Drew Sommers has turned into a Tigers silver lining despite rocky July

Detroit Tigers fans have a lot to be upset about this season. The team entered the year as a favorite to win the American League Central and had a really solid team on paper, but injuries, mismanagement, and poor performance now leave them on the outside looking in at the playoff picture.

One player who really drew the ire of fans in July was reliever Drew Sommers. The team’s bullpen has struggled at times this year and Sommers had a 5.19 ERA in July. Thankfully, he’s completely turned things around in the month of August.

This month, Sommers has only allowed one earned run in 11 innings of work. He has struck out 19 batters and walked just three as he’s lowered his ERA to 2.93 from 4.32 at the end of July.

He’s now turned himself from a disappointment into a silver lining, and the 26-year-old is looking more and more like a legitimate presence in the bullpen going forward, especially after a rough 2025 campaign in which he had an alarming 18.00 ERA in four appearances.

Tigers have plenty to sort out in their bullpen next year

That would be a very positive development because Will Vest’s injury has thrown some uncertainty into the bullpen. With the Tigers unlikely to exercise Kenley Jansen's club option for 2027, that means someone else may have to step up and be the ninth-inning guy.

Sommers may not quite be ready for that role, but he is at least inserting himself into the conversation to be one of the high-leverage lefties manager AJ Hinch turns to going forward. 

Between Sommers and Tyler Holton, the Tigers should have two pretty solid left-handed arms to roll with going into next season. Maybe they can serve as setup men and Vest could potentially return next year and be the closer after he recorded 23 saves for Detroit last season.

Or maybe Detroit will go with a closer-by-committee approach and then give the job to whoever does the best the first month or two of the season.

No matter what the arrangement ends up being, Sommers seems like he is going to factor into it somehow. He went from being a guy in danger of being demoted to a guy who looks like an answer in the bullpen, so it will be interesting to see if he can carry that into September as well.

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