The Tigers 4th rounder last summer may work as a starter for now but profiles more like a long-term relief prospect.
The Detroit Tigers have a bit of an ugly history in terms of drafting college relievers, but in this case they appear to view their man as a future starting pitcher, at least for now. In the fourth round last summer. Scott Harris tried his hand, selecting Wake Forest right-hander Michael Massey. The Tigers managed to save around $115,000 by signing him to a $522,500 bonus as a mid-fourth round selection. That money went to helping them land their typically heavy volume of prep picks. They hope they got a heck of a bargain here.
Massey was recruited to Tulane University out of North Gwinnett High School near Atlanta, Georgia. He transferred to Wake Forest after one year as a starter, and during his sophomore season for the Demon Deacons, Massey was dominant out of the bullpen, averaging 16.6 strikeouts per nine innings across 27 appearances. An effort to convert back to starting in his junior year didn’t go so well. He struck out a fair number of batters, but he battled minor injuries and was hit hard at times, posting a 4.76 ERA. The Tigers may continue the starting experiment a little longer, but we’d still bet that eventually Massey is going to transition back to relief in the upper minors.
The six-foot-five, 230 pound right-hander doesn’t have a ton of physical projection remaining, but he’s big, strong framed pitcher who can still improve his conditioning and his throwing efficiency. His fastball is generally 93-94 mph, topping out at 97 mph. He should be able to sit higher in that range as he develops, and perhaps 97-98 mph if they do eventually move him to the bullpen. Massey also has pretty good extension to help the velocity play up a bit.
The real calling card to the fastball is Massey’s huge riding action. He consistently produces 20 inches of induced vertical break, which is near elite territory even at the major league level. The fourseamer also has a little natural cut, and that combination of huge ride and cut produces a lot of whiffs, weak contact, and bats splintered down at the cap.
Massey has a low-80’s gyro slider that flashes plus but was still inconsistent for him in his junior year. Wake Forest helped him add a spike curveball that gives him a more 12-6 offering with a lot of depth that plays off the fastball well. That pitch didn’t come along very quickly and as the slider works off the fastball well, the Tigers might decide to scrap the curve. Massey throws a circle change, but as a guy who doesn’t pronate his forearm easily through release, he may well be a candidate for the Tigers emphasis on teaching splitters to those who don’t take to a traditional circle changeup. The club seems likely to keep him starting for now, and teaching him a splitter is the obvious move for a pitcher with his arm slot and supinator tendencies.
As you’d expect, Massey’s fourseamer plays extremely well at the top of the zone. His mechanics are pretty sound, but it is an aggressive delivery that doesn’t really forecast the precision required of a starting pitcher. He delivers the ball from a high three-quarters arm slot that helps him maximize the carry on the fastball and makes moving pitches to his arm side something of a chore, while bending them to his glove side is more natural. That slot also helps disguise the breaking ball to a degree. And as already noted, that position sets him up a lot better for a splitter than a fading circle change.
Massey has been in the system since last July and will only turn 22 in April, so he was also a little on the younger side for his draft class. We’ll be very interested to get a look at him after his offseason work. We should have a lot better idea how the Tigers intend to develop him. Whether he ends up a reliever or not, starting him is probably the move to build him up and get him a lot of reps to help develop command his full pitch mix.
2025 Outlook
Massey still hasn’t thrown that many innings in a season. He posted 68 innings as a starter during his freshman year, but has only thrown 42 2⁄3 and 34 innings the past two years respectively. He made 10 starts in 2024 but dealt with minor back and hamstring issues that cost him a few starts and presumably made it hard to maintain good control. He never had any walk issues as a younger starter or as a reliever, but his long arms and aggressive delivery say that precision is never going to be the strong suit here.
The result is that the Tigers probably won’t rush Massey in year one. Assuming he’s starting for now, they aren’t likely to lean on him too hard in the workload department. An assignment at Low-A Lakeland is the starting point, but he should move pretty quickly to High-A West Michigan.
The right-hander’s strong fastball-slider combination gives him a pretty steady floor as a pitching prospect. With some refinement, the Tigers will have a pretty good setup man who should generate plenty of swing and miss and who fits Comerica Park well.
For now though, we’ll assume that taking him where they did in the draft means they’re going to try and keep him in a starting role. It will be incumbent on Massey and the Tigers to improve his throwing efficiency to help smooth the path to improved command, and to develop a better offspeed pitch to complement the breaking balls. They could have a heck of a starting pitcher if everything goes as planned, but the likely fall back is still to pen him, where he should move relatively quickly and could eventually fill a high leverage role with the Detroit Tigers.