TORONTO — If there was ever a time to showcase the bullpen as Tuesday’s trade deadline approaches, the Detroit Tigers took advantage of it in Friday’s 4-2 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
The Blue Jays’ offense, averaging the third-most runs per game in the majors, couldn’t hit the Tigers’ best bullpen arms.
“I don’t really want to see them go,” manager A.J. Hinch said.
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Right-hander Joe Jiménez dominated in the seventh inning, followed by righty Michael Fulmer in the eighth and left-handed closer Gregory Soto in the ninth. The Tigers are sellers, and all three relievers are candidates to be traded to postseason contenders in the coming days, along with Andrew Chafin (who’s on the restricted list for the weekend).
“That was showcasing what’s been the brightest spot of our team this season,” Hinch said. “We have a winning bullpen, and I say that having been on some pretty good teams. When we have the lead, we feel like we have a path to a win.”
The Tigers’ bullpen ranks fourth in MLB with a 3.02 ERA.
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Facing the bottom of Toronto’s lineup, Jiménez relied heavily on his four-seam fastball and fearlessly put the ball in the strike zone.
The 27-year-old has one of the best strikeout rates in baseball, at 35.3%, and dropped his walk rate from 16.7% last season to 5.1% this season. His underlying metrics are off the charts, and since the 2018 All-Star doesn’t become a free agent until after the 2023 season, he is highly coveted at this year’s deadline.
He is as valuable as he’s ever been.
“It’s just a different type of fastball,” catcher Tucker Barnhart said. “You hear the buzzword ‘heavier,’ and he has one of the heaviest fastballs that I’ve caught. He’s not afraid to challenge you. He doesn’t care who you are. He knows he’s going to take his chances with his stuff over whoever’s at the plate. That takes a lot of guts. That’s what makes him really good. He doesn’t give a damn.”
Jiménez struck out the side in the seventh inning — getting Raimel Tapia (foul tip, 96.6 mph), Santiago Espinal (foul tip, 97.2 mphl) and Zack Collins (called strike, 96.6 mph) on fastballs to lower his ERA to 3.00 ERA with eight walks and 55 strikeouts in 39 innings. Of his 18 pitches, 15 were fastballs, averaging 96.7 mph and producing five swings and misses.
While Jiménez sticks to his fastball, Fulmer takes a different path, using his slider the most. He is the most likely reliever to be traded, thanks to his expiring contract after this season.
“I’ve respected him from afar for a long time,” Barnhart said. “He’s had an unbelievable career, and it’s nowhere near over. He’s battled injuries, come back and has been extremely effective late in games.”
Fulmer, who has a 2.77 ERA with 20 walks and 38 strikeouts over 39 innings, has thrown 614 pitches this season; 64.3% of them have been sliders, to draw an opposing batting average of .141 on his best offering. His walk rate, at 12.2%, is up compared to last season (6.7%), and he doesn’t get many whiffs on pitches outside of the strike zone, but the 29-year-old knows how to get outs.
In the eighth inning Friday, Fulmer battled the top of Toronto’s lineup. He struck out Cavan Biggio on three straight sliders, then walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on five pitches, spraying all four balls to his glove side, away from the two-time All-Star. But Fulmer rediscovered his command against Alejandro Kirk, a 2022 All-Star who has more walks (35) than strikeouts (33) in his 89 games this season.
Kirk struck out swinging on four pitches, swinging through back-to-back sliders at the top corner of the zone for the second out. To end the inning, Teoscar Hernandez hit a slider for a weak grounder back to Fulmer.
Fulmer used 13 sliders, two four-seam fastballs and two two-seam fastballs to get the Jays. All six of his whiffs came on his slider, which averaged 90.6 mph. When Fulmer, an All-Star in 2017, lands his slider where he wants, he becomes nearly unstoppable.
“It just speaks to how elite his slider is,” Barnhart said. “I would be willing to bet that the other team basically knows it’s coming, and not many teams do much with it if he’s executing it, which says a lot. … It’s hard to do what he does with one pitch, but again, it speaks to how elite that one pitch is, and he throws just enough fastballs to make it even better.”
After Fulmer, Soto entered for the ninth.
The 27-year-old, who can’t become a free agent until after the 2025 season, converted his 37th save in 40 chances over the past two seasons. Known as a flamethrower, he has relied less on his dynamite slider of a year ago, slightly decreasing his strikeout and whiff rates. In 2021, Soto threw sliders 37.6% of the time. This year, he’s using it at a 20.5% clip.
But his walk rate has improved from 14.5% in 2021 to 10.3% in 2022.
“What blows me away about him is how good his command is,” Barnhart said. “Back-end-of-the-bullpen guys that have the type of overall velo and stuff that he has don’t tend to have the ability to backdoor a slider or front-hip a two-seam and kind of pitch like some starters do. He’s just so fun to catch. More times than not, when he comes in, the game is over. There aren’t a lot of guys around the league like him.”
For his 19th save this year, Soto retired Lourdes Gurriel Jr., a red-hot Matt Chapman (three homers in two games against the Tigers) and pinch-hitter Bo Bichette (a 2021 All-Star).
Soto registered triple digits on the radar gun twice against Chapman, eventually striking him out swinging with a 99.5 mph sinker. He stayed away from his four-seam fastball against the Jays, though that’s a pitch he has used more often this season, and instead threw 13 sinkers and three sliders. His sinker averaged 99.4 mph.
The lefty, a two-time All-Star with a 2.36 ERA, 15 walks and 37 strikeouts over 34⅓ innings this season, is the least likely of the four relievers to be traded — the Tigers won’t budge without a strong return package. Jiménez, Fulmer and Chafin seem much more likely to be on the move before Tuesday.
“Our bullpen is special,” Barnhart said. “I think they’ve shown that all year. They’ve been the steadiest part of our team. I can’t say enough good things about those guys. … They all have different shticks, I guess you could call it, but they’re all special. They really are, and they’re a joy to catch.”
The “Big Three” who finished the game weren’t the only bullpen stars, as the Tigers bridged the gap between starting pitcher Bryan Garcia and Jiménez with right-handers Will Vest and Jason Foley.
Foley will move into an elevated role once the deals are done.
The 26-year-old has a 2.87 ERA with nine walks and 24 strikeouts over 37⅔ innings. He struck out two in a perfect sixth inning Friday, using his nasty slider to dispose of Hernandez and his 97 mph sinker to freeze Gurriel for the first two outs. For the third out, his sinker induced a grounder from Chapman.
“He’s been good because he’s established the confidence that’s needed to pitch in close games,” Hinch said. “It’s not just righties, but he’s pretty dominant against righties. It’s not just innings that are low pressure, he’s starting to be able to pitch more and more important innings.
“He’s just tapping into what his potential is. We thought he could take a step forward this year, and he’s continuing to do that. He’s got a lot of time left, and he’s going to get a lot of innings in the next six weeks.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.