Getting to know River Ryan's loaded arsenal ahead of highly anticipated Tigers debut

On Sunday, Jason Beck of MLB.com reported that River Ryan will make his Tigers debut on Monday against the Nationals, seven weeks after the trade deadline brought him to Detroit and sent Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers.

It probably won't be a long outing, given that the Tigers are planning to have Keider Montero piggyback and Ryan is coming off of a hamstring injury, but it'll be the first glimpse Detroit fans get at the arguable headliner of the Skubal trade.

Ryan made four starts with the Dodgers in 2024 before undergoing Tommy John. He posted a 1.33 ERA in 20 1/3 innings with 18 strikeouts and nine walks. He returned for spring training this year and even threw 9 2/3 impressive innings in Cactus League play, but the Dodgers demoted him to start the year. He went onto the IL in April, then again in June.

Although he was quite as impressive as anyone would've liked in his final rehab appearance in Toledo (2 2/3 innings, two earned runs, two strikeouts), the Tigers were evidently enamored by his stuff.

And there's a lot of it. Ryan has six pitches — a four-seam, cutter, sinker, curveball, slider, and changeup — but he also has a sweeper that we could see enter the mix.

What should Tigers fans expect from River Ryan in his first start after Tarik Skubal trade?

During his four major league starts, Ryan leaned most heavily on his fastball; it comprised 40% of pitches thrown and averaged 95.9 MPH (topped out at 98.3), putting in the 79th percentile that season. His slider (22.7% usage) was the main putout pitch, accounting for eight of his 18 strikeouts.

Jared Greenspan of MLB.com wrote ahead of spring training that Ryan could be the Dodgers' X-factor, with particular attention paid to a similar movement profile between his stuff and Gerrit Cole's in 2024.

Emily Waldon of Baseball America wrote about the sweeper on Sunday. Ryan said the Dodgers discouraged him to throw it despite glimpses of success in spring training, but movement was trickier in the Pacific Coast League or Arizona, perhaps because of the altitude.

If Tigers fans know Chris Fetter, he's almost certainly going to have Ryan at least experiment with the sweeper as Detroit leans further into a breaking-ball heavy approach.

It's unlikely that we'll see Ryan use all of his pitches in his two-, maybe three-inning outing on Monday, but there's a lot here to be excited about.

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