What is a Putaway Pitch? Definition and Examples
A putaway pitch is any pitch thrown with two strikes intended to finish the strikeout — and putaway rate measures how often a pitcher's two-strike pitches actually end the at-bat.
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What is a Putaway Pitch?
A putaway pitch is a pitch thrown with two strikes on the hitter with the explicit intent of ending the plate appearance via strikeout. The term also refers to a pitcher's best swing-and-miss weapon — the offering he trusts when he needs a K. Statcast formalized the concept with putaway rate: the percentage of two-strike pitches of a given type that result in a strikeout. It isolates a pitch's finishing ability, separating "gets ahead" pitches from "ends at-bats" pitches.
How Putaway Rate Is Calculated
The formula is straightforward:
Putaway Rate = (Strikeouts on that pitch type with two strikes) ÷ (Total two-strike pitches of that type thrown) × 100
A pitcher who throws 200 two-strike sliders and records 50 strikeouts on them has a 25% slider putaway rate. League-average putaway rates vary sharply by pitch type:
- Sweepers and sliders: roughly 22–27%
- Curveballs: roughly 20–24%
- Splitters/changeups: roughly 20–24%
- Four-seam fastballs: roughly 18–22%
The metric works because it controls for count: every pitch in the sample is thrown in a two-strike situation, so it measures pure finishing ability rather than sequencing luck.
Worked Example
Take an elite strikeout closer whose slider is his signature weapon. In a dominant season he throws 180 two-strike sliders and strikes out 54 hitters on them — a 30% putaway rate, well above the ~24% league average for sliders. Hitters swing at 60% of those two-strike sliders and whiff on over half their swings, producing a whiff rate near 55% in those counts. Contrast him with a pitch-to-contact starter whose two-strike fastball generates a 14% putaway rate: he reaches two strikes constantly but can't finish, so at-bats drag to 7–8 pitches, his strikeout rate stalls at 17%, and his pitch count balloons by the fifth inning. Same two-strike counts, radically different outcomes — putaway rate captures the gap.
Why It Matters
Putaway rate explains the difference between pitchers with identical stuff but different strikeout totals. Front offices use it to identify arms whose two-strike execution lags their raw Stuff+, flagging fixable sequencing or location issues. For fantasy managers, a pitcher with elite putaway rates on multiple pitches has a sustainable high-K profile, while a pitcher with gaudy strikeout numbers but mediocre putaway rates is a regression candidate. Pitch designers use it to decide which offering a prospect should scrap or rebuild.
Limitations and Misconceptions
Putaway rate ignores what happened earlier in the count — a pitcher who never reaches two strikes has no putaway sample at all, so the metric says nothing about getting ahead. Small samples are noisy: 40 two-strike curveballs can swing the rate wildly. It also conflates the pitch with its location; a putaway pitch buried in the dirt succeeds because of execution, not just pitch type. And a low putaway rate isn't automatically bad — some pitchers deliberately pitch to weak contact with two strikes rather than chase strikeouts.
In Legends Deck: Two-strike outcomes in Legends Deck simulations draw on real putaway-rate data. A card whose pitcher owns a 28%+ putaway breaking ball converts two-strike counts into strikeouts at an elite clip — you'll feel the difference every time the count runs to 0-2.