Breaking down the battle for the Tigers final bullpen spots

The Detroit Tigers didn’t make much noise this offseason, but one area that they did fortify pretty aggressively was the bullpen. With a solid core consisting of Jason Foley, Alex Lange, Tyler Holton, and Will Vest already in place, Scott Harris inked right-hander Shelby Miller and lefty Andrew Chafin to free agent deals. That whole group still tracks as the core of the Opening Day bullpen despite a few hiccups this spring. So there aren’t many open spots remaining.

Of course, it’s still possible that one of those six relievers starts the year in Toledo. It’s not set in stone, but for now let’s assume there are only two spots available. By this point, usually there are some injuries that start making decisions simpler, but—knocks on wood—so far the Tigers are in fantastic shape. So they may have a difficult decision ahead as they decide who lands those final spots in the bullpen.

The Tigers seem set on starting with a five-man rotation. That appears to leave one of Matt Manning, Casey Mize, or Reese Olson out of the mix on Opening Day. But it’s also still possible that they’ll take all three to limit innings in April. They aren’t going to go to a true six man rotation, but they could piggyback two of them, likely Mize and Manning, early on considering Mize is returning from Tommy John and Manning was limited to 86 2/3 innings last year. Teams made due with seven-man bullpens for a long time, and there would be one game per turn through the rotation where the bullpen got a break. It’s doable, but for now we’ll assume the following players are competing for two spots.

Joey Wentz

A key factor that boosts Joey Wentz’s case for a bullpen job is the fact that he’s out of options. Despite his struggles trying to establish himself as a major league starter the past two seasons, Wentz is a lefty who throws 94-97 mph in short bursts. He isn’t going to get through waivers. So, the Tigers either take him north in the bullpen or let him go for good. The latter option is fine at this point, as the Tigers have a ton of pitching talent in the upper minors looking to reach the show this year. You can’t wait on a guy forever and Wentz is now 26 years old.

However, the big left-hander is having a decent camp so far, and the Tigers presumably don’t want to give up on him without giving a relief role a serious try. His fastball has been improved in velo and riding action since Wentz started working back into more of an over-the-top arm slot like he had as a minor league prospect. The command still hasn’t really improved though. It’s spring training, but four walks in nine innings feels like the same old Wentz despite an uptick in whiffs and strikeouts so far in camp. For years Wentz has flashed good potential for a few innings before getting out of sync and falling apart, at least at the major league level. Perhaps that’s an indicator that in short bursts of relief he could keep it together, but he’s running out of chances with the Tigers.

Working against Wentz is also the fact that the Tigers have Tyler Holton and Andrew Chafin locked into the bullpen, so they don’t really need a lefty that badly. Prospect Brant Hurter’s work last year and in camp has been superb, so they do have another option at the Triple-A level, though they’d like to keep Hurter starting for now, presumably. In Wentz’s favor is the fact that he can give them multiple innings at a time and has a good enough changeup to handle right-handed hitters.

My guess, is that Wentz will go north barring a disastrous finish to spring camp. He may not last long if he doesn’t prove that he really is a new man, able to course correct much more rapidly when his rhythm or mechanics get out of whack. But the Tigers aren’t so flush with left-handed talent in the upper minors, and that combined with the do-or-die nature of Wentz’s option situation, probably gets him a crack at the bullpen when the season begins.

Beau Brieske

The Tigers converted this hard-throwing right-hander to relief in 2023, and he had a pretty good run in that role, putting up a 3.60 ERA with a 4.00 FIP. Brieske has a solid riding fourseamer that sits 96-97 mph, though with mediocre extension, and a solid changeup. He’s also mixing in his sinker quite a bit against right-handers to try and jam them. His issues have been command based and the lack of a good breaking ball.

So far, Brieske is having a solid camp. He’s tossed 9 ²⁄₃ innings of work with only one hit and two walks allowed against five strikeouts. It’s good to see the walks under control, but the 25-year-old, another late round Tigers success story taken in 2019 in the 27th round, still isn’t punching out many hitters.

The remedy here is a revamped slider that is showing more velocity and a lot more depth this spring. After averaging 33 inches of vertical break in 2023 with the slider, he’s been up above 40 inches regularly. That could be the answer, but while he’s limited the walks, the command of both fastball and slider still need work.

A strong finish to spring camp could get Brieske the nod, but he still has all his options remaining. Expect him to work out of the Mud Hens bullpen trying to refine the new slider to start the season. He’ll get his shot this season at some point.

Alex Faedo

One right-hander who is legitimately having a great camp is the Tigers 2017 first round pick. Alex Faedo has made 24 major league starts across 2022-2023, but has produced fifth starter results. The problem remains his fastball, while his slider has remained a good weapon for him all through his pro career to date.

