As noted in the position player roster battle article earlier today, the first couple weeks of camp does less to change teams’ opinions of their options than outside observers tend to expect. With the rotation set, and at least five spots, and probably more like seven, in the eight-man bullpen already spoken for, it’s only now that a real competition for the final spots emerges. For a few weeks, the Tigers final bullpen options have largely been entering games against minor league lineups late in games.
The results against non-MLB caliber competition don’t really matter at all.
Teams are looking for improved stuff, and most importantly, guys who have their command dialed in over the last two weeks of camp. In some cases, minor league relievers they like, but who are deemed not yet ready for MLB level work, have already been optioned to Toledo and shifted mainly over to minor league camp.
Troy Melton, who looks like a potential late inning relief option, is currently rehabbing his elbow and hoping he’s avoided a major injury. Beau Brieske is also currently out dealing with what we hope is a minor injury. Keider Montero, Dylan Smith, Ty Madden, Tyler Mattison, Tyler Owens, and a few others have already been moved over to minor league camp, though that doesn’t mean one of them won’t eventually seize one of the final bullpen spots. It’s just not likely to happen prior to Opening Day.
In the long run, the names mentioned above are the best options for the Tigers getting another really good reliever into the mix. For now, they want Montero and Madden stretched out as starting depth, and the rest need to dial in their fastball command to seize a job in the pen.
Right now, these five pitchers are locked into an Opening Day role in the pen.
Will Vest
Kenley Jansen
Kyle Finnegan
Tyler Holton
Drew Anderson
Jansen, Vest, Finnegan, and Holton are the high leverage, late innings core to produce holds and saves. While Holton had a down year in 2025, and can certainly stretch into more of a swingman/middle relief type of role, he’s had his velocity up in camp and has looked outstanding so far. Most likely he’ll resume his role as the main high leverage option against left-handed pitchers, although the Tigers, as we’re about to discuss, are suddenly in really good shape in terms of southpaws in the pen.
Anderson has looked great as well, and can’t be optioned anyway. Signed as some starting insurance prior to the loss of Reese Olson and the additions of Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander, Anderson pitched very well in the KBO last year and was one of the more sought after names coming back over. As he apparently enjoyed his time in the Tigers organization in 2024, they had the inside track to bring him back, and now Anderson returns with a kick change he refined overseas and looking like a pretty good fifth starter candidate who will now give the Tigers plenty of flexibility in the bullpen as he’s shored up his ability to handle left-handed pitching.
That essentially leaves three spots, with at least one of them going to a left-hander. My guess is that left-handers have already claimed two of the final spots, but we’ll have to see if the Tigers agree.
Right now, minor league free agent signing Enmanuel De Jesus appears to have the inside track for the second lefty gig over Brant Hurter. De Jesus is coming back after two good years as a starter in the KBO, and the improvements in his game developed in South Korea have translated really nicely in camp. He also showed out in the WBC where he retired 14 straight and struck out eight in five innings of work for Team Venezuela on Saturday night.
However, Brant Hurter has given the Tigers two straight years of excellent middle relief work and handled bulk innings at times as needed. The lefty showed some weakness with inherited runners last year, but even so he holds a 2.49/3.37 FIP combination over 108 1/3 innings of work over that two-year span.
Right now, with no one else making an overwhelming case, the Tigers are probably planning on taking them both north. De Jesus has a contract worth $1.3 million should he make the major league roster, but that comes with an opt-out if not added to the major league roster by a certain date. We don’t exactly know when that cutoff is set, but considering how great he’s looked, and frankly he’s looked almost like a prime Jose Quintana so far this spring, the Tigers won’t be letting him slip away.
De Jesus can handle either-handed hitters, and so can Hurter, giving the Tigers a lot of multi-innings flexibility between the two. Add Drew Anderson into this category and the Tigers are really in good shape at the moment. Particularly early in the season when they’re trying to ease the starters into the season and not push them too deep in games, this combination looks capable of being a real weapon for the club while helping to keep the rotation fresh until they’ve fully stretched out and the weather gets warm.
That leaves one spot remaining as the flex spot in the pen where the Tigers can try out various options in the early part of the season. Troy Melton will likely take this spot at some point if he’s avoided any catastrophic injury trouble, but for now the final spot in the pen looks pretty wide open.
