Three reasons for the Detroit Tigers’ pitching regression

Detroit Tigers pitching has gone from top 10 to the bottom third in the league

Resilience by the Detroit Tigers pitching staff might be the sole reason that their 2022 season has not gone from horrible to historic. Despite injuries to Kyle Funkhouser, Jose Cisnero, Andrew Chafin, Casey Mize, Matt Manning, and Michael Pineda, the team had gotten by, and even thrived in some respects, in the pitching department.

Unfortunately, it appears some of their early-season magic mojo is wearing off, and the club now ranks 21st in team ERA entering Thursday at 4.10.  Much of the problem, though, comes from their starters; who have now ballooned to a 4.84 ERA as a corps–and their 4.53 FIP suggests only a small slight from the defense behind them. The Tigers are now averaging over an earned run every other inning. Not a great recipe to win.

It was to be expected, to some extent. Despite the cosmic pedestal that the fan base places Chris Fetter on, the likes of Rony Garcia, Beau Brieske, and Alex Faedo can only fill the cracks for so long before the league begins to figure them out and runs start to leak through in bunches. Luckily, the bullpen has been able to clean up largely thanks to their four-pronged approach: Alex Lange, Andrew Chafin, Michael Fulmer, and Gregory Soto.

The staff has had some difficult offenses to endure in June, with Toronto (1st in OPS), New York (3rd in OPS), Boston (5th in OPS), and Minnesota (6th in OPS), but there are reasons beyond opponent that could be playing a factor in the Tigers’ challenges on the mound.