ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Tigers’ bullpen has changed shape around Keider Montero, and the ripple effect has been felt most by Kenley Jansen.
Montero’s rise as a multi-inning weapon has given AJ Hinch a different late-game option, one that has cut into the workload for the club’s veteran leverage arms. In Friday’s 2-1 win over the Angels, Montero handled the final 3⅓ innings, escaped a two-on, no-out mess in the ninth, and finished the game without Jansen or Kyle Finnegan ever getting loose.
“It was (Keider’s) to win,” Hinch said.
That usage pattern has become familiar. Montero also worked a three-inning save against the Rangers in Texas on July 4, and Hinch said his emergence has “triggered a little different role for a lot of different guys.”
He added, “That’s a compliment to Keider and not a knock on anybody. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t pay attention to how well Keider is throwing the ball and not giving him the ball at the end of games.”
For Jansen, though, the reduced volume is a hard adjustment. The active saves leader said plainly, “I don’t like it at all,” even while acknowledging the reasons behind it. He spent time on the injured list earlier this season and said he’s had trouble finding his rhythm since returning.
Since June 13, Jansen has pitched in just nine of the Tigers’ 27 games, and only four times in July. Over that stretch, he has four saves but has also allowed five runs, four earned, in 8⅔ innings. The last four outings have been cleaner: no runs allowed across 3⅓ innings.
“It’s definitely been different,” he said. “It’s weird.
But what I can do is wait for my chance to go in there and just go do my job. This is definitely new.
When you pitch more often, especially for me, I always start slow but then I get my rhythm and I cruise.
“I just have to find a way to get sharp and stay sharp and when AJ calls my name, go in and do my job.”
Finnegan’s workload has also dipped. The $17.75 million worth of leverage relievers – Jansen and Finnegan – haven’t been used as frequently because the Tigers’ rotation has been giving Hinch more length. Finnegan has appeared in 10 of the Tigers’ 27 games since June 13.
Hinch said he has talked with Jansen multiple times about the changing role.
“He knows there are various roles we are going to ask him to do,” Hinch said. “We signed him with the idea that he was going to have various roles.
I’ve encouraged him to continue to get his work in. He mentioned to me he wants to pitch.
I understand that. It’s the same for Finnegan.
It’s the same for Drew Anderson and Drew Sommers.
“There’s not a pitcher in the pen that doesn’t want the ball a lot. But as our rotation has pitched better, we haven’t had to lean on those guys. And that’s going to benefit us at some point.”
That could change soon. Hinch said Montero is expected to make one or two starts as the Tigers use a six-man rotation, a move that should shift bullpen responsibilities again in the next couple of weeks.
For now, the Tigers are also in the middle of a 13-games-in-13-days stretch out of the break, which could put the relief group back in play quickly. Jansen said he can only stay ready.
“We are here to go in the game whenever our name gets called,” Jansen said. “I can’t change his mind or change whatever he is thinking. All I’m going to do is be ready to help my team win ballgames.”
In Other News…
Another Tigers Pitching Setback Just Clouded Detroit’s Bullpen Plans
Another bullpen piece has been knocked out of the picture for Detroit, and this one carries longer-term implications than the usual midseason injury update. Horn has been on the 60-day injured list since April, and his path has already included an arthroscopic procedure and a hydrodissection on his left elbow before the Tigers reached this latest point in the process.
For a club still sorting out its pitching depth, the timing matters because Horns next step will come after the season, when Detroit has to decide what to do with his roster status. He worked in 10 games for the Tigers in 2025 and gave the team a useful look before the injuries piled up, but the bigger question now is how much of his future the organization can realistically plan on while this recovery stretches forward. [
Tigers Bring Brenan Hanifee Back As Bullpen Questions Grow
Brenan Hanifee is back with the Tigers from Triple-A Toledo, giving Detroit another arm to sort through as the bullpen continues to take shape. The right-hander has been summoned for the third time this season, a familiar sign of how often the club has had to lean on depth while juggling the pitching staff around an upcoming matchup with the Angels.
Hanifees return also comes at a time when the Tigers are trying to keep things steady behind Tarik Skubals start, with Grayson Rodriguez lined up on the other side. Detroit has seen enough from Hanifee to keep bringing him back into the mix, and his recent work has at least given the staff a useful option while the roster temporarily shifts again.
Troy Meltons Rise Just Changed A Painful Tigers Conversation
Troy Melton keeps making the Tigers pitching picture a little more complicated in a good way. Against the Angels, the young right-hander showed the kind of poise Detroit has been hoping to see, working deep enough into the game and missing bats at a rate that keeps putting his name in a different conversation than just promising arm. He has now joined a small slice of franchise history, becoming the fifth Tigers pitcher 25 or younger to turn in back-to-back nine-strikeout outings.
For a club always balancing today against what comes next, that matters. Meltons rise gives Detroit another legitimate rotation piece to think about as the front office weighs how aggressively to manage the roster in the weeks ahead, and it adds a little more weight to every start he makes from here on out. The Tigers have spent much of the season trying to sort out which young pitchers can be part of the long view, and Melton is starting to answer that in a way that changes the tone around the staff.
Để lại một bình luận