The lefty shined in his pro debut in 2024, but his role with the Tigers remains up in the air.
Much was made of the Detroit Tigers ’ starting pitching depth entering the 2024 season, but as is so often the case, they needed all of it and then some. In the process, one of their less heralded pitching prospects, left-hander Brant Hurter, stood out above the rest. Hurter was outstanding in a relief role. The question now is whether the Tigers view the big 26-year-old primarily as a reliever or a starting pitcher heading into the 2025 season.
The Tigers drafted the six-foot-six southpaw out of Georgia Tech back in 2021. He was picked in the seventh round, signing for $241,000, and from the beginning he was very effective. Despite advanced command and a slider that came along quickly, Hurter’s low velocity sinker left questions about his viability as a future starter that couldn’t be answered until he advanced to the upper levels.
Southpaw starting pitchers are highly sought after, but often more difficult to evaluate as prospects at the lower levels than their right-handed peers. Left-handers regularly start out with great A-ball success in part because hitters haven’t seen many good left-handers in college. That lack of familiarity fades as the competition gets more experienced and lesser hitters are winnowed from the ranks.
Hurter handed two levels of A-ball in his full season debut in 2022. In 2023 he conquered Double-A as well, proving himself an intriguing pitching prospect that could handle upper level hitters of either hand. Most importantly, his low-90’s sinker held up well against better hitters, alleviating a major concern. A strong showing in the postseason helped lead the Erie SeaWolves to the first of two consecutive Eastern League titles under manager Gabe Alvarez.
He struggled at Triple-A in 2024, but began to get on track by mid-season. At that point, the Tigers needed plenty of help, and no one provided more than Hurter. He showed out as a spot starter as part of the Tigers “pitching chaos” strategy down the stretch. His strikeout rates fell against better competition, and he had pretty good luck on balls in play, so he’s probably not going to get the same outstanding results over a full season in the rotation. Even so, his ability to limit home runs and walks remained impressive enough that the Tigers have an interesting decision as to the best way to deploy Hurter this season.
The question of role is still up in the air, but the fact remains that proved himself more than ready for full-time major league duty in 2025.
Hurter averaged 92.4 mph with his sinker in 2024, and his extension is well below average, but hitters did nothing against it anyway. Hurter’s long limbs and low three-quarters release give him a wide angle of attack to the plate and it can be difficult for right-handers to judge location when he’s pounding them down and away. The sinker has really good depth and solid horizontal movement. On top of that, Hurter typically commands it well. That combination makes for a tough fastball to do much damage against. It also bodes well for his continued success that the Tigers’ catchers have improved in getting strikes on pitches on the bottom rail since switching to the knee down setup.
Get aggressive with Hurter and you’re probably going to get yourself out easily on the ground. He rakes the the bottom of the zone effectively to both sides of the plate, tying up lefties in and getting a lot of routine contact on the ground from hitters of either hand. He won’t get that many whiffs, but he doesn’t make many big mistakes either. The best many hitters can do is line or ground a single somewhere. He’ll also change things up occasionally by throwing fourseamers up and in to a right-handed hitter to keep them from diving out over the plate. If he can do more of that, Hurter will only be tougher for them to handle.
Hurter’s breaking ball is a big sweeping slider that averages 83.1 mph. That pitch has always been a solid offering and he’s done a nice job refining it during his journey through the major leagues. He gets most of his whiffs off the sweeper, and as he’s built more movement into it during his minor league days it’s become a real weapon for him. The issue for hitters is getting one they can drive without getting locked up repeatedly. Hurter rarely hangs one and has the ability to drop it on either corner at the bottom of the zone. The wide angle it’s sweeping in from makes it hard to track, and it often freezes hitters or gets late swings for whiffs.
Part of the reason it’s hard to forecast great success as a full-time starting pitcher is the fact that Hurter’s circle change is still a bit shy of an average offering. He doesn’t throw it a lot to begin with, using it almost exclusively against right-handers. The angle helps it play up somewhat, and it has quality depth and fade, but the velocity separation at 85-86 mph is pretty poor. He’ll have to command it more consistently to develop it into a third weapon rather than more of a show-me pitch. Still, while he didn’t use it a lot, he got a decent amount of whiffs at the major league level, and hitters still had trouble getting the barrel on it.
Hurter’s numbers aren’t going to hold up as well as they did in 2024. He ran a very low BABIP of .236, and that’s just not going to last. He needs to find a way to punch out more hitters to continue to get the same level of results. Still, he racked up 53.1 percent ground balls, and walked just 3.4 percent of hitters faced. If he can manage something like that again, the Tigers can certainly get solid mid-rotation performance out of him. If he’s mainly coming out of the bullpen, success on the level of Tyler Holton isn’t out of the question at all. Hurter has generally run pretty even splits, and he’s been an injury free workhorse in the minors. He should be able to handle going 1-3 innings a couple of times a week without issue, and the Tigers could certainly decide that he can help them the most in that role.
2025 outlook
Now 26 years old, it’s probably pointless to expect much improvement in Hurter’s raw stuff. He has enough to keep hitters off balance already, and because he generally limits walks well and doesn’t give up too much power, hitters really have to grind against him. He’s exactly the type of crafty lefty that can run through a lineup with ease if they’re too impatient against him, and there’s enough versatility in place to make him a valuable part of the Tigers’ bullpen.
Still, we’re curious to see how the Tigers deploy him this season. With Tarik Skubal, Reese Olson, Alex Cobb, and Jackson Jobe the likely starting four, it makes some sense to have one lefty in the rotation. The Tigers have Tyler Holton and not Sean Guenther as lefties in the pen. They may not be keen to have a third when they could use Hurter in the rotation instead.
Hurter showed what he’s capable of by topping five innings in six of his 10 major league appearances. Casey Mize or Keider Montero may get the first shot at the rotation if A.J. Hinch and Chris Fetter think using Hurter more flexibly as a multi-inning relief weapon is the way to go. However, in Montero’s case you can argue that he was rushed to the majors and could use more Triple-A seasoning to refine some things before returning to the Tigers’ rotation. Mize still seems the likely front runner for the job, and Ty Madden could compete for looks as well, but it would be no surprise if Hurter got a shot at some point too.
Of course, spring injuries tend to make these decisions rather than the best laid plans of managers and coaches. Hurter may well profile best out of the bullpen, but he went a fair way toward proving himself one of their five best starting options last year, and put together several big outings during their remarkable run to the postseason. If things break the right way, he may yet make plenty of starts for the Tigers in 2025.