Jeremiah Estrada’s road to big league success has been rocky. Drafted out of Palm Desert High School in California in 2017, the 27-year-old right-hander dealt with multiple injuries, including one that required Tommy John surgery in 2019. There were also non-life related difficulties as well. Estrada spent his first seven seasons in the Chicago Cubs organization, and was often at odds with the team’s coordinators and coaches. Sometimes they were at cross purposes when it came to developing his repertoire.
Estrada reached the majors with Chicago in 2022, though it wasn’t until two years later that he found his big breakthrough. Aside from the Cubs, in which he pitched a major league-high 16 1/3 innings over parts of two seasons, he has improved since being fired by the San Diego Padres before the 2024 campaign. Over 145 appearances, Estrada logged a 3.35 ERA, 2.85 FIP, and a 36.1% strikeout rate over 139 2/3 frames. His Friars ledger includes four saves and an 11-9 shutout record.
Estrada discussed his uneventful, and often frustrating, path to major league success over two interviews. The first came in early March at the Padres’ spring training facility, and the second took place at Fenway Park this past weekend.
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David Laurila: How much have you changed since coming to proball?
Jeremiah Estrada: “I would say a lot, not just what happens on the field. On the baseball side, you learn what’s important and what’s not, but that’s just like life.
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“Sometimes I argue with people about whether this should be considered a job or not. A lot of people don’t understand what goes into it. This is a job—a blessing, but it’s also a job. That’s something I’d like kids to understand, even adults to understand. You have to put it into work.”
Laurila: What about the idea of just stopping? There have been some changes along the way…
Estrada: “Yes, as a pitcher, I’ve changed a lot. In my crazy mind, back then – back when I first found out. [to pro ball] – I thought I could do what I do. I was…I was really clueless, but I felt like what I was doing was right. Just throw it at people. But I jumped in, and they were already talking to me about making changes. It was, ‘Hey, we’re going to remove this field or that field.’ I said, ‘Damn, okay.’ Any kid who wants to be in a big club will be like, ‘Yes sir, no sir.’
“I had to learn how to be more confident. I went through all those years paying attention to the guidance I should listen to, organizations and ideas. I thought that any advice I was given would lead me to a great group. Over time, I got there … I started doing better when I paid attention to myself and left everything in God’s hands instead of putting it in other people’s hands too much. I accepted some guidance—I accepted some words, some wisdom—but mainly I relied on myself.”
Laurila: I want to hear about your changeup, but first we have to talk about your fastball. Do you always get a lot of straight rides with it?
Estrada: “In high school, my fastball used to cut. I also had a normal changeup at that time. My arm was almost the same, but maybe the angle … was a little lower. When it got a little higher, and I gained more weight – whatever it was – it started to carry more. Carry and cut. But the carry was always there. Even some colleges I talked to were like, ‘That’s life’. They said so. I didn’t know anything about it. Until today, I don’t even know how to read some of the numbers on TrackMan.”
Laurila: I knew about carrying, but not cutting.
Estrada: “Sometimes, I get cut. The funny thing is when we cut, it’s not bad … but it’s also bad. I lose a little bit of velo, a little bit of vert. It can work sometimes, though. It can work for me. I’ll be leaving a fastball from center to left and it ends up hitting the cutter by mistake.”
Laurila: What causes that to happen?
Estrada: “Mechanistically, I’m coming into my toes instead of sitting back on the hip and pushing off the mound. Balance position because of the mechanics. On the way down from my leg I’m kicking, I’m trying to be aggressive, I’m trying to throw hard, I’m trying to put the ball, I’ll say jump on it instead of sitting in my right seat – and I’m working on the plate like you. mechanics, I’m keeping my foot on the ground.
“You can throw the baseball as hard as you can, or as soft as you can – whatever you can do – but doing things right is the most important thing. You have to find out for yourself what works mechanically. You have to understand yourself. People worry a lot about what they hear, but if you hear some of the wrong things … you have to listen to yourself, hear your body. At the end of the day, it’s not your arm, it’s not your arm. It’s a job that ends.
Laurila: Your work started after you started making the split change. Did you learn after coming to the Padres?
Estrada: “No, I was still with the Cubs. But I learned on my own. They tried to teach me the forkball, or the regular splitter, and I told them no. I had a good changeup. It was a changeup of the circle, like Pedro Martinez. I copied his, and along with my fastball, it was the pitch that got me drafted, but they shouldn’t think about it, but they shouldn’t think about it, but they shouldn’t think about it. Blame something that’s not a problem.
“I mean, right from the start… after my first two days [in the organization] they were telling me, ‘Hey, we’re going to get rid of your curveball.’ They jumped the gate on me, trying to make me what they wanted, instead of letting me be the way I should be, or the way I want to be.”
Laurila: I remember reading that you had a good change. Why did they want you to learn the divider?
Estrada: “You’d have to ask them. For a while they wanted me to just throw fastballs and sliders — that’s what I threw a lot when I got to the majors — but then they wanted me to… [in the wrong direction]. I stuck with it for months, until I got tired of it. This was in 2023. They were trying to send me to Double-A, because I didn’t understand Triple-A, and I told them, ‘I’m not going.’ I told them I’d rather go to Arizona [to the team’s complex] then I get blasted on social media, they say I’m pregnant. I wanted to go there and find things, rather than let something else rule my life. You have to find the darkest moments to find the light.”
Laurila: Have you studied the transitions gap on your own?
Estrada: “Yeah. I was in my hotel room, throwing a ball up. I was trying to find a Vulcan, trying to find any other kind… until I tried. [Kevin] This is Gausman’s place. It wasn’t working. Like I said, you have to understand yourself. I’m too high up, and I’m trying to come down [action] in it, I would press more up [of the baseball]. Every time I tried to throw a Vulcan or a splitter, I got that fastball carry. I realized that all I had to do was pull out my index and middle fingers, because those were my power fingers, my fastball fingers. That’s what I did. I caught baseball that way, and that way of thinking, and it felt good. I stuck the baseball in my hand like that for the next day. I told them, ‘This might seem bad, but I want to throw it this way.’
“When I was sold here, I showed it [Padres pitching coach] Reuben [Niebla]. He saw me throw, and he said, ‘That looks good. I love it. Whatever it is, whatever you call it, it works.’ He treated me well as I am.”
Laurila: What did you call it?
Estrada: “The only reason I call it ‘chitter’ is because it sounds funny. Change the separator, change the separator. When a Mexican says a bad word – I don’t like to swear – that’s what it sounds like. I was just having fun. It’s important to have fun.”
