Possible fix to Rafael Montero's woes feels too good to be true for Tigers

Before the Tigers made the questionable choice to trade for him at the deadline, Rafael Montero was quite literally one of the least valuable relievers in baseball. He had a 5.40 ERA between the Astros and the Braves this season and a 4.94 ERA over 2023 and 2024 in Houston. His miraculous 2.37 ERA during the 2022 season, the last time the Astros won the World Series, looked like a complete flash in the pan.

His first few appearances with the Tigers didn't disprove the working theory that Scott Harris was grossly mistaken to take a chance on Montero. He gave up two earned runs in his first appearance, and then two more in his third.

But things took a turn when Montero notched his first win as a Tiger, when he pitched the last 1 1/3 innings of a tight win over the Twins on Aug. 14. He didn't give up a hit in that appearance, and he hasn't given up a hit in the 4 2/3 innings he's pitched since.

When asked about the key to his recent turnaround, Montero showed Christian Romo of the Detroit Free Press an old baseball with a sharpie line marking his four-seam grip. "They've been helping me with my fastball, because I lost a little bit of pop," Montero said. "But we've been getting it back with a grip adjustment."

Could it really be that simple?

Tigers seem to have fixed Rafael Montero's fastball, and all they needed was a sharpie

It's important to remind everybody that his last three appearances came in the lowest leverage possible — the Tigers up five against the Astros in the 9th, the Tigers down by two against the Royals in the ninth, and the Tigers down by five against the Athletics in the fourth.

In 2022, Montero's greatest strength was his off-speed stuff, but he had a great fastball that yielded a .187 batting average against and .301 slugging against. This year, hitters are still batting .266 with a .400 slugging against it, and he's leaned more heavily on a split-finger pitch.

On Aug. 27, he pitched his longest relief appearance of the year (2 2/3 innings) and struck out four Athletics, three on the splitter and one on the fastball. He was still clearly struggling with command of the latter, which led to a walk for Brent Rooker, but he also generated a few swings-and-misses on the fastball.

The Tigers seem to be hoping to make Montero's fastball less of a liability, rather than turn it back into his primary pitch. It had a .619 slugging against last season and .427 in 2023, so the strategy seems to be more focused on mitigating damage.

If a sharpie line was all that he needed, great, but we might need a little more evidence before anyone can call it a magical, overnight fix.