Jake Faherty is nearly unhittable, so why is he struggling?

[Nathaniel Klaff]

When the Marlins selected Jake Faherty in the 11th round out of Arkansas in the 2024 MLB Draft, they believed they were getting one of the hardest throwers in the class with legitimate late-inning upside. During his final season at Arkansas, he appeared in 16 games, throwing 14 ⅔ innings while striking out 26 batters, with opponents hitting just .151 against him. He had the look of an electric relief arm, sitting 97-99 mph with his sinker while touching triple digits.

Unfortunately, two years later, things have gone almost as poorly as they possibly could have.

So far in 2026, Faherty owns a 13.73 ERA over 19 ⅔ innings with a 2.85 WHIP. Across his professional career, he has posted a 9.40 ERA in 59 ⅓ innings despite striking out 82 batters.

At first glance, those numbers would suggest a pitcher who is getting hit around, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Faherty has arguably been even more unhittable in the minor leagues than he was during his time at Arkansas. In 2025 with Jupiter, opponents hit just .167 against him, collecting only 14 hits in 29 ⅓ innings. This season, hitters have been even less successful, managing only five hits in 16 ⅔ innings.

If nobody can hit him, why has he struggled so much?

The answer is simple: command. Faherty's command has become one of the biggest "what-ifs" in the Marlins system. This season with the Hammerheads, he has walked 35.6% of the batters he has faced while throwing strikes just 39.8% of the time. His zone rate sits at only 37.8%, meaning he simply isn't giving himself enough opportunities to get ahead in counts. Yet when hitters do make contact, they still struggle to do anything with it. Opponents own an average exit velocity of just 82.3 mph against him in 2026—for context, that's lower than any qualified major leaguer, per Baseball Savant. This is another sign that the raw stuff is still every bit as overpowering as advertised.

The Marlins recently reassigned Faherty to the FCL in hopes of getting him back on track, but the command issues have only worsened. In just three innings, he has allowed 14 runs, 12 walks, and five hits for a 42.00 ERA. On Monday, he failed to record a single out, surrendering two hits, five walks, and seven runs before being removed.

Faherty features four pitches: a sinker, changeup, cutter, and slider. His sinker and changeup account for roughly 80% of his pitch usage, while the cutter and slider are used much less frequently. Remarkably, every single one of his pitches has held opponents to a batting average below .200. That alone tells the story. Hitters simply are not squaring him up; the problem is getting enough pitches into the strike zone.

Faherty turned 23 years old last month, making him older than many of the hitters he is facing, but the type of stuff he possesses isn't something organizations simply give up on. When you think about the dominant stretches we've seen from pitchers like Robby Snelling and Thomas White last season or Karson Milbrandt this year, Faherty has flashed the kind of underlying metrics that suggest he could belong in that conversation when everything is clicking. The strikeouts, batting average against, exit velocity, and pure quality of his arsenal all point toward a pitcher with legitimate late-inning potential.

 

 

 

 

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Now it's simply a matter of finding enough command to let those tools play. The good news for the Marlins is that Faherty projects as a reliever, not a starter, meaning there is no need to rush his development. If he can ever find even average command, the Marlins could still have a high-leverage bullpen arm on their hands.

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