24-year-old Zach Thornton, who sits as MMOs’ No. 16th prospect in the Mets system, will toe the rubber tonight in the major leagues for the first time in Washington. The former 5th round pick for the Mets back in 2023 has been lights out in Triple-A, which led to his call-up when the Mets faced the decision after the Clay Holmes injury. Let’s dig deeper into his stats and arsenal and see what made him so solid.
Thornton, a southpaw, has done an unbelievable job of filling up the zone. As he currently owns a 69.1 Strike% (97th percentile) and a 52.1 Zone% (92nd percentile), and with the ability to fill the zone as he has, his walk rate is extremely low at 6.5%. Usually, a pitcher that puts the ball over the plate like Thornton doesn’t have great strikeout and whiff numbers, but that is simply not the case here, as he sports a 28.3 K% and a 27.9 Whiff%, which is solid. His contact numbers are mixed; his wOBA and xwOBA numbers are solid, but his barrel rate is below average, and his HardHit rate and average EV rate rank near the bottom. After a good look at his numbers, let’s take a look at his arsenal.
Photo Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
Thornton will mix in six pitches, but his slider, four-seam, and sweeper take up 88% of his pitch mix. He can also throw a changeup, slurve, and sinker. He won’t wow you on the radar gun as his average fastball velocity is 91.3 (up to 94.5 mph in Triple-A), but he locates his pitches really well, as stated before. His sweeper and slider both get solid horizontal break as for the sweeper it moves 13 inches and the slider is much tighter but stills moves about 5 inches, those two pitches according to Stuff+ are his best. His overall stuff sits at 98, which is just below average.
To wrap this up, Thornton will have to continue to locate his pitches as he did in Syracuse to be successful, and from what we’ve seen of him over his MiLB career, he’s been able to do so at every level he’s played.
