DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers might sign one of the top free agent closers on the market and turn him into a starter, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal.
Ryan Helsley has spent his entire major league career pitching out of the bullpen -- he was even an all-star closer in 2022 and 2024.
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The last time he started a game was in 2019 with the Memphis Redbirds -- the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Helsley has a career 2.96 ERA with 377 strikeouts in 319.2 innings pitched.
He pitches from a high three-quarter arm slot, and his arsenal features a four-seam fastball in the high 90s that has touched triple-digits, a slider with late downer movement and consistently high whiff rates, a curveball in the low 80s, and the occasional cutter.
Helsley was traded from the Cardinals to the Mets at the 2025 trade deadline and went on to post a 7.20 ERA with the Mets, averaging just under 5 batters walked per nine innings.
Could he bounce back and have success as a starter? The Tigers seem to be considering it, and they certainly have the pitching coach to do it.
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Seth Lugo and New York Mets starting pitcher Clay Holmes are among the more recent success stories in the reliever-to-starter experiment, however both had prior big league starting experience.