The look of Fenway Park over the weekend was quite a bit different than when Kyle Hart debuted there in an empty stadium during the heart of the 2020 pandemic.
The Red Sox could say the same thing about the lanky, 6-foot-5 left-hander.
Yeah, he’s 33 now, but Hart averaged 88.7 mph with a four-seamer that year as a Red Sox rookie. On Sunday, Hart sat 93.7 mph while turning in 2⅓ shutout innings in relief, although he allowed an inherited run to score. Heck, if it hadn’t been such a cold, soggy day, he might have pushed it toward 95 mph as he’s been doing quite frequently since last September’s call-up.
Believe it or not, the breakthrough was as much mental as it was physical.
“I’d always thought, like, this is what my body’s capable of,” said Hart, who has a 5.40 ERA this year but allowed all four of his runs to score when asked to start a third inning on March 31. “I wasn’t like content with what I was doing. But I just thought, like, OK, this is all that my body could produce.”
Hart opened the 2025 season in the Padres rotation, but he was optioned to Triple-A El Paso five times until finishing the season in the big-league bullpen. Improving his numbers against right-handed hitters was a point of emphasis throughout his time in the Pacific Coast League, but squeezing more velocity out of him became a pet project in his work with El Paso pitching coach Scott Mitchell and pitching development director Jose Rada.
“We’re allowed to evolve,” Hart said. “ … So that threshold of being able to tell yourself that you’re not just a 90-(mph) guy and you have to prove it to yourself. That’s kind of what September was all about for me last year personally. Obviously you’re trying to make the playoffs, but just proving to myself every time I go out there that the old guy doesn’t need to show up anymore.”
The Padres’ pitching lab at Point Loma Nazarene was a piece of the process, as is throwing harder in shorter bursts as a reliever. A lot of the focus, however, was on Hart’s mobility in his back and improving hip/shoulder separation via core velocity belt and stick drills.
“I was basically going through the motion in a really inefficient way,” Hart said.
Hart first touched 95 mph in the majors last September and hit that threshold six times. He hasn’t quite hit that mark in the regular season this year, but he topped out at 95.7 mph early in Cactus League action and is sitting 93 mph so far with is sinker.
Along the kick-change he’s added as a weapon to right-handed hitters, the velocity boost is another step in what he hopes is his evolution as a weapon in the Padres’ bullpen.
“I’ve got a lot to prove to my teammates and the staff and myself,” Hart said. “ … I’ve got to do it and do it and do it and yeah, I think that’s what I’m kind of excited about.”
He added: “I know it’s not going to be perfect every time, but if that can show up, I feel like a lot of good things are going to happen in whatever innings they put me out there.”