On Sunday afternoon, the Athletic published a report linking free agent reliever Ryan Helsley to the Detroit Tigers, among other teams showing interest. Particularly notable was the idea that the Tigers and
others have interst in converting the hard-throwing right-hander into a starting pitcher.
There’s been a bit of a trend in turning good relievers into starting pitchers in recent years, with mixed results. Of course, many successful relievers initially came through the minor leagues as starting pitchers in the first place, before their respective teams decided they would better serve the roster in a relief role. Tigers right-hander Troy Melton is currently in this twilight zone between roles, starting throughout his minor league career and holding up to starting workloads well, before the Tigers used him mainly as a reliever down the stretch this season.
Free agent right-hander Michael King is a good example of a pitcher who was an excellent reliever for the Yankees before the San Diego Padres dealt for him and turned him back into a starting pitcher, where he’s thrived. Former Chicago White Sox reliever Reynaldo Lopez reached free agency and was quickly signed by the Atlanta Braves and converted into a successful starting pitcher for a year before shoulder injuries wiped out most of his 2025 season.
An even more relevant example is right-hander Jordan Hicks, who like Helsley was the Cardinals closer before a desire to start again saw him given that opportunity in San Francisco. Known in his time in St. Louis as a flamethrowing sinkerballer who occasionally could touch 103-105 mph, Hicks was converted into a starting pitcher by the Giants in 2024 and 2025, though that experiment was less successful than in the case of King, Lopez, and others.
There are some similarities between Helsley and Hicks in particular. Beyond their shared history as Cardinals closer tier relievers, Helsley too can dial his fastball up well north of 100 mph. The 31-year-old Helsley was a starting pitcher in the minor leagues before breaking into the major leagues as a reliever. And like Hicks, control has sometimes been an issue despite the monstrous fastball.
I’m throwing out these examples as vague comps because it’s really impossible to know how Helsley might do as a starting pitcher. His velocity and his general durability argues pretty well for the idea that he might be able to sit 97-98 mph and hold up to a starting workload, but there’s just no way to know. On the other hand, Helsley has basically used his fourseamer and slider and nothing else as a reliever, so it’s not as though he has a proven third pitch to offer. He mixes in a solid curveball here and there, but it’s not a significant part of his pitch mix.
As a reliever, Helsley’s strikeout numbers were good in 2025 but trending down a bit, checking in at a 25 percent strikeout rate after posting a 29.7 percent mark in 2024. He’s gotten his strike throwing under better control the past two seasons, with walk rates of 8.6 and 9.9 percent, respectively. Earlier in his career he had a lot more trouble with walks.
Arguing for Helsley’s abiltiy to handle hitters of either hand is the .324 wOBA he allowed to left-handers in 2025, versus a .349 mark against right-handers. He doesn’t have a track record of reverse splits in recent years, but he dominated hitters of either hand to a degree where it wasn’t a relevant concern to begin with. In 2024, he held lefties to a .264 wOBA, against a .225 mark against right-handers. As you can see, 2025 was not a very good year for him, and really crumbled with the New York Mets after they dealt for Helsley at the deadline.
From 2022-2024, encompassing 167 2/3 innings, Helsley posted a 1.83 ERA/2.35 FIP with 225 strikeouts against 60 walks. He was a monster, one of best relievers in the game, with pretty even splits.
In 2025, he put up a 4.50 ERA/4.14 FIP for the Cardinals and Mets combined. He was having a down year in St. Louis, but nothing terrible, but his numbers with the Mets were downright disastrous. He put up a 7.20 ERA in Queens, with a 5.19 FIP, while his ERA at the time of the trade was 3.00 with a 3.55 FIP.
So, the transition to a new club didn’t go well and might account for the collapse in performance. He was certainly trending down, mainly because for the first time in his career he was giving up some home runs with the Cardinals, though still a below average rate of 1.00 HR/9. With the Mets that spiked to 1.80 HR/9, which is pretty dreadful.
MLB Trade Rumors characterized his issues as such.
There’s no doubt that Helsley had some rotten luck in Queens. A .362 BABIP and 52.6% strand rate both seem likely to regress in positive fashion. Helsley himself wondered about whether he might be tipping pitches. Whatever the reason for his struggles as a Met, Helsley was quickly demoted to a lower-leverage role due to his alarming struggles.
Now, I would also submit that the Mets just aren’t as good at coaching pitchers and catchers and developing game plans as the Tigers. Their catchers aren’t as good, and they don’t really have much of a track record of developing pitchers. Maybe Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong, their two hot young pitching prospects, will change that perception, but point being, there’s good reason to look at Helsley’s 20 inning stint with the Mets as a fluke.
Helsey has an outstanding slider, so we won’t worry about that pitch much. It only lost a little bit of effectiveness in 2025, and even that is probably attributable to his fastball losing much more. It’s a straight fourseamer with slightly above average riding action, and while it’s never gotten a crazy amount of whiffs, despite the velocity, it’s also never been hit for much power either. That changed in 2025.
In terms of velocity and movement, the fourseamer didn’t look much different, so it’s probably more a matter of command and location, with some bad luck mixed in, than anything else. The Tigers would have to bank on the idea that they could help him out in that regard. That doesn’t seem like an unreasonable ask, but whether Helsey can get back to prime form, or just back to his good but not great form of the first half of the 2025 season, is very debatable. Whether he could then translate that into a starting role is anyone’s guess.
Helsley seems interested in the opportunity to start, and it’s possible that some of the teams interested are just humoring him to a degree in order to get in the door. Presumably Helsley would get the opportunity in spring camp, but whether a team like the Tigers would guarantee a rotation spot is unknown.
One reason this whole idea is appealing though, is that the Tigers already have a pretty good rotation lined up in Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, Reese Olson, and Troy Melton, with Keider Montero and possibly Brant Hurter in their back pocket. This makes it difficult to sign a starting pitcher, who would then bump a pitcher to the bullpen and another back to Toledo to stay stretched out.
Signing Helsley as a starting pitcher experiment, adds a little more flexibility to the roster. If the conversion to starting doesn’t work out, Helsley would just move back to his familar role, and the Tigers would then have a reliever who throws 99+ mph consistently with a really nasty slider. In the meantime, maybe Melton pitches out of the bullpen early in the season, helping to limit his innings in his first full season as a big leaguer.
MLB Trade Rumors suggests a two-year deal for $24 million. That seems very reasonable, perhaps too reasonable. Helsey really just had a couple of bad months in the midst of a tough season where he knew pretty early on that he’d be traded. His fourseamer velocity was down from a 99.6 to a 99.3 mph average in 2025. There aren’t many red flags here.
Helsley would be a very good pickup for the Tigers, and perhaps the move is to overpay him on a one-year deal with a team option for 2027. That could lure him for 2026, and still give the Tigers some flexibility depending on how things go with the CBA negotations next offseason. Probably there is going to be a good deal of interest and it wouldn’t be a surprise if a team overpaid beyond MLB Trade Rumors’ estimate.
