Astros' Hunter Brown: Working on traditional slider

Brown is adding a slider to his pitch mix this offseason, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports.

Brown had an excellent start to his rookie season in 2023 but faded down the stretch while posting a 6.57 ERA across the second half of the year. He attributed some of those struggles to fatigue, though he also served up 1.9 HR/9 to right-handed hitters. While he threw a cut-slider and also experimented with a sweeper, Brown is working on a traditional slider that projects to have more of a velocity gap compared to his fastball. If he incorporates that into his pitch mix effectively, he should have more success neutralizing right-handed bats.