The Tigers bullpen machine just churned out its newest dominant member

It didn't take long for the Detroit Tigers to revert to their "pitching chaos" strategy after starter Reese Olson landed on the 15-day injured list with right ring finger inflammation earlier this week. Fortunately, however, they've been in this situation before.

The Tigers pushed Jack Flaherty's scheduled Wednesday start against the St. Louis Cardinals to what would have been Olson's next start on Thursday against the Cleveland Guardians.

That forced them to turn to the bullpen for Wednesday's series finale in St. Louis, which resulted in a 5-1 Tigers victory and a series win for Detroit.

The Tigers used six different pitchers in Wednesday's game but likely would not have secured the win without three exceptional innings from Brant Hurter. The lefty took down 11 batters with 37 pitches (24 strikes), allowing just one hit and one walk to hold the Cardinals scoreless for the first three innings of the game.

The Tigers bullpen machine just churned out its newest dominant member in Brant Hurter

Through 26 innings in 14 appearances this season, Hurter has pitched to a 2.08 ERA with 23 strikeouts. He has carved out a niche for himself in the Tigers' bullpen, proving he is more than capable of handling the unique demands of the "opener" role while simultaneously being a valuable late-inning option in games pitched by traditional starters.

Hurter was primarily deployed as a bulk reliever in 2024, when the Tigers' starting rotation was ravaged by injuries and needed quality innings from the bullpen. This year, he's been used as more of a traditional reliever – prior to Wednesday's game, he hadn't thrown more than 30 pitches in an appearance since April 26 – but you wouldn't have known based on the way he pitched against the Cardinals.

As an opener on bullpen days, Hurter specializes in setting the tone by getting the first outs of the game. As a late-inning reliever, he effectively maintains leads and secures wins – and he even has a pair of saves under his belt already this year. Hurter really can do it all, and his dominance in a variety of different pitching scenarios simply isn't being talked about enough.

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