Left-hander Andrew Sears is reportedly on his way to Detroit. The Tigers 11th ranked prospect on our preseason rankings, Sears has shown out in two Triple-A appearances since being promoted from Double-A Erie back on August 11. The X account Dr. Degenerate, apparently the burner account for someone with good sources, reported on Saturday that Sears is being promoted to Detroit. That account has nailed several recent promotions in the Tigers’ system. The report has been circulated by both Emily Waldon
as well as the MiLB Central official account on X, and Chris McCosky of the Detroit News confirmed that Sears is with the team in Kansas City and will be used as a bulk reliever in Sunday’s bullpen game.
The 23-year-old Sears, he’ll turn 24 on August 30, was the Tigers 10th round pick in the 2023 draft out of Connecticut. That makes him the first pitching prospect drafted by Scott Harris to reach Detroit, and another later round success story to go with Brett Callahan. Sears received a $167,500 bonus to sign, just barely over the base bonus of $150,000.
Sears made his full season pro debut in 2024 at the Low-A Lakeland level, where his strikeout rate was good and he was rarely hit hard, but had some control issues. Those were resolved by 2025, and the southpaw continued to rack up good strikeout numbers and prevent home runs while throwing a lot more strikes for High-A West Michigan. Left-handers often thrive in A-ball and then struggle as more advanced hitters get used to seeing more southpaws against them, but Sears didn’t miss a beat moving into the upper levels. He closed out the season with a nice run over six starts at Double-A Erie. The hope this year was that Sears would refine his changeup and overall command a bit more, reach Triple-A and become available in the second half of this season to help the major league club.
Ultimately, this all came to pass, but it was a wild ride for Sears this year. He had a bone spur fracture in his throwing elbow to begin the season, and spent a few months recovering and rehabbing, returning to Erie in mid-June. He made nine starts for the SeaWolves, compiling a 2.57 ERA/3.44 FIP combination, with a 24.3 percent strikeout rate and a 7.6 percent walk rate. In two starts for the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens, Sears has been a strikeout machine, punching out 41.2 percent of hitters he’s faced. His walk rate has ticked up to 11.8 percent, but he also hasn’t allowed a home run.
We’ve pegged Sears for two seasons now as the next lefty swingman for the Tigers. He can start, but he makes plenty of sense as a long reliever and spot starter who also works out of the bullpen. His deception, built on a bit of funky, crossfire delivery and a quick arm from a low slot, makes him tricky to deal with, and his stuff has routinely played up compared to the raw stuff metrics. The big task this season was to refine his changeup and get to using the offspeed more often to take pressure off his good sinker-slider combination, and he appears to be dialing that in now.
His bread and butter is still that sinker-slider combination. Sears has sat 94.3 mph with the sinker in Toledo with slightly above average extension to the plate, and a low (5.4 feet) release point. He made an adjustment this summer, moving from the third base side of the rubber to the middle, and that seemed to unlock better command of both pitches, and a better angle in to right-handers which has been giving them trouble. Sears has gotten a monstrous 42.4 percent whiff rate on the sinker in Toledo, and while that’s not going to hold up, it does speak to the combination of deception, angle, and movement he gets on the pitch and how much trouble hitters have had getting bat on the ball. His sweeping slider averages 83 mph with a tricky mix of horizontal movement and depth. He has a 30.8 percent whiff rate on the pitch in Toledo.
Sears 88.2 mph changeup has been the real point of development this season, and while he doesn’t use it a ton, he’s shown a lot more confidence in it recently, giving him another weapon to handle right-handed hitters. He’s only thrown 17 of them in his two Triple-A starts, but he’s gotten a 55.6 percent whiff rate, so the pitch does have potential. It’s worth remembering that Sears hasn’t really faced a whole lot of high end Triple-A prospects in those two outings. Major league hitters will illustrate where adjustments need to be made.
Sears works quickly, and while he’s actually quite a cool customer on the mound, his fast pace, twitchy pre-pitch routine, and general strike throwing aggressiveness give him a bit of a psycho aspect on the mound. He often looks like he’s breathing fire, quickly getting back on the rubber after each pitch and staring in well before the hitter gets back in the box. He’s a fun guy to watch, especially when he’s really rolling.
Despite using the sinker so much, Sears isn’t actually a big ground ball pitcher. His contact is generally spread pretty evenly between fly balls and grounders, but he’s good enough at messing with hitters’ timing that a lot of balls in play in the air are pop-ups and lazy fly balls. We’ll see if he can bring that same success to the Show. He will switch to the riding fourseamer for whiffs above the zone, but he’s generally working the edges in and out with the sinker and sweeping the slider as bait across the bottom of the zone to lefties, and back-footing right-handers.
The Tigers have missed Brant Hurter this season, and Sears presents a similar set of skills, even if he manages contact without the high ground ball rate. This is a good opportunity for him to get some finishing school work with Chris Fetter, Robin Lund, and Juan Nieves, and Sears has the mentality to hold up to some rookie struggles if that’s how it goes. Still, he’s been extremely sharp in recent weeks and this promotion was foreseeable as a result. If he can keep it going he should do well.
