All of them are changeups. All of them move 19 inches.
That’s not fair.
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