DETROIT – Imagine if you could jump in a time machine and go back a decade.
The Tigers are en route to their fourth-straight AL Central title. They’ve made three straight ALCS appearances (and one World Series trip). The pitching staff is loaded with Cy Young winners and the lineup has a half-dozen All-Star candidates.
Now if they could just figure out that bullpen.
Disastrous relief pitching was the downfall of so many loaded Tigers teams in the 2010s. The 2013 ALCS against Boston comes to mind, as does that brutal ALDS sweep at the hands of Baltimore in 2014.
Even when the Tigers were at their peak, fans knew that as soon as Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, Doug Fister, David Price, or Rick Porcello left the game, it was time to start pacing.
It’s taken a long time, but our relationship with relief pitching has come full circle.
Detroit is only four games into the 2024 season, but it’s already clear that the bullpen is the strength of this team. On paper, that seemed to be the case coming into the season, but it’s played out even better than anyone could have imagined.
A.J. Hinch has gotten 17 innings out of his bullpen so far, with seven guys combining to allow just one run on six hits and five walks. That’s a 0.53 ERA, 0.65 WHIP, and .109 opponent average.
Andrew Chafin served up a solo homer to Paul DeJong on Sunday in Chicago, and that’s the only blemish.
On Monday -- an extra innings victory that was scoreless through nine -- four Tigers relievers combined for 4.1 shutout innings, allowing two hits and one walk while striking out five.
Alex Faedo, who finally had a healthy offseason and used it to tweak his changeup grip, looks nearly un-hittable. With that changeup in the back of hitters’ minds, Faedo’s elite slider can thrive -- to the tune of seven whiffs on 10 swings against the Mets on Monday.
Jason Foley does it quite a bit differently, but he’s just as effective. He attacks hitters with a 100+ mph sinker that leads the way for a ground ball rate of 57% over his first two MLB seasons.
Free agent signee Shelby Miller has already given the Tigers a trio of perfect appearances -- no base runners in four innings.
Will Vest has been elite in terms of coming in to clean up messes mid-inning, a skill best showcased on Saturday, when he got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam with a double play.
Chafin has been strong outside of that homer, and fellow lefty Tyler Holton is off to a scorching start, striking out five of the eight batters he’s faced while allowing just one hit.
That’s six players Hinch can turn to with confidence in nearly any situation.
Joey Wentz hasn’t gotten into a game yet after securing the last bullpen spot with a strong spring, and former closer Alex Lange walked three of the four batters he faced in his only appearance.
But even if one of those guys doesn’t work out, the Tigers have plenty of organizational depth, starting with Beau Brieske.
Brieske featured a fastball that flirted with triple digits last season and is coming off a spring training in which he threw 13.2 scoreless innings.
It’s difficult to find a flaw in this group. The Tigers have multiple pitchers who get can whiffs against batters from both sides of the plate, and they have a manager who’s mastered how to deploy them.
This version of the Tigers only has one Cy Young candidate, and not many of their bats will be considered for the All-Star Game. But what they lack in star power, they make up for at the back-end of ballgames.
Few outside Detroit expect these Tigers to compete for a playoff spot, but so far, they’re off to a perfect 4-0 start.
One of the primary ingredients for a team to exceed expectations is a dominant bullpen, so that’s certainly working in Detroit’s favor.
For the first time in a long while.