Jake Higginbotham drives a Ford Mustang.
His former athletic trainer, Daniel Leja, recently baptized him into Detroit Red Wings fandom.
And now, the left-handed reliever is a member of the Detroit Tigers‘ organization.
“My athletic trainer this year in Double-A was born and raised in Detroit,” Higginbotham said Tuesday. “He called me when I got traded, and he was super psyched. I’ve been keeping up with the Red Wings all season. I have an infatuation with Ford, so I know it’s the Motor City, and that’s where Mustangs are built. That would be pretty cool to see that.”
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The Tigers acquired Higginbotham (and third baseman/outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy) from the Atlanta Braves on Dec. 7 in exchange for right-handed reliever Joe Jiménez and cash considerations.
In 2022, Higginbotham — who turns 27 in January — experienced his first full, healthy season since the 2019 campaign. He spent the entire season with Double-A Mississippi and registered a 4.73 ERA with 18 walks and 48 strikeouts across 51⅓ innings (in 48 appearances) out of the bullpen.
“My first four months of this season were really strong,” Higginbotham said, “and not necessarily hit a wall, but it was more of that mental fatigue, the day-to-day grind, showing up and staying in a routine. It was definitely an adjustment, and one that I think I’m more prepared for in 2023.
“It was a good opportunity to spend all year in Double-A and face some really good hitters, and I think I learned a lot just as far as how to train physical, how to prepare myself mentally every day and be ready to go to work.”
Higginbotham attacks with his four-seam fastball, which sits in the 93-99 mph range, and also employs a slider. He fills up the strike zone and benefits from ground balls (48.1% last season), especially early in counts. Going into 2023, Higginbotham wants to increase his strikeout rate and maximize his slider. He hopes to eliminate his fastball’s velocity gap and be in the upper-90s all season.
He is training at a facility called P3 in Atlanta.
“It’s just execution,” Higginbotham said of his slider. “Analytically, it’s pretty strong. It’s more so just throwing it where it needs to be thrown in certain counts. … It’s a matter of allowing the hitters to see fastball out of the hand and swing over the top of it in those finish counts to increase the strikeout rate. I just got to execute it better.”
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Back in 2019, Higginbotham had four pitches: two-seam fastball, slider, curveball and changeup.
The Braves, citing his usage as a one-inning reliever, instructed him to switch from a two-seamer to a four-seamer and dump his curveball and changeup. Since he throws hard, the Braves wanted to capitalize on what he does best by keeping him focused on a four-seamer and the slider.
“From a pitching standpoint, everything has to be a power pitch,” Higginbotham said. “It’s all about velo, velo, velo. How hard can you throw the fastball? How hard can you throw your slider and execute it? From that standpoint, I think it’ll be beneficial that I continue to throw the arsenal that I have.”
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Scott Harris, the Tigers’ president of baseball operations, praised Higginbotham for his fastball and slider. After a full season in Double-A, he could jump to Triple-A Toledo to start the 2023 season.
“He has a slider that is very effective at limiting damage,” Harris said Dec. 7 at the winter meetings. “And he’s been really tough on left-handed hitters throughout his career. You can never have too much pitching, and he’s a guy that I think can help us in the bullpen, especially against left-handed hitters.”
The Tigers welcome Higginbotham, who majored in biomaterials engineering at Clemson, to the organization with low milage on his arm as a professional, logging just 155⅓ innings over 103 appearances in the minor leagues since the Braves selected him in the 11th round of the 2018 draft.
He has suffered several injuries in his career.
Higginbotham didn’t pitch in the minor leagues in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, then tore a muscle in his left shoulder and his latissimus dorsi (in his back) in the 2021 season. He also tore the same shoulder muscle at Clemson in 2017 and missed time in 2016 with a stress fracture in his elbow.
“I think (the injuries) made me mentally stronger,” Higginbotham said, “and allowed me to become more of a student of the game to increase that baseball IQ, just having watched so many innings and not being able to participate physically. From an injury standpoint, I grew a lot mentally.”
For now, the Tigers have two left-handed pitchers in the bullpen: swingman Tyler Alexander and high-leverage reliever Gregory Soto. A third — Higginbotham — could be coming soon. He has already spoken to director of pitching Gabe Ribas, among others in the player development department.
Next on the to-do list: Drive his Mustang from Toledo to Detroit for his MLB debut this season.
“I’ve done everything from start to long relief to close to set-up,” Higginbotham said. “I’ve done everything. … Our pitching coach in Double-A (Bo Henning) did a really good job of putting us in different situations so we were ready for anything. I pride myself on being versatile. Wherever I need to fit in with wherever they put me is what I’m willing to do.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.