Intriguing (but anxiety-inducing) Tigers prospect was exactly as advertised in debut

The Tigers' pitching coaches have put on a few masterclasses in development over the last few years — Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, and basically the entirety of the bullpen aside from Kenta Maeda — and they're probably hoping to stage another with prospect Chase Lee.

Lee was acquired in the trade that sent Andrew Chafin to the Rangers at the deadline last year and he was one of three unranked prospects protected from the Rule 5 Draft in November. His place on the 40-man roster made it easy for them to call him up to take Keider Montero's spot on the 26-man roster without a fuss, after Montero's second rough outing against the Padres on Monday.

But Lee's numbers in Triple-A this season left a lot to be desired. In 9 1/3 innings, he gave up eight runs (seven earned). The kicker was certainly his taste for strikeouts — he had 12 during that span despite the runs allowed.

The Tigers called him out of the bullpen in the eighth inning of their game against the Padres on Tuesday night, and he took over with one out and a man on first as the heart of the Padres' order was coming up.

Lee's first two major league outs came without issue. Manny Machado made contact with a slider that he really had no business swinging at in the first place and grounded into a double play to let Lee breathe a little. But the ninth inning was a bit of a different story.

Tigers prospect Chase Lee posts 1 2/3 scoreless innings in MLB debut against the Padres

Lee got Xander Bogaerts, the first batter he faced in the ninth, to ground out, but got into trouble with a walk, a hit by pitch, and then another walk to load the bases with two outs (the second of which came on a nice diving play by Riley Greene between the hit by pitch and second walk). The Tigers were down 2-0, but it was up to Lee to keep things from getting really out of hand, and keep the offense's hopes for a walkoff comeback alive.

Facing Mason McCoy, Lee did exactly what the Tigers called him up to do. Although those earned runs rightfully gave fans pause, the strikeout seems to be his bread and butter.

He threw four pitches, the last of which was a nasty slider that McCoy flailed at and missed way out of the zone for Lee's first major league strikeout.

Lee is only in the majors because of recent injuries to John Brebbia and Beau Brieske, but if he can show more of the strikeout stuff and get his command under control in the interim, then the Tigers could have an interesting wild card here.