Detroit Tigers: Four free agent relievers worth considering

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.