Alejandro Rivera 6/30/26

Undersized righty who doesn’t throw hard but excels at literally everything else. Rivera has a deep mix, plus command, and superlative feel to pitch. He works the full zone, changes speeds, and has made opposing hitters look consistently off balanced.

The fastball, while not impressive velo wise (91-92 T94) plays up due to Rivera’s feel to manipulate it. The pitch features tailing or cut life depending on pitch location/intent. You can even see this on the Baseball Savant pitch movement plots, if you look at the cluster of 4sm and 2sm fastballs. The changeup (80-83) is his best secondary pitch – very deceptive with late depth/fade, producing ugly sw/m vs both-sided hitters. The slider (81-83) isn’t far behind with deep slicing 2-plane break. Not shown on the pitch plots, but I thought I saw a curve as well (76-80), which has some utility too as a change of pace pitch and another velo band hitters must respect.

Rivera lives on the low corners early in counts and puts the ball in spots hitters have trouble reaching. The sinker barely clips the edge of the plate down and away from lefties, and he employs a similar approach vs righties attacking them down and away with his slider. He also seems to be consistently working inside, with the ball starting over the plate and boring in on hitters’ hands.

Rivera throws a lot of strikes and exudes a fearless bulldog type mentality on the mound, despite being one of the smaller guys on the field. He oozes confidence and challenges hitters who come away looking baffled all too often.

It is really a special command profile. He will back door a cutter at will or use the sinker to induce weak contact. It’s an onslaught of different pitches and looks that are completely overwhelming hitters on the complex. Rivera also has an idea of how to sequence and attack: breaking ball down, fastball up. Works primarily east/west early in counts, looking for weak contact and makes hitters defend the whole plate.

It’s a loose/easy arm action and clean repeatable mechanics. Rivera is listed at 5’11” 154 and probably closer to 175 now. I think there’s still projection remaining, and if he adds a couple of ticks to the fastball, watch out. We could be looking at a mid-rotation starter. Even without a velo increase, I think you could make a back-end case for him. He doesn’t have much left to prove here on the complex, and I am glad I was able to get a look before he is promoted.