Major League Baseball

How Cardinals' Ryan Helsley went from Division II to dominant closer

Updated Sep. 8, 2022 7:31 p.m. ET

By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Even in the age of eye-popping velocity, Ryan Helsley stands out.

Only six pitchers — Jhoan Duran (who leads the way at 100.7 mph), Aroldis Chapman, Andrés Muñoz, Emmanuel Clase, Brusdar Graterol and José Alvarado — boast a higher average fastball (four-seam or sinker) velocity than the 28-year-old right-hander (99.4 mph) in the midst of a breakout season for the first-place Cardinals. But unlike the fire-breathing group ahead of him, all of whom have thrown ridiculously hard since they were teenagers, for Helsley, the development of his heater into one of the most fearsome pitches in baseball was much more of a slow burn.

For better or worse, the dramatic uptick in velocity has been one of the most significant changes to the game we love over the past decade. There are now several proven ways for pitchers to throw harder through training and throwing programs. It's not as if anyone can guarantee an extra five mph for any pitcher, but it's undeniable that training velocity is more attainable than ever before.

Some are simply born with an ability to throw baseballs ridiculously hard and demonstrate as much from a young age. We now see high schoolers throwing 100 mph in showcases and 18-year-old international signees throwing 102 mph in the low minors.

It's not about those guys, though. It's about the rest of the pitching population, which theoretically has access to tools that can unlock a higher-velocity ceiling. The possibility of training pitchers with average velocity to throw harder has opened the door for numerous developmental success stories across all levels of baseball, including Helsley's.

"Throwing harder has been a product of getting stronger and learning how to use my body better over the years," Helsley told FOX Sports.

Growing up in eastern Oklahoma, Helsley didn't go to any of the prominent showcases that feature herds of hard-throwing high schoolers who have piles of Division I scholarship offers to choose from. Without those opportunities, he decided to stay close to home and play collegiately at Division II Northeastern State University. After a strong summer in the California Collegiate League, he struck out 95 batters in 63.2 innings as a draft-eligible sophomore, establishing himself as one of the more intriguing prospects in Division II.

At that time, his fastball sat in the low-90s, though the Cardinals were impressed with his athleticism and believed there was more velocity to tap into once he entered pro ball. St. Louis selected Helsley in the fifth round of the 2015 draft, and by the end of the summer, he was touching 98 mph.

As he climbed the minor-league ladder, his velocity continued to climb as well. The Cardinals kept Helsley, a starter in college, in a starting role until he was knocking on the door to the big leagues in 2019. At that point, they decided to transition him to the bullpen, hoping his newfound heat could be maximized in shorter stints.

They were right. Following a strong spring training in 2019, Helsley made his MLB debut in Milwaukee on April 16. After allowing a home run to the first batter he faced, Christian Yelich, Helsley settled in and struck out four of the next seven batters, including blowing 101 mph past Eric Thames. Despite bouncing back and forth between Triple-A Memphis and St. Louis several times throughout the summer, Helsley finished with a 2.95 ERA in 36.2 innings with the Cardinals as a rookie, plus an additional five scoreless outings in the postseason.

Going from sitting 91-94 mph at a Division II school to throwing 100 mph in the big leagues fewer than four years later was already a huge victory for Helsley. But that was just the beginning, as throwing harder is hardly an automatic ticket to long-term success in MLB. There are a handful of pitchers in every organization capable of touching triple digits, but only a fraction of them actually develop into effective big-league pitchers.

For the first few years of Helsley's career, it was something of a mixed bag, with stretches of excellence in his rookie campaign in 2019 followed by some inconsistency in 2020 and '21.

But this year, Helsley has taken a leap in a big way. Here are his ranks among qualified relievers:

* 0.98 ERA (first)
* 2.04 FIP (seventh)
* 0.70 WHIP (second)
* 40.1% strikeout rate (second)
* .119 batting average against (first)
* 92.8% strand rate (fourth)

This remarkable collection of numbers amounts to a 2.0 fWAR for Helsley, which ranks him second among relievers behind only Mets closer Edwin Díaz, who is having one of the greatest relief seasons of all time. (There's no shame in trailing him!) Helsley has been spectacular.

And as simple as it sounds, the biggest key for this breakout might just have been Helsley getting healthy. He missed a month and a half in 2016 due to biceps tendonitis. He missed significant time due to shoulder trouble in 2018 and '19. The bad luck extended off the field in 2020, when he missed all of August after testing positive for COVID-19. And in 2021, his season was cut short in August due to a stress reaction in his elbow and a knee injury that ultimately required surgery.

This year, Helsley has spent zero time on the injured list.

"I think it's just always having a lingering pain throughout the last couple years and focusing on that part of pitching and not pitching itself," he said. "Being able to go out there with a clear mind and the sole purpose of trying to get guys out, I think that's really helped me be better this year."

Being fully healthy has also helped Helsley reach new heights with his heater. Before this season, the hardest pitch he had thrown in the big leagues was 101.5 mph, which came in his debut back in 2019. This season, he has thrown 44 pitches harder than 101.5 mph, including four during the All-Star Game, when his ferocious fastball was on display for a national audience.

Helsley has the unique experience of being one of the hardest-throwing pitchers on Earth but not definitively the hardest-throwing pitcher on his own team. That's thanks to his bullpen mate and fellow 2015 draftee, Jordan Hicks, whose trademark sinker has been lighting up radar guns ever since he made his MLB debut as a 21-year-old in 2018.

Hicks (246) and Helsley (177) account for the vast majority of the 433 pitches over 100 mph thrown by Cardinals pitchers this season, which is by far the most of any team in MLB. For reference, only 10 other teams have pitchers who've thrown more than 100 pitches 100-plus mph, with the Twins coming in second behind St. Louis with 362 (thanks almost entirely to Jhoan Duran). Two teams in the Cardinals' division — Milwaukee and Pittsburgh — have combined to throw zero, while six others (the A's, Cubs, Red Sox, Rangers, Blue Jays and Diamondbacks) have thrown only one 100-plus mph pitch apiece.

Hicks is also one of just two pitchers — the other being Aroldis Chapman — to touch 105 mph in the Statcast Era. While Hicks' average sinker velocity of 99.4 is currently tied with that of Helsley's four-seamer, Hicks holds the crown for hardest-pitch thrown in MLB in 2022, at 103.8 mph. Helsley's best bolt this season (and in his career) clocked in at 103.4 mph vs. Cincinnati in July. He isn't sure he can climb much higher, the way Hicks has in the past.

"I don't know if I can," Helsley said. "We joke around about it a little bit. And I think we both know that he obviously throws a little harder than me. He knows [more velocity] is still in there somewhere because he's done it before."

His teammate might have him beat on heat, but Helsley has had the clear edge results-wise this season, which has earned him the closer role that Hicks once held. And if we've learned anything from the Edwin Díaz/Timmy Trumpet dynamic duo in Queens, any top-end closer deserves a top-end closer entrance song.

Just as Trevor Hoffman did for many years in San Diego, Helsley enters home games to AC/DC's "Hells Bells" — though it's more a play on his own name than a tribute to the Hall of Famer with 601 saves. Helsley has come out to "Hells Bells" since early in his career, but his dominance this season has prompted the stadium operations team at Busch to amp up the production.

As if the song and a pitcher throwing 103 mph weren't intimidating enough, that piercing red light now serves as the ultimate warning for opposing teams entering the final frame. It's one thing to see it against the last-place Nationals in early September. But if the Cardinals continue on their path to an NL Central crown and make a deep postseason run, Helsley's entrance should be one of the great spectacles of October.

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.