Giants LHP Jacob Bresnahan Thriving With Added Strength, Revamped Arsenal
Image credit: Jacob Bresnahan (Brian Westerholt/Four Seam Images)
When the Giants acquired Jacob Bresnahan from the Guardians last summer, the lefthander’s stuff was intriguing. His fastball sat in the low 90s and scraped 95 mph with plenty of life through the zone. He backed it with a slider and changeup that each projected as average or better.
In Bresnahan’s writeup in Baseball America’s 2025 Prospect Handbook—where he’s ranked 25th in the system—the Giants said that if he got in the gym over the offseason and added strength, then his stuff would take a jump forward.
He did, and it did.
Bresnahan spent the offseason in Arizona working out at Pro Advantage Training, which counts many current and former major leaguers as clients. After a winter of work, Bresnahan’s stuff is crisper and more powerful. His fastball now sits around 93 mph and peaked at 96 this spring.
That’s not the only change he’s made.
Toward the end of his tenure with Cleveland, with the help of Guardians pitcher Andrew Misiaszek, Bresnahan ditched the traditional grip on his changeup and replaced it with the new and popular kick grip, which involves curling his ring finger into a spike atop the baseball to help reduce spin.
“I’m just working on killing the vert on that so it plays off the heater better, and then just having a consistent slider that moves right,” Bresnahan said. “So I just started doing that last year in San Jose. I just kick it more now, and it’s pretty tight. My hand has just been killing the spin.”
Over the course of four perfect innings in a recent start on the backfields, the pitch sat in the mid 80s and produced triple-digit rpm spin rates.
Bresnahan also altered the grip on his slider by shifting his ring and middle fingers to the front of the semi-circle shape at the top of the Minor League Baseball logo. Previously, he’d held those fingers on the seams to the side of the logo.
“I shifted along the seams and then kind of baby spiked it,” Bresnahan said. “I just think about keeping my wrist firm and throwing this U (shape) with the hand to the catcher, and it’s helped me a lot to get the sidespin I need to kill some vert, but get some horizontal break, as well.”
Scouts, too, have been impressed by Bresnahan’s performance this spring and point to him as one of the Giants’ more up-arrow prospects. They are encouraged by the increased velocity and the tighter quality of his secondaries—though they would like to see further improvement in that department. The evaluators also point to his durable body and excellent extension created in his delivery as reasons for optimism.
Bresnahan broke camp with Low-A San Jose but could advance to High-A Eugene later this spring or early summer. There’s also a chance he deepens his mix at some point during his development, though nothing is firm in that regard just yet.
For now, an offseason of work and tinkering has left him with three solid pitches and a brighter future.
