Detroit Tigers: Let’s Talk About the Bullpen

Detroit Tigers relief pitchers haven’t had the best start to 2017. Here’s a look at the team’s current bullpen, as well as minor league options, trade targets and potential solutions.

Detroit Tigers fans have seen plenty of bullpen units struggle over the last few seasons. Much of this has been with the team’s failed acquisitions.

Joe Nathan, Joakim Soria, Mark Lowe, Joba Chamberlain and Tom Gorzelanny all struggled in the Motor City.

In other deals, Detroit traded away quality relief pitchers in Jose Alvarez and Corey Knebel in a pair of separate transactions.

Hindsight is 20-20, and those deals helped the Tigers net Andrew Romine and JaCoby Jones, but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that Detroit has struggled to find fits in the bullpen.

Last season looked to be different, as the team seemed to have found potential solutions.

Francisco Rodriguez solidified the back end of the bullpen, while Justin Wilson established himself as an essential setup reliever.

Elsewhere, Alex Wilson continued to fire off quality innings, Shane Greene was making the necessary adjustments to become a full-time reliever and Bruce Rondon finally turned the corner.

Add in quality years from Kyle Ryan and Blaine Hardy, and it looked like the Tigers had a foundation to build on in the bullpen.

This year however, things have been different.

Rodriguez has done anything but solidify the back end of the bullpen, surrendering 14.5 hits, 3.1 home runs and 2.1 walks per nine innings. He’s also allowed 14 of the 42 batters he’s faced to reach base via a base hit.

All of those numbers add up to a 1.846 WHIP and a 6.09 FIP.

While Rodriguez has hemorrhaged hits and runs at an unhealthy rate, Detroit only has one option to replace him with as closer, as the bullpen has generally struggled.

The Current Bullpen Options

This year was supposed to start differently.

In a perfect world, Rodriguez would have continued to close games in an efficient manner. Additionally, Justin Wilson and Rondon would serve as dynamic eighth inning options.

Additionally, this scenario would have allowed the team to bring top prospect Joe Jimenez along somewhat slowly, letting him ease into pitching at the back end of games in the Majors.

However, with the month of April nearly in the rearview mirror, Justin Wilson has been the only dynamic thing about Detroit’s bullpen.

The former Pirate has yet to allow a run in 11 appearances, posting a 45.5 strikeout rate (for reference, Andrew Miller led all relievers with a 44.7 strikeout rate last season), a 1.45 SIERA and a 0.31 WHIP.

Wilson has also struck out 13.97 batters per nine frames to pace the Tigers relievers.

Outside of the southpaw however, the results have been mixed to say the least.

The Best of the Rest

Alex Wilson (3.24 ERA) and Shane Greene (2.57 ERA) have both logged solid ERAs to begin the season. However, Wilson sports a 4.53 FIP, while Greene’s FIP is higher still at 4.83.

Additionally, the 28-year-old has walked as many batters—seven—as he’s struck out.

Unfortunately, outside of Justin Wilson, Alex Wilson and Greene have been two of Detroit’s next best relievers.

Blaine Hardy sports a 1.61 FIP on the year, but he’s thrown just 3.2 innings.

It’s perfect reasonable to expect the left-hander to post reliable numbers over the course of the season, but he’s yet to receive extended work.

After Hardy, things get a bit dicey.

The Rest

Kyle Ryan, who turned a 3.33 FIP despite punching out just 5.7 batters per nine innings in 2016, has seen his FIP balloon to 6.32. What’s more, the lefty has just one strikeout compared to seven walks surrendered.

There’s also Anibal Sanchez, who continues to hold onto a roster spot despite giving up 26 hits, 21 runs (16 earned), eight walks and six home runs in 14.2 innings.

While his 15 strikeouts over the same span are helpful, the surrendering of runs simply isn’t.

This is all without mentioning Rondon, who didn’t look himself in three early outings before heading to Triple-A Toledo.

The flame-throwing right-hander surrendered six runs, four hits and three walks in only 1.1 frames.

Even William Cuevas, who appeared in just one game for Detroit, was hit hard. The former Red Sox reliever was tagged for four runs and three hits while recording just one out against Cleveland.

All of the bullpen struggles have forced the Tigers to use Joe Jimenez in more pressurized situations early. The prospect has looked promising at times, but he’s also looked like a rookie at others.

He has the talent to be extremely successful, he just needs time to acclimate without having to be thrown into the deep end so early.

Potential Solutions

At this point, there aren’t many obvious bullpen solutions for the Detroit Tigers.

The team has plenty of talented relievers. However, the bullpen has yet to put it all together.

Moving forward, one strategy would be to mix and match with different combinations until something works.

Detroit should be trying out as many relievers as possible, as the team’s current crop of bullpen arms simply haven’t gotten it done.

In addition to calling pitchers up, the Tigers should be taking fliers on players hitting the open market.

Major League-caliber pitchers are designated for assignment with frequency throughout the course of the season.

If Detroit takes enough fliers on pitchers some are eventually going to stick with the organization.

As of now, the Tigers currently have a full 40-man roster. However, the team could easily free up space by designating Sanchez or Cuevas for assignment.

This is purely speculative, but considering Cuevas struggled in his only outing with the Tigers and has a 5.73 ERA with Toledo, he could conceivably make it through waivers and stay in the organization.

Next: Boyd Could Take a Big Step Forward

Elsewhere, if Sanchez continues to allow runs, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Detroit move on from him. The pitcher has struggled mightily since the end of the 2014 season.