Detroit Tigers: 3 players that could return, 2 that are expendable under new regime

RHP Jason Foley

Foley has been one of the many pleasant surprises to come out of the bullpen this season. He, like Jimenez before him, has also kept the walks down this season, going from 11.1% last year to a miniscule 4.2% this year, which is seventh in all of baseball among relievers.. His BB/9 of 1.59 is good for eighth in the league.

His ERA sits at 3.65. He doesn’t get a lot of strikeouts, but that’s kind of by design. A.J. Hinch and Chris Fetter realized that Foley had pretty much no spin on his fastball, but he still threw pretty hard, with his fastball averaging over 96 mph. So what they did was turn his fastball into a power sinker, and Foley became the team’s groundball specialist.

The only bad thing about this is it has caused Foley to give up a lot of hits, allowing 10.3 hits per nine innings this season. However, there appears to be some bad luck involved here. He doesn’t give up a lot of hard contact, and his BABIP allowed is .344. If you’ve watched his outings, you’ve probably seen a groundball or two squeak through the infield.

Having someone in the bullpen who can come in and generate a groundball to get a huge double play is very valuable. Foley’s 57.1% groundball rate is what has made him his money this season, and may very well get him a raise in the future.