Acquired in the Carson Kelly deal last summer, this reliever saw his stuff and strikeouts tick up after joining the Tigers.
We’ll kick off the 40 future value tier with a relief prospect. You could put Tyler Owens anywhere in this tier, but the Tigers clearly like him and with minor improvements he’ll be very likely to get a shot at the major league bullpen this summer. So we’ll lead off the group with him for reasons of major league proximity.
The 24-year-old right-hander was another Scott Harris trade acquisition last summer. Owens was the key piece in the trade of Carson Kelly to the Texas Rangers . He wasn’t so well heralded in their system, but his strikeout rate ticked up after the deal as the Tigers helped him maximize his stuff a little more. Again we see how those deadline deals, combined with much improved player development, have fortified the middle of the system beyond the more notable trade acquisitions.
Owens was originally selected by the Atlanta Braves out of high school in the 13th round of the 2019 amateur draft. He didn’t exactly hit the ground running as a starting pitcher, and finally the Rangers converted him to relief full-time last spring after acquiring Owens in a trade last offseason. They ended up flipping him to the Tigers for catching help that didn’t help them much, and immediately Owens stuff and results perked up with the Tigers. That’s becoming a familiar story. Now he’s in major league camp after a good Double-A campaign looking to debut in the Tigers bullpen sometime this season.
Owens was impressive not just in terms of strikeouts and stuff, but by continuing his long trend of suppressing home runs. For a fly ball pitcher pitching in Erie late last summer, the home run rate was very low, and Owens seems like a great long-term fit for Comerica Park in particular. He hasn’t pitched in Triple-A yet, but it’s more a matter of his command improving a little more. If he can make a few small improvements this spring, his wait for a call-up will be only as long as it takes for a need to arise in the Tigers’ pen.
The key trait the Tigers like in Owens is his riding fastball. He stands only five-foot-ten, and his extension is a little subpar as a result, but he throws mid-to-high 90’s fourseamers with uphill plane and plenty of carry. These are not easy to lift when they’re well located. Trying to drive them in the air results in pop-ups and routine outs in the air. Hitters that adjust and flatten their swing to line the heater around the park can have success, but then Owens can drop in a good slider-splitter combination, both of which fall off a similar initial plane as the heater.
The fourseamer typically tops out at 98 mph, though Owens generally sits around 96 mph. It doesn’t have a high spin rate, but it has a little seam-shifted wiggle to it and the uphill plane generates plenty of whiffs up in the zone. Entering his age 24 season, Owens is presumably close to maxed out with the fastball, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him sitting close to peak velocity if he does get the call up this season.
Owens’ slider is typically firm at around 87 mph with good depth and some tilt. It’s not a high spin sweeper or slurve. Instead it’s a fairly traditional looking gyro slider out of a high arm slot, and can really make some hitters look bad after they’ve tried to climb the ladder against the fastball.
The splitter sits 86 mph and Owens really kills the spin on it for good depth and with it sometimes has some run to it, he’ll also throw some straight downer versions that are really hard for hitters to pick up. The key there is Owens’ arm speed and somewhat deceptive delivery to left-handers in particular. The slider is mainly his second weapon against right-handed hitters.
Owens features a dip and drive style of delivery. He points the ball almost to the ground as he rears back, and then rapidly changes direction to get his arm up and on time. It’s a quick motion producing good armspeed, but also some deception. The trade-off is that it can be a little tricky to sync up that long arm path. Owens has managed it, and while his command can improve, he already throws a pretty good ratio of strikes. The Tigers probably aren’t going to tinker with his mechanics much other than trying to get his legs engaged a little more.
When Owens came over from the Rangers, he had a 24.5 percent strikeout rate. The Tigers looked to have helped him tune up the movement on the fastball in particular. With the Erie SeaWolves, the strikeout rate popped to 28.2 percent, and Owens was a key factor in their postseason run to a second straight Eastern League title.
He picked up two saves in the Division series, sandwiched around a disastrous 10th inning performance that was a comedy of errors from Owens the SeaWolves infield. In the championship series, Owens closed out the Somerset Patriots in the deciding Game 2 with a perfect two innings of work and four strikeouts to earn the save. He was really coming into his own over those final weeks and there’s a good chance he carries that momentum into 2025.
Here’s a look at Owens full inning in Sunday’s matchup with the Yankees courtesy of Tigers Minor League Report.
Here’s Tyler Owens scoreless inning of work. Hit 97, had three swings and misses. pic.twitter.com/bkQ1Uto21O
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) February 23, 2025
2025 Outlook
Owens doesn’t really have what you’d call classical closer stuff in that he’s not pumping 99-100 mph. He’s good, but it’s the versatility to handle a lot of different types of hitters that makes him a strong relief prospect. In the Tigers’ bullpen construction, that’s arguably more valuable than just having a typical power fastball-slider combination. He offers a different look with a north-south approach that contrasts with most of the expected Opening Day members of the Tiger bullpen.
The final challenge for Owens this season is just to command the whole package a little more consistently. He throws strikes but it’s more about keeping the secondary pitches down. If he can also locate the fastball down in the zone just a little more often, it will really make the whole package function at its best as hitters won’t be able to just think fastball up, offspeed down, entirely.
Owens fits the model of a versatile bullpen weapon with a lot of different ways to handle a variety of hitter types. The Tigers protected him from the Rule 5 draft last fall and he’s had some buzz in camp after finishing strong under pressure with the SeaWolves last summer in the Eastern League postseason. Right now, the Tigers’ bullpen looks tough to crack, but if Owens can refine his game just a bit more, the opportunities will arrive this summer.