The right-hander has the makings of a dominant reliever as he looks to return from last year’s Tommy John surgery.
The Detroit Tigers have another talented right-handed relief prospect lined up to help this season in the form of Tyler Mattison. The 25-year-old was slated as part of their plans last spring, but UCL reconstruction in March of 2024 short-circuited those plans. Now rehabbing in spring camp, Mattison has the potential to be a key backend bullpen piece if he can put the injury behind him this spring.
The Tigers selected Mattison in the fourth round back in 2021 out of Bryant University. They paid him $400,000 despite projections pegging him as a certified reliever from the start, and that decision may well pay dividends this season. His high arm slot, invisiball style fastball, and wipeout breaking ball have made him a terror on minor league hitters as he worked his way toward the major leagues.
Currently, Mattison is throwing two bullpens a week in spring camp. He may not be ready to head out to Triple-A Toledo until May or even June, but the Tigers are confident that the surgery and rehab has been a success. If he can keep proving that and dial in his command again after the surgery, he’s got a very good chance to join the major league bullpen later this summer.
As you’ll note in his numbers, Mattison has posted some outstanding strikeout rates as he moved through the minor leagues. His fourseam fastball is typically 95-96 mph, running up to 98, but it’s not the velocity that makes his fastball so difficult to deal with. Mattison’s arm slot and deceptive release just make it really hard for hitters to pick the ball up out of his hand. Even hitters who handle velocity really well are routinely late because it’s just such a difficult pitch to track out of his hand. Combined that with good riding action and you really have an outlier fastball that allows him to dominate.
Mattison’s best secondary pitch is a hard power curveball at 82-83 mph with 12-6 break and a lot of depth. It’s perfectly composed to play off the high fastball, and it generated plenty of whiffs for him at the Double-A level as well. He’ll mix in a fading changeup to lefties, and it too plays off the fastball well too. He’s not afraid to use it a fair amount to lefties, though his command of the changeup was still a work in progress at times when we last saw him at the Double-A level in 2023.
Mattison started his tenure with the SeaWolves by throwing 11 consecutive innings without a hit, or a run, allowed. Here’s a look at that run from June and July of 2023.
2025 Outlook
Formerly a college starter, Mattison has always thrown a good amount of strikes, and the fact that he has a third pitch doesn’t hurt his case at all. The changeup gives him an extra wrinkle with nice tail and sink away from lefties, and again benefits from the deception in his delivery and hitters need to get on top of the fastball.
The Tigers will hope he comes back from Tommy John surgery with a little more consistent 96-98 mph juice once he’s built back up to speed this spring. If he does, that fastball is going to be excellent at the major league level. If he’s still more 95-96 mph most of the time? The fastball is still going to be really good. The deception and movement are going to play well either way.
Mattison has the stuff to be an outstanding major league reliever. As long as the rehab goes well and he recaptures his command, he’s going to be on the short list for a major league debut this summer. The Tigers have talked about the need to add more swing and miss into a bullpen that is currently more tuned to drawing soft contact. Mattison, even more than Tyler Owens, offers that north-south element with a lot of swing and miss.
We sometimes take the recovery from Tommy John surgery too much as a matter of course, but everything appears on track for Tyler Mattison. The Tigers added him to the 40-man roster last fall when they could’ve hoped to slip him through the Rule 5 draft due to the injury. That illustrates a confidence level that Mattison will be back on the mound this spring. The next step to the major leagues will take only as long as is required to get his command tuned in again.