We’re back with another Monday spotlight, this time with Joey Danielson. You will probably not be able to find a more interesting backstory on the Rangers farm than Joey Danielson. Joey spent 2 seasons at North Dakota State playing as a catcher before convincing his coaches to let him throw a bullpen under one caveat: he had to throw at least 70% strikes in that session. He “babied it” in his words to meet that goal, earning another bullpen. Fast forward 4 seasons later, and the Rangers selected him in the 17th round of the 2024 MLB Draft. He pitched a few innings in Low-A Down East to end the season, but really got rolling in 2025. He accelerated all the way up to AA Frisco by the end of his 2025 season, and also got some innings in at the Arizona Fall League.
Joey Danielson
RHP | 6’3” | 235 lb | Age: 25
Pitch Usage:
- Fastball: 65%
- Cutter: 15.2%
- Slider: 13.2%
- Splitter: 6.7%
If you’re looking for a way to describe Joey Danielson, I think the word I’d stay furthest away from is “conventional.” During his time in college, Danielson struggled to learn why the stuff he believed should be playing better was not leading to strong results. He knew he had to get back to the drawing board, and worked to save up the money needed to train at the Tread facility. There, he learned much more about how his body moved and what he needed to do to achieve the shapes he wanted. He started to chase more horizontal movement on his sinker, and that led to him dropping his arm slot during his time at Tread. Those changes then led to the best season of his college career, as well as the Rangers taking him in the 17th round and signing him for $25,000.
Prior to this season, Danielson had quite a unique way of approaching lefties and righties. His usage changes slightly depending on which handedness he’s facing of course, but Danielson would take it a step further. Against left-handed hitters, Danielson had a much more over-the-top style slot and would be heavy in fastball, splitter, and curveball. However, when facing right-handed hitters, Danielson would drop his arm slot to the three-quarters delivery he worked on at Tread and would lean into a sinker/cutter/sweeper approach. He carved through High-A hitters at Hub City, but had some struggles in AA to end the year.
Now, the Rangers identified Danielson for his sinker traits, but it wasn’t until he showed up to camp that they realized the elite type of fastball he could generate from his high slot. The sinker is what got Danielson into the door but during that 2025 season, the more that the high-slot fastball played, the more Danielson really started to lose the feel of his lower slot sinker. There was also hope when he was drafted that he could later develop a better breaking ball shape, but the reality is that the sweeper shape introduced for him never really came along for Danielson, and the constant changing of his arm slot was leading to a lot of inconsistency with the strike zone.
Heading into the Fall league last season, the Rangers sat down with Danielson and told him they were going to have him use that over-the-top slot for both righties and lefties. The results weren’t exactly pretty (they rarely are in the Fall League), but Danielson thought it was great experience. The goal for the Rangers was to capture Danielson’s best pitch from his best slot for both the sake of consistency, as well as providing Danielson more structure, which has now led to a 30+% K rate across High-A and AA this season.
The mix with Danielson is of course headlined by that fastball. He averages 96 on it and has dialed it up to 98 this season. It averages 18” of vertical break as well as 11” of arm-side run. Despite throwing it 65% of the time, Danielson has gotten a whiff rate of 32% on his fastball this year which is simply incredible. He gets hitters to chase it out of the zone around 36% of the time, but also is throwing it for strikes with increasing consistency.
Danielson pairs his fastball with a cutter, slider, and splitter. The cutter averages 90 and gets up to 92. It has a fair amount of lift, but the high slot Danielson is throwing from this year has helped it play way up. Hitters are whiffing 41% of the time on it, and he has shown a strong feel for throwing it in the zone. Danielson’s slider is the breaking ball shape that I think has better potential. It’s a death ball shape for Danielson that averages 85 and has gotten up to 88. It has strong vertical break separation off his fastball, and has a ton of potential coming out of that high slot. It's a bit inconsistent at the moment, but it's a pitch I really believe in due to both the shape, as well as how it plays out of his high slot.
Danielson rounds out his mix with a splitter that averages 89. He throws it almost exclusively to lefties, and to good success with a whiff rate of 31% and a chase rate of 33%. He kills spin on it really well, and like his cutter, can throw it for strikes at a surprisingly decent clip. The only secondary that Danielson still doesn’t have a consistent feel for the strike zone with is the death ball, which is understandable when you then remember that this is Danielson’s first full season using that high slot to righties.
It's safe to say that the changes the Rangers made have helped Joey Danielson break out in a major way in 2026. In 26.1 innings to start this season, Joey Danielson has an ERA of 1.03, is striking hitters out at a rate of 30%, is holding opposing hitters to a .103 batting average, and has not allowed a home run. He also has 8 saves this season across both Hub City and Frisco. The biggest questions with Danielson were with his command, and if he could find a viable breaking ball shape. It's definitely too early to say he's solved both of those issues, but I feel quite certain in saying he's on the right path in his development.
