Everything to know about Brandon Pfaadt, the D-backs’ breakout October star

Entering their NLCS showdown with the Philadelphia Phillies, one of the biggest question marks for the Arizona Diamondbacks was pitching depth, particularly in their starting rotation: Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly were as steady as they come, but after that, Arizona was perilously short on known quantities.

So when Gallen and Kelly were both lit up in a pair of dispiriting losses in Games 1 and 2, things seemed grim, putting the D-backs’ backs to the wall as the scene shifted to Chase Field. Little did we know, however, that Arizona simply had Philly right where it wanted it — thanks to rookie righty Brandon Pfaadt, among the biggest breakout stars of this postseason so far.

A week after dominating the Dodgers in the decisive Game 3 of the NLDS, Pfaadt was the Snakes’ MVP on Thursday, allowing just two hits while striking out nine over 5.2 masterful innings and finally solving the riddle that is this homer-happy Phillies offense.

He didn’t get the win, but he allowed Arizona to finally turn this NLCS into a small-ball battle, the way they’ve been playing — and winning — all October long. And sure enough, the D-backs came through in a close game again, walking it off on Ketel Marte’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth.

If you paid no attention to the D-backs this season and just parachuted in for Game 3, you’d swear that Pfaadt — not Gallen or Kelly — was the guy who pitched like a Cy Young candidate this season. In reality, though, the young righty has gone through the ringer in 2023, a turbulent year that began with a ton of promise and then almost immediately threatened to go off the rails. So just who is Pfaadt, and how did no one see this postseason run coming?

Brandon Pfaadt biography

Pfaadt’s story is not one you might expect from a top prospect. Born and raised in Louisville, he committed to pitch at local Bellarmine University, a program that was Division II until 2021. Even at a lower level, Pfaadt couldn’t crack the team’s rotation in his first two years on campus, putting up a 6.07 ERA over 29 appearances (six starts) across 2018 and 2019.

He finally seemed on the verge of a breakout in 2020, with a 2.07 ERA across his first five starts — just in time for the world to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the remainder of the collegiate baseball season. Still, that early performance was enough to get Pfaadt drafted in the abbreviated 2020 MLB Draft, where they D-backs took him in the fifth and final round.

From there, Pfaadt’s career took off like a rocket. He tore through three levels in his first pro season in 2021, getting all the way to Double-A and posting a 3.21 ERA with 160 Ks over 131.2 innings. He conquered Triple-A the next year, putting up a 2.63 ERA over 10 starts and putting himself on just about every global top prospect list. With good feel for pitching and a legitimate swing-and-miss slider, he was that rare combination of great command and great strikeout ability — his 26.9% K-BB% was fifth best in all of the Minors in 2022. While his changeup remained a bit of a work in progress — leading to some trouble on his second and third times through a lineup — his other two pitches were so good that it typically didn’t matter.

He missed out on a spot in the Major League rotation in spring training, but when Madison Bumgarner — remember him? — flamed out with an atrocious April, Pfaadt got his chance.

And then it all went terribly wrong. Pfaadt’s introduction to the Majors was rough, with a 5.72 ERA over 18 starts in the regular season — eight of which featured at least four runs allowed. He had an 8.37 ERA through five May starts, then got sent back down to the Minors. He got another chance in late June, gave up six runs in just two innings to the Rays and got sent back down again. He continued to perform well at Triple-A Reno, but it was fair to wonder whether he didn’t quite have the stuff to hack it at the highest level.

Largely because they had no other choice, Arizona stuck with Pfaadt, reinserting him into the rotation to start the second half and leaving him there for the rest of the year, despite some ups and downs. And slowly but surely, the righty got better, posting a 4.01 ERA in August and a 4.32 mark in September — including two scoreless starts in late September that helped the D-backs secure a Wild Card bid.

Still, to say that anyone expected this October heater would be a bald-faced lie. Pfaadt has pitched like a man possessed over his last two starts, on the biggest stage against two of the deepest and most dangerous lineups in the entire sport. He’s more or less scrapped that changeup entirely, instead focusing on four-seamers up, sinkers in to righties and that razor-blade slider that remains among the very best in baseball. (The breaking ball was responsible for five of his nine Ks in Game 3.)

Granted, the lack of a true third pitch means his margin for error is smaller than most. But when he’s commanding his stuff as well as he was on Thursday — and when his slider is biting that hard — there’s no reason why he can’t be a fixture behind Gallen in Arizona’s rotation for years to come. Obviously the D-backs are still focused on keeping this magical run going, but that’s not a bad added bonus.