Faedo has a starter’s fastball command, so while it’s a truly a mediocre fourseamer that typically averages a bit under 93 mph with poor extension, he’s been able to avoid getting blown up too much in the majors even in a starting role. However, it’s still a very crushable heater when he makes mistakes with it, and he doesn’t get many whiffs. His changeup is similarly mediocre, forcing him to rely heavily on his slider. It’s really hard to be a high leverage reliever with a fastball you don’t really want to throw in the zone.

Even starting in 12 of 15 appearances in 2023, Faedo threw 38 percent sliders. In relief he could probably up that to 50 percent. It’s a legitimately excellent high-spin slider, racking up a 41 percent whiff rate last season despite the fact that he doesn’t have another average or better weapon to work with. That one pitch still forms the whole basis of his approach, and so his utility as a reliever is pretty questionable, but it’s at least an option. As a starter he really hasn’t looked like a legitimate prospect in a long, long time.

This spring, we’ve seen Faedo average almost 95 mph, two ticks faster than we’ve seen from him as a starter, and he’s topped out at 97 mph. He’s also shown just an inch or two more ride than last year in the process, and has tried to build more strength and flexibility in his lower half to help him get a little more extension. Signs have been positive, but we’re still talking about a very average fastball at best.

Faedo has an option remaining, and probably fits best on the 40-man roster as a swingman type who is mainly there to eat a few innings or take a spot start when needed. He can do that while being stationed in Toledo. Despite the good camp so far, not enough has improved to imagine him holding leads in the late innings. I would be surprised if the Tigers took him north to start the season, but he probably has one more year of modest usefulness to the organization before the wave of pitching prospects coming force his release next year.

Drew Anderson

The biggest eye-opener in camp, this 29-year-old right-hander has some major league experience with the Phillies and Rangers, but spent the past two seasons pitching in NPB for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Always a low powered right-hander with good riding action, he looks like a whole new man after a few months in assistant pitching coach Robin Lund’s body shop.

The Tigers inked Anderson to a minor league deal with an invite back in January, and he spent a lot of time working with Chris Fetter, Lund, Juan Nieves, and director of pitching development Gabe Rivas prior to the official opening of camp. They revamped his mechanics, trying to get him to block better with his lead leg so that he drives straight to the plate and doesn’t pull off to the first base side, which cost him velocity and riding action.

After averaging 92-93 mph his whole career, Anderson is now pumping 96-99 mph with excellent riding action and has been an absolute force in spring camp. One outing where he issued two of the three walks he’s allowed in 7 ²⁄₃ innings cost him a run, but otherwise he’s kept the walks in check while racking up 13 strikeouts.

It’s a little hard to evaluate him in comparison to his old stuff, because he’s just a very different pitcher now. On Friday against the Blue Jays, he averaged 96.8 mph with outstanding riding action and topped out at 97.7 mph over two innings of work. Meanwhile, his old solid low-80’s slider is now coming in a few mph harder and still getting the same vertical break he had at lower speeds. He also has a quality 79-80 mph curveball that, like the slider, checks in close to 2700 rpms on average and occasionally tops 2900. His changeup is a little blunt, but it’s usable as a change of pace.

Anderson really cleaned up some of his walk issues the past couple of years, but they’ve returned a bit this spring. However, he’s working with a lot higher octane now, and it might require a little adjustment period. He’s been really impressive anyway, and I’m tending to think he’s a favorite now to make the team.

We don’t know the terms of his minor league deal, and he may have an opt-out if not called up at some point this spring, but he’s pretty close to making it a moot point. He does the things Brieske can do better than Brieske, and he now has the power stuff as well as the experience to handle high leverage situations. If the Tigers do take eight relievers on Opening Day, bet on Anderson being one of them.

Prospects

As veteran minor leaguers like Miguel Diaz, Devin Sweet, and Brenan Hanifee haven’t really impressed this spring, the Tigers other option for relief help is to dip into their deep bag of talented pitching prospects. I’d be pretty surprised if they converted any of Keider Montero, Brant Hurter, Ty Madden, or Wilmer Flores to relief at this point, but they are quite stacked having all four slated to start for the Toledo Mud Hens, with Jackson Jobe and Troy Melton likely starting the season in Erie right behind them.

Of that group, Hurter is the only lefty. We ranked him 16th on our preseason prospect list, but like so many pitchers this spring, he looks to be even better than his dominant run in Double-A Erie last season. He made a nice developmental leap last year, and just keeps making subtle improvements.

