{"id":176,"date":"2025-06-30T14:59:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/glossary\/?p=176"},"modified":"2025-06-30T14:59:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:59:46","slug":"cutter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/glossary\/cutter\/","title":{"rendered":"Cutter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-a-cutter\">What is a cutter?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A cutter is a type of pitch that is a variation on the fastball. The cutter pitch cuts away from the hitter. If a righty throws it, it will cut away from a right-handed hitter; if a lefty throws it, it will cut away from a left-handed hitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cutting motion causes hitters to miscalibrate their swing a little bit. It can lead to swing-and-misses, broken bats, and lots of strikeouts if used correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although it is a type of fastball, it is typically a little slower than a normal four-seam fastball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-is-the-cutter-fastball-used\">How is the cutter fastball used?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The cutter is not used by as many pitchers as a typical fastball, but it can be a devastating weapon for pitchers who master it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cutter moves in on hitters of the opposite hand of the pitcher (so lefty hitters vs righty pitchers or righty hitters vs lefty pitchers). As a result, the hitter can often make contact with the handle instead of the fat part of the bat. That may cause weak contact or even a broken bat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cutters are often thrown by relievers, especially closers, who use them as their primary pitch<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-throw-a-cutter\">How to throw a cutter?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A cutter grip is similar to the a fastball grip, but the pitcher places both fingers towards one side of the baseball. This produces the cutting motion when the pitch is thrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-cutter-examples\">Cutter Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The most famous cutter pitcher was Mariano Rivera. The cutter was essentially Rivera&#8217;s only pitch. On the strength of that pitch alone, he accumulated 652 saves and was elected to the Hall of Fame<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a cutter? A cutter is a type of pitch that is a variation on the fastball. The cutter pitch cuts away from the hitter. If a righty throws it, it will cut away from a right-handed hitter; if a lefty throws it, it will cut away from a left-handed hitter. The cutting motion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.7.1 (Yoast SEO v25.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cutter: Baseball-Reference.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A cutter is a type of pitch that is a variation on the fastball. 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