Lakeland, Fla. — Oh to be a fly on the wall the first time Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter sits down with Andrew Chafin.
The Tigers on Thursday made official the signing of Chafin, the 31-year-old lefty reliever, for two years and $13 million. Fetter, like the organization’s entire pitching department, comes from the newer data-tech school of pitching.
Chafin, well, Chafin is a farmer who loves to throw a baseball and frustrate hitters. Analytics, to put it mildly, ain’t his thing.
“Yeah, no,” he said. “You either did good or you didn’t do good. I don’t need all the percentages and angles and stuff. Was it a good pitch or not? It’s simple. Baseball is simple and it has a tendency to get way overcomplicated. I think there’s a pile of people that need to slow it down and quit thinking so much.”
That last sentence, rest assured, has never been uttered once in the Tigers’ pitching lab. As for his talks with Fetter, no sweat.
“Won’t be much to say,” he said. “Up and in, down and away, I bounce a breaking ball — not necessarily in that order.”
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When you’ve been as effective as Chafin’s been for most of his eight big-league seasons, and you have the nasty sinker-slider combination with the expert command of the strike zone like he has, maybe it can be that simple. Pitching with the Cubs and Athletics last season, he limited hitters to a .226/.267/.330 slash-line. He had a 1.83 ERA and a sub-1 WHIP (0.93).
“He’s a perfect fit for AJ’s bullpen,” general manager Al Avila said, referring to manager AJ Hinch. “He’s a pretty simple guy in that you can put him in any situation and he’ll take the ball. Alex (Avila, former Tigers catcher) caught him in Arizona so we feel we had good information about him.
“He’s a solid guy in the clubhouse, he takes the ball every time and he’s pretty tough on the mound.”
Chafin had several options in free agency and chose the Tigers, he said, in part because of Detroit’s proximity to his farm outside of Massillon, Ohio, where his wife and two young daughters live. He said he let his agent do the heavy lifting on the contract, but as the lockout lingered, he started getting antsy.
“No, I was as cool as a cucumber,” he said, dripping sarcasm into the can of root beer he was swigging during the press conference. “Let’s be honest. The whole situation this year has been just an absolute crap shoot. You just have to roll with it and do the best you can with what you got.”
All’s well that ends well, though, and he’s excited about cranking it back up for another season. Though, he admitted, since he doesn’t really follow baseball, he doesn’t know much about his new teammates, though he has played with Javy Baez before.
“Yeah, throw the sinker, get the ground ball and start walking to the dugout,” he said. “Javy’s going to make the play every time.”
He didn’t even realize his former manager and bench coach in Arizona (Kirk Gibson and Alan Trammell) were part of the fabric of this organization.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m a free spirit,” Chafin said. “I feel like that’s too, like, hippy-ish. That’s not how I would describe myself. I just show up to do my job. Just, whatever I have to do that day, I want to do it the best of my ability and move on.”
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He spent the offseason working his farm. He said he hadn’t thrown any live batting practices ahead of signing.
“I’m a reliever so, one inning usually,” he shrugged. “I’m pretty built up for that one.”
The second thing that enticed him to sign with the Tigers was the two-year deal. He’s played on three teams since 2020.
“That was definitely one of the things we really wanted,” Chafin said. “I just want to go somewhere and settle down and make it home. I’m not much for getting traded two years in a row. But it’s all part of the business. If I could put some roots down here for a while, I’d be pretty excited about that.”
About Greene and Tork
Avila was asked what top prospects Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson needed to show this spring to secure spots on the opening day roster.
“We ask that of ourselves — what are we looking for,” he said. “Both guys are very mature in the way they prepare for each game. I think they learned a lot last year playing a full season, especially Torkelson. I can’t tell you exactly what we’re looking for, but we will know it when we see it.”
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One thing that’s off the board is MLB service time concerns. The new collective bargaining agreement has built-in incentives for teams to play their young stars right out of the gate. Not that the Tigers had any history with manipulating service time in the previous CBA.
“I’ve said all along, in my opinion, when a player is ready to come up and the team is ready to go, there is no reason to hold them back,” Avila said. “I was not taught that way and I believe I am not arrogant enough to think I can hold a guy back and we’re going to get by and make the playoffs anyway.
“You’ve got to go full-bore from Day One.”
Game time
The Tigers will open the Grapefruit League schedule Friday against the Phillies and, fittingly, the Tigers new $77 million starting pitcher, Eduardo Rodriguez, will get the ball first and pitch three innings.
“I was throwing already in Miami (during the lockout), a couple of sides and three live batting practices,” he said. “I feel like I’m 100-percent ready.”
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Drew Carlton, Will Vest, Jacob Barnes, Bryan Garcia and Joe Jimenez are scheduled to follow.
Hinch said that Casey Mize will start Saturday against the Pirates in Bradenton, Tarik Skubal will start Sunday against the Yankees in Tampa, Matt Manning Monday against the Blue Jays in Lakeland and Tyler Alexander will start Tuesday against the Phillies in Clearwater.
Around the horn
…Assisting with infield drills the last couple of days was former Miami Marlins infielder Alfredo Amezaga. The Tigers have hired the 44-year-old to serve on Lloyd McClendon’s staff at Triple-A Toledo.
…The Tigers, who finished near the bottom of baseball in double-play efficiency, ran a drill Thursday timing the time it takes to turn a double-play, from the time the ball leaves the bat to the ball being caught by the first baseman. A time of 4.3 or 4.4 is considered good and the Tigers, with Javy Baez at short and either Jonathan Schoop or Harold Castro at second, were turning them in 4.1 and 4.2 seconds. One was 3.69, which Hinch was leery of. “I think they were making sure Baez felt welcome here,” he said, laughing.
Twitter: @cmccosky