It’s a given year, and a given baseball season, and so the Detroit Tigers’ bullpen is a problem. Despite a nice run of 3-1-1 in their last five series, things still feel too precarious for any comfort. The club has the 19th best ERA and the 23rd best FIP out of their relief corps currently. For a team with ambitions, that isn’t going to get it done. This early in the season, those numbers can change quickly, and a bullpen is a season long process rather than a set thing, but you only need watch the Tigers to know they need a solution or two to get sorted.
Most obviously the guys who are here to handle the late innings need to do a better job and AJ Hinch needs to revert back to more of a matchup strategy than setting roles. That just isn’t possible when the rest of the bullpen isn’t doing its job either. But with Connor Seabold leaving the game with a possible ankle injury in Saturday’s loss to the Cincinnati Reds, they may also have an open spot available. Seabold did walk off the field indicating that whatever happened, it’s probably minor, so perhaps he’ll avoid the injured list. Either way, in the short term at least, they don’t have any obvious great answers.
Hard-throwing right-hander Troy Melton, who impressed last summer and in the postseason as a rookie, is reportedly throwing bullpens and not far from a rehab assignment, but he may still be two weeks or more from a return. His loss this spring was a blow, and Melton is their best hope to add a dominant relief arm in May. Likewise, Justin Verlander doesn’t seem likely to return until at least mid-May. Even if he begins a rehab assignment soon he’ll need more than one start to stretch back out. So they can’t move Keider Montero to the pen until the veteran is really 100 percent good to go, and early on Montero has been pretty good in the rotation anyway. It’s baseball of course, so that may look different by the time that decision comes around. Jackson Jobe may become an option out of the pen once he returns from Tommy John surgery, but the best case scenario for him is to really be up and running by August.
If Seabold hits the injury list, the Tigers do have some decent options at the Triple-A level, but no one who is necessarily going to do more than eat innings in long relief or pitch when they’re well behind in a game. Until Melton returns, someone in the upper levels of the farm system breaks out, or Jackson Jobe comes back from TJ, there just isn’t an extra hard-throwing, potentially high leverage type of relief option available.
Hanifee should be familiar as he threw 60 innings for the Tigers last year with a 3.00 ERA/3.25 FIP combination. His sinker keeps the ball in the park, and his strikeout to walk ratios are good, but he really doesn’t whiff many guys and tends to just pound the zone with 95 mph sinkers, refusing to issues walks and getting tons of ground balls. That’s not really what the Tigers need right now, but he has a lot more major league experience than Vanasco, and at very least keeps the ball in the park. He’s already on the 40-man as well. It’s easy to be skeptical of relievers that don’t strike many hitters out, but Hanifee has been at least effective for two straight years. He’s at his best when he’s 96-97 mph with the sinker and his velocity is down two ticks this spring, but that may just be the April weather conditions talking. For now he appears to be option number one and joined the club on Sunday as Seabold is evaluated.
Brenan Hanifee has joined the Tigers in Cincinnati. He’s on the taxi squad for the moment while Connor Seabold has his left ankle evaluated.
I keep bringing up the 27-year-old Vanasco because he’s been outstanding for the Triple-A Mud Hens this year. The former Dodgers relief prospect was picked up in 2024, but while he’s always struck out a lot of hitters, his control issues kept him from breaking through to the major leagues. In eight appearances and 12 innings total this spring, Vanasco has punched out 44.7 percent of hitters faced and kept the walks under control.
Beyond control though, his big issue has always been a mediocre fastball shape. He’s averaging 95.1 mph with plus extension to the plate, which helps, and has learned to throw a pretty even mix of fourseamers and sinkers to help avoid barrels, but it’s still a pretty hittable fastball. His moneymaker is a plus power curveball at 83-84 mph that has always missed a ton of bats and is drawing whiffs at a 40 percent rate this year. He has a solid changeup as well and isn’t afraid to throw it. In the majors, Vanasco will need to lean heavily on the curve and changeup, and a month isn’t quite enough to suggest that he’s banished his control issues permanently. He’ll also need a 40-man roster spot, though there are certainly options they could DFA to open a spot.
De Jesus looked pretty great all through spring camp, and pitched really well against tough competition in the World Baseball Classic. His stuff is plenty good enough to be a depth starter in the majors, but only when his command is on point. That command has faltered early on in the regular season, and his meltdown, complete with two mental mistakes fielding his position, against the Brewers last Sunday got him demoted to Triple-A Toledo. De Jesus has generally had good control in his career, so it’s unlikely to remain a problem. Still, he can’t be recalled yet and the Tigers are going to want to see him get sorted out and pitching well before he gets another opportunity.
The 25-year-old Sommers made a brief MLB debut last summer. He’s punching out plenty of hitters in Toledo, but his command is still a work in progress. He’s certainly young enough to figure that out, but until he really gets on a consistent run and is commanding his sinker-slider combination, he isn’t an option. Sommers is still a bit of a prospect and has a 40-man roster spot now, but just isn’t ready for prime time.
Finally we have Grant Holman, who is on the 40-man roster already as well. The Tigers claimed him off waivers from the Dodgers back on April 11, and picking up guys from the Dodgers is generally a sound move as they’re consistently one of the few teams with enough relief depth in the minors to actually have to release someone with real potential. The 25-year-old right-hander has a pretty average mid-90’s fourseam fastball, but his splitter is a good one. He pitched in the major leagues for the Athletics in 2024 and 2025, but only for parts of those seasons as his command still isn’t reliable enough. Standard for non-major league relievers, but like Sommers, he’s young enough that it’s worth giving him time to develop. He debuted with the Mud Hens on Saturday after some rehab work the previous two weeks in Lakeland. He might become an option but he needs to pitch a bit and settle in before the Tigers give him a look, presumably.
Of all the pitchers mentioned, the Tigers obvious best hope for a good high leverage reliever comes from Melton getting back on the field. His loss this spring was a real blow to the bullpen, and there’s still the possibility that Melton could take over a starting role in the future if his splitter command takes another step. Thankfully, he avoided a major injury this spring when elbow inflammation flared up early in camp. The Tigers shut him down and took their time with him to ensure there would be no recurring trouble. If he comes through this alright the pen will be in a lot better shape overall.
The other options in Toledo not yet mentioned are converting a starter, either Sawyer Gipson-Long or Ty Madden, to a long relief role. Neither is going to dominate, but as starting pitchers both have enough control to translate to the pen. They just don’t have the fastball quality to dominate. Instead both would have to lean into their secondary pitches a lot and spot them to be more than depth in the pen. Of the two, Madden’s slider-cutter combination is the more attractive of the two at the moment. He just hasn’t been able to recapture the 95-96 mph gas he had as a prospect since his shoulder issues last spring.