Cut Fastball
Also known as: cutter, cut fastball
The cutter is a fastball with late glove-side movement — harder than a slider, smaller break than a slider — that jams or cuts away from hitters.
The cutter lives between the four-seamer and the slider in both velocity and movement. Thrown with a four-seam grip shifted slightly off-center (pressure on the middle finger), it cuts glove-side 2–4 inches late with minimal tilt. Because it looks like a fastball until the last 10–15 feet, it is extremely difficult to barrel. Left-handed pitchers use it to eat the hands of right-handed hitters; right-handers use it to run away from left-handers. Mariano Rivera's cutter — nearly his only pitch — is the most famous example in professional baseball history.
Example
His cutter moved two inches glove-side at 91 mph, catching the end of the left-handed hitter's bat handle and producing a broken-bat groundout.
Related terms
- Four-Seam FastballThe four-seam fastball is the most common pitch in baseball — gripped across all four seams — and is typically the hardest, straightest pitch a pitcher throws.
- SliderThe slider is a breaking ball with lateral movement and some downward tilt, faster than a curveball and typically sharper in its late break.
- Horizontal BreakHorizontal break is the lateral movement a pitch generates from spin, measured in inches to the arm side (positive) or glove side (negative).
- Pitch TunnelingPitch tunneling is the strategy of throwing different pitch types that share the same flight path early before diverging late — making it nearly impossible for the hitter to distinguish them in time.
- Seam-Shifted Wake (SSW)Seam-Shifted Wake is an aerodynamic effect where an off-center seam orientation disrupts airflow asymmetrically, producing movement that cannot be predicted from spin rate or axis alone.
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