Hopefully “pitching chaos” isn’t the norm for 2025, but just in case, here’s everything to know about those failed starters out behind left field.
Besides Tarik Skubal’s incredible season culminating in his first AL Cy Young award, no Detroit Tigers storyline received more coverage than “pitching chaos”. Despite losing Reese Olson and Casey Mize to injuries, and Jack Flaherty to the Dodgers at the trade deadline, Tigers’ pitching overwhelmed opponents during their march to the playoffs.
Much of that credit is due to the bullpen, almost all of which will be returning for 2025. A combination of pitching to contact in an age dominated by pitcher K’s, versatile arms mixing between short and long relief, and absolute trust in AJ Hinch to mix and match for success, led to the unit’s production being far greater than the sum of their parts.
That being said, each arm fills a vital role (or sometimes several) for this bullpen, and deserves a closer examination. Between the pitching chaos at the end of last year and the couple of new faces added to the bullpen through free agency, a summary of the projected Opening Day bullpen and a refresher on each pitcher’s niche and arsenal seemed appropriate. Expect deeper analysis on a lot of these arms in future articles; some of these have links to where they’ve been covered already by Brandon Day.
The Returning Core Four
Beau Brieske
Brieske throws a hard four seamer and has a stellar changeup, but pitching down in the zone with poor extension limits his strikeouts. He took over main closing duties down the stretch and into the playoffs.
Will Vest
Vests also throws a hard four seamer and had a really strong second half, but the K’s are lacking for a power backend arm. His stuff is good enough to get more K’s, and in 2023 he got almost 30% more than in 2024, so look for this to tick back up moving forward.
Tyler Holton
Holton tosses 5 different pitches, led by an 88 MPH cutter. He’s elite at getting soft contact, doesn’t walk batters, and is the linchpin for a versatile bullpen.
Jason Foley
Foley, of the big beard and bowling ball sinker, is a pretty good version of a typical setup reliever. He has the hardest fastball in the bullpen, gets a ton of groundballs with his sinker/slider mixture, and is prone to getting BABIP’d on days his command isn’t quite there.
These four arms handled the majority of high leverage innings last year, especially down the stretch. Their growth over the second half of the season was vital for a team down at least three starters at any given point over the summer. Additionally, three of these four handled 17.2 of the club’s 66 postseason innings; Foley was largely shelved for the October run. Expect all four to fit into the backend of the bullpen by pitching the highest leverage situations, no matter the inning. They’re there to get outs when matters most, and if last year’s any indication, they’re pretty good at it.
The New Faces
Tommy Kahnle
Brandon covered Kahnle pretty extensively here when he signed, but the veteran reliever has closing experience and a nasty changeup he throws more than his fastball. Expect him to fit mostly into the backend mix. The changes allows him to handle a lot of different types of hitters and situations, and he brings 30 quality innings of postseason experience to the table.
John Brebbia
Brandon also covered Brebbia in full here , but he’ll be looking to bounce back from a rough 2024. A rising fastball, a generally good slider, and a strong end of the season for Atlanta are reasons for optimism he can replace Shelby Miller’s production moving forward. You don’t really want him facing lefties, who tend to hit a lot of homers off him, but he does rack up his share of strikeouts and generally throttles right-handed hitters pretty well.
The two free agents lengthen an already strong bullpen. More importantly, each adds a wrinkle for other teams to game plan around that wasn’t there before. Expect Hinch to exploit their specific strengths and eke out every advantage possible in medium and high leverage innings throughout the season.
The Melee
Sean Guenther
A lefty waiver claim, Guenther’s goal is to keep the ball on the ground and runners off the bases. He does this with a solid sinker and splitter, and was pretty platoon-neutral in 2024, but a short track record of success means he’s probably best kept as depth.
Brenan Hanifee
Hanifee is pretty similar to Foley, but lacks that last high 90’s to 100 mph gear that Foley has at his best. Hanifee leads with a power sinker, collects lots of ground balls, and produces very few K’s. The big difference was a (in a small sample) very low walk rate; if that holds, and if he can command his slider a little better, he’ll be a solid contributor to future Tiger bullpens.
Kenta Maeda
The veteran righty is fighting for a starter job, but he probably won’t beat out Casey Mize, Jackson Jobe and Keider Montero. He’ll likely have to see if the fastball/splitter mix plays up in the bullpen after a brutal first half to 2024 and a mediocre finish. Guaranteed $10 million this season, the Tigers won’t give up on him easily. Expect him to end up in the bullpen on Opening Day.
Brant Hurter
The big lefty looked great filling a hybrid role in 2024, but is probably most valuable as a spot starter and injury depth for at least another season. More info on Hurter can be found here .
Ty Madden
Brandon covered Madden in depth here , but concerns about his platoon splits, his tendency to give up the long ball, and the constant need for starters should keep him in Toledo’s rotation another year.
Andrew Chafin
Like a slug coin used to foil old fashioned vending machines, the Tigers keep reeling Chafin back to be deployed again. On Monday evening they announced a minor league deal with major league terms that will pay him $4.25 million if he makes the major league roster. There’s a pretty good chance he will. Lefties Guenther and Hurter have options, so they’re probably going to have to wait for a spot to open while Chafin handles the traditional lefty role. That’s assuming he looks his usual self in camp and earns the major league deal.
This part of the bullpen is where things get a little less certain. A five man rotation leaves eight spots for the bullpen, and six are already filled by vital parts of last year’s squad or veterans signed to MLB contracts. They’re guaranteed spots come March 29, leaving just one or two spots for a variety of interesting, if uncertain arms. Since the organization is focused on obtaining and retaining talent, look for options and versatility to make the difference between a group of similarly meaningful options.
For my money, Maeda and now Chafin are the final two relievers. Maeda handled the move to the bullpen fairly well last year, came to camp in the Best Shape of His Life and has looked good so far. He’s also owed another $10M and is out of options; if things trend down, they’ll cut bait quickly, but he’ll have another chance to right the ship early in 2025. Chafin was added on a split contract, but is expected to get every opportunity to reclaim his role in the middle of this bullpen.
The rest, and a few others like Tyler Owens, will all provide major league innings over the course of the season as ineffectiveness and injuries pile up. However, they all have options remaining, and Hurter and Madden are likely most valuable as starting pitching depth for at least another part of a season. If the Tigers are lucky and have a really healthy season, those starters, possibly including Keider Montero, will be reinforcement for the bullpen this summer instead.