Standing 6’6” and 250 pounds, he throws from a similar slot as Chris Sale, sweeping a really nasty slider across the plate to backfoot right-handers and get lefties reaching in abject futility. He has a solid changeup that is still improving in consistency, and while he’s always been a great strike thrower, the Tigers seventh round pick in 2021 has really taken his command to a new level over the past year.

His weakness has always been a low powered sinker that is well commanded but may get hit hard in the major leagues. Hurter has improved the velocity a little this spring, which is a common theme for just about every Tigers’ pitcher in camp. However, it’s still a little underpowered.

As the only left-handed starting pitching prospect anywhere near the major leagues, I would guess the Tigers will be in no rush to convert Hurter to relief. He is 25 years old though he won’t have to be added to the 40-man roster until December. However, if Chafin or Holton go down with injury and Joey Wentz struggles and gets cut, it’s a pretty good option. He’s not likely to ever be a full-time major league starter, but he could be a really good multi-inning lefty reliever who gets a lot of ground balls off the sinker and keeps the ball in the park, while collecting plenty of whiffs off the slider in particular.

The Tigers also have three hard-throwing right-handers with good power stuff in Montero, Madden, and Flores. Of that trio, Montero probably has the best and deepest pitch mix, as his changeup is significantly better than Madden’s change or Flores’ developing split. He is on the 40-man and so we’re going to see him in Detroit this season. But, he’s also just 23 years old and is still working to develop his command. The set of pitches is too good to rush him into a relief role permanently, and right now he’s still got to learn to make in-game adjustments more quickly to avoid the blow-up inning that plagued him when he got to Triple-A last summer.

Madden, our 7th ranked Tigers prospect, has a good fastball and slider, and can pump it in there up to 99 mph, but still lacks the good changeup. He does have a solid cutter and curveball as well, so it is a deep set of pitches. The changeup is coming along, but his feel for it just hasn’t been very consistent.

His command of the fastball and slider are both good, and superior to either Montero or Flores at this point, but he continues to hunt for an answer to his home run troubles with left-handed hitters. The Tigers will give him more time to work on that, and as he doesn’t have to be added to the 40-man this year, the leash as a starter in Toledo will be long. Still, if things don’t develop much further he could make a really good late innings reliever with the gas and breaking ball to dominate. His weakness against lefties would also be somewhat alleviated by the fact that they wouldn’t get multiple chances against him in a game.

Montero, our 9th ranked prospect currently in the system, has a pair of 3000 rpm breaking balls and a good riding fastball that touches 98 mph. His big development in 2023 was in developing a pretty good changeup that is now an above average weapon for him. The issue with him is similar to Wentz, in that Montero will lose the plot for a few hitters at a time, waste a lot of pitches, and sometimes give up a big inning in the midst of an otherwise dominant performance.

He is on the 40-man roster now and was the first to reach Triple-A of this group of pitching prospects, so while he’s still 23 years old, the clock will start ticking this season. He’ll see the major leagues this year if he can make some strides with his command, but the potential of his repertoire is so high that the Tigers shouldn’t push him to relief except in an emergency.

Finally we have Wilmer Flores, currently ranked 11th, who has had a very up and down couple of years since the Tigers picked up for next-to-nothing as an undrafted free agent in 2020. Flores really impressed in 2021-2022 with an explosive high 90’s fastball and a wipeout breaking ball. By the end of 2022 he was regarded as one of the Tigers top prospects. However last season he had some arm fatigue and was sitting 92-93 mph all year, with no sign of velocity above 95 mph. His offseason work appears to have resolved the issue as he’s back to sitting 97 mph and hitting 99 mph in short outings.

Flores is also on the 40-man now, and because he too has struggled to find a changeup, a future in relief seems more likely if he can’t develop consistency with his breaking balls this year. He does have a power cutter that helps him against left-handed hitters, and he’s working on a split change now that shows potential. That pitch could be huge for him if he can master it this year.

Like the others, I don’t think the Tigers will be in a rush to convert Flores to relief, but in a pinch calling him up to air it out in the bullpen isn’t a bad idea with the fastball looking outstanding again this spring and his command of it developing nicely. He’s still too erratic with his secondary pitches, but if he can put it together a little more he could make a heck of a closer in time.

For more on these four pitchers, check out our preseason BYB top 30 prospect reports. There we go into much more depth about each player’s development history and their present strengths and weaknesses.

Who do you want to take north?

Right now I’m leaning toward Joey Wentz and Drew Anderson as the final two members of the Opening Day bullpen. Things will no doubt evolve over the course of the season as always, but I think those two give you another power lefty and righty who both can handle throwing two innings at a time, and both have looked pretty good this spring. Particularly Anderson.

Who would you take north out of this group of options? Let us know in the comments, and thanks as always for reading and supporting Bless You Boys.