Bullpens are seemly one of the most mercurial positions in baseball. One-year lights out, the next can’t seem to find the strike zone. While the average bullpen is likely to have eight positions, many more will be needed to make it through 162 games and hopefully a playoff run.
In 2023, the Detroit Tigers had 12 pitchers appear in 12 or games and another eight make at least two appearances out of the ‘pen. The auditions of spring training are for more than just the opening day roster. There are six spots in the bullpen that are assumed to be locked in. Alex Lange, Jason Foley, Shelby Miller, Will Vest, Tyler Holton, and Andrew Chaffin. Each of these six players will be vying for leverage spots in AJ Hinch’s bullpen. Hinch is unlikely to officially name a closer and instead will look to leverage the pitch types and situations on a game-by-game basis.
Foley and Lange led the bullpen in games last season with 70 and 67 respectively. Of the presumed locks only, Tyler Holton was used frequently in more than one inning stints, because of this it is likely that the last two spots in the Tigers bullpen.
There are no fewer than ten players vying for attention and consideration for time in the 2024 bullpen. Beau Brieske, Joey Wentz, Alex Faedo, Miguel Diaz, Mason Englert, Drew Anderson, Brendan White, Trey Wingenter, Devin Sweet, and Andrew Vasquez. Wentz and Diaz are out of options, while Wingenter, Sweet and Vasquez are not on the current 40-man roster. Wentz has looked good so far in spring training and may be a pitcher who does better in short stints coming out of the pen rather than staring.
The Tigers are still determining whether Faedo and Brieske are starters or relievers and their most likely path to being on the opening day roster is in the bullpen as bridge pitchers or piggybacking on a Mize/Manning start early in the year. Englert, the former rule five draft pick will probably spend the early part of the year working to build out his repertoire at Toledo, where it sounds like he is just as likely to start as he is to come out of the bullpen. Both Wingenter and White were productive for the Tigers in 2023 and figure to factor in the bullpen again this season.
The current guess is Brieske and Wentz will make the initial roster giving the Tigers two pitchers who are capable of pitching three innings while also protecting themselves from having to expose Wentz to the waiver wire. I would expect White and Faedo to be the next two up when the Tigers need to restock the pen.
