Detroit Tigers: Four free agent relievers worth considering

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Across the league this season, injuries played a role in how creative teams got when it comes to their lineups and pitching staffs. It was no different for the Detroit Tigers as injuries took a toll on the starting rotation.

When it came to the bullpen, the Detroit Tigers saw improvement and were able to overcome injuries to Gregory Soto and Jose Cisnero towards the end of the season. Cisnero was one of the most consistent relievers in the American League early in the season, allowing just one run in 13 innings of work in the month of June (0.68 ERA, 13K).

Soto’s body of work as his first year of closing out games was impressive, limiting batters to just a .198 with a min of 60 innings pitched, the lowest since Joaquin Benoit in 2013.

A healthy Michael Fulmer and the emergence of Kyle Funkhouser as effective relievers gave the Tigers a solid bullpen for the first time since 2016. One of the first off-season pieces I did praise the improvement of others like Alex Lange and his impressive changeup that provided to be a difference-maker towards the end of the season.

One of the items Al Avila discussed at his end of the season press conference was that the Tigers were not going to go after any bullpen arms. If you look internally, Jason Foley could be the next arm to step up and play more of a role in 2022 or Angel De Jesus, a minor league right-hander who pitched in Toledo and Erie last season and is currently playing winter ball in the Dominican with Drew Carlton.

Also, you have to consider Rony Garcia, coming back from his knee injury, and how Alex Faedo may look post Tommy John surgery. But in my opinion, you can never have too many arms. Take a look at how the post-season has looked so far with the respective bullpens for Houston and Atlanta.

Let’s take a look at the free-agent market and see what arms could be a good fit for the Tigers bullpen, should they decide to add an arm or two to fortify the bullpen.

Oct 23, 2021; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Corey Knebel (46) pitches during the seventh inning against the Atlanta Braves in game six of the 2021 NLCS at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports /

Detroit Tigers Targets: A few familiar faces

RHP Corey Knebel

The Dodgers have many decisions to make when it comes to payroll this off-season and while Cisnero was good, towards the end of the season, he struggled before hitting the IL with right elbow issues.

Former Tiger Knebel has had his fair share of health issues, granted, with Tommy John surgery in Milwaukee and hitting the 60-day IL in May due to a right lat strain and didn’t pitch until August. But his stuff is good when he does pitch, with a 29.7% K rate and holding batters to a .167 batting average with a curve that has some elite spin in addition to a plus fastball.

Pick your poison. Knebel’s curve, Lange’s changeup, or Soto’s slider. It is pretty tempting if you think about it.

RHP Wily Peralta

Whether as a piece in the bullpen or in the rotation, Peralta’s strikeout rate does not exactly jump out at you but what does is his run value against his split-finger fastball, which was -16. In my opinion, he could be a long reliever or spot starter. Bringing him back makes sense since they saw something with him last winter and he came up from Toledo and helped the Tigers in the second half.

With his splitter, I think that could be an effective pitch one time through the order to help bridge the gap to Soto. If the Tigers decide to go elsewhere to sign a starter, I would not mind Peralta out of the bullpen.

Aug 6, 2021; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; New York Mets relief pitcher Aaron Loup (32) throws a pitch in the sixth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports /

Detroit Tigers Free Agent Relievers Options: Some more “funk”

LHP Aaron Loup

The Tigers are rather thin at the moment in their system with lefties and if they are not going to bring back Derek Holland and Ian Krol, one lefty that is a free agent and was quite effective for the Mets in 2021 is Aaron Loup.

Our friends over at Jays Journal want to bring him back to Toronto and I don’t blame them. He had an ERA of 0.95 in 65 games with the Mets with a K rate of 26.1%. He allowed just one home run off lefties in 25.2 innings of work last season and batted just .167 against him. He put up an impressive 2.8 WAR and would give Detroit another lefty combo with a different look compared to Soto.

RHP Mychal Givens

He has a slight pause when he winds up with a mid 3/4 arm angle so that is rather “funky” to what we are used to seeing here in Detroit. He was solid for the Reds after he came over from the Rockies, picking up eight saves. He throws an effective sinker that makes him an effective groundball pitcher in addition to a good strikeout rate.

Like Jimenez, he has a high spin rate on his fastball. His numbers in terms of walk rate may not be ideal but he is one of those arms I would love to see under Chris Fetter. There is some potential here and he showed hints of it despite pitching in some of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in the league. (Baltimore, Colorado, and Cincinnati)

With all these options, there are upsides that would make the bullpen much more effective to navigate not only the AL Central but the rest of the American League. Is this the first step to winning the division? Sure, but think the bigger picture here. We saw last season what the staff did with Peralta, now imagine with another veteran arm or two, should the Tigers decide to take this route.

We discussed the idea of upgrading the bullpen with Clay Snowden of Just Baseball on the podcast over the weekend and it bears repeating once again. You can never have enough pitching.

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