All we can really say is that with Holton, Hurter, and De Jesus looking like three of their best options, this last spot goes to a right-hander. Here are a few of the most likely options among the right-handed relievers still in camp and not already in position to make the team on Opening Day.
Tanner Rainey
This veteran right-hander has always had the stuff, but his limited major league career attests to ongoing struggles with control. Now a veteran of parts of eight major league seasons, there’s no question he has the stuff to get outs at the major league level. There’s also no question that his command is still a huge problem. He’s been very effective so far in camp, but as has been the case for the last several seasons, he continues to walk near as many hitters as he strikes out. Unless something radical and very convincing happens over the next two weeks, Rainey isn’t going to be a serious option for very long. The Tigers may give it a try anyway, just long enough to see if they can get his fastball command sorted out somewhat, before they move on to someone else.
Marco Jimenez
This one is interesting. The 26-year-old right-hander has been a hard-throwing reliever in the Tigers’ system for years but poor command and a mediocre breaking ball kept him in non-prospect territory. He took a nice step last year by finally commanding his fastball better as he anchored the West Michigan Whitecaps’ run to the best season in Midwest League history. Even better his wildly inconsistent breaking ball has morphed into an 88 mph cutter that looks like it might play better for him than the versions of a wipeout breaker he’s previously tried to work with.
Jimenez stands 5’11” and has the look of a right-hander who can throw a really good riding fourseamer. He’s consistently in the high 90’s and will touch 100 mph here and there. However, the shape has never fit the velocity and arm slot despite his good spin rate, and so far there are no signs of that changing. In fact, Statcast view it as a sinker in his outing on Sunday. As a result it’s still going to play down somewhat, but he also averaged 98.9 mph and was locating it well in recent outings. That’s still going to play like a plus fastball. If he continues to command it he may finally get his chance to contribute to the Tigers pen. My guess though, is that the Tigers would like to keep working with him as he jumps to the Double-A level finally, hoping to tune things up a bit more.
Ricky Vanasco
This 27-year-old right-hander has been bouncing around from the Dodgers system, to the Tigers over the past two years. He’s always had a fairly good fastball, but like Rainey, command remains a problem. Vanasco’s heater is typically 96-97 mph in season, with slightly above average riding action. He backs in with a power curveball at 84 mph with a low spin rate. It moves more like a slightly funky wipeout slider, and the good velo on it helps it play up. You know what I’m about to say next. His command has only occasionally been good enough to view him as a potential major league reliever. He’s been effective in camp too, but there’s still nothing to suggest he’s really figured it out.
Jack Little
Little was a Dodgers farm hand for years in the upper levels. Now 27 years old, that gives him a little cache, as there are few tougher bullpens to break into in the major leagues, and the Dodgers spent a lot of time on him. The Pirates and Tigers played waiver wire roulette with Little early in the offseason, and the Tigers ultimately brought him in on a minor league deal.
The right-hander has three major league average pitches, a fourseamer, slider, and splitter. Little’s numbers haven’t been great this spring, but while he doesn’t have the one dominant offering, he’s also consistently shown much better command than the other options, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him win through on the Opening Day roster as a result. He’s decidedly more middle relief quality, but he also looks a lot more capable of contributing as he is, rather than the usual, “hey maybe he’ll finally command the fastball” addendum that comes with virtually all minor league relief signings. He’s just somewhat non-descript, without a standout trait like velocity, a plus breaking ball, or say, Brenan Hanifee’s ground ball getting tendencies, to recommend him.
Matt Seelinger
30-year-old Matt Seelinger is another career minor leaguer, but he does have the advantage of generally throwing enough strikes. Seelinger also packs a pretty nasty cutter and slider combination that racks up tons of whiffs at the Triple-A level. His problem is that his fastball shape is right in that vague grey area between ride and run, where it does some of both, and too often ends up in the seats. He punched out 28.6 percent of hitters faced with an 11.5 percent walk rate for the Toledo Mud Hens last year, and managed to keep the home runs in check. There’s a slim path to the last spot in the bullpen if the Tigers think he can pitch in reverse, relying on the breaking stuff mostly, and mixing in the mid-90’s fourseamer more as a third pitch and to put hitters away above the top of the zone.
Brenan Hanifee
Hanifee is clearly the most accomplished of all these options. The 96 mph sinker is consistently effective at getting ground balls, and while a lack of whiffs is always his problem, well, Jason Foley worked for a while. Hanifee backs the sinker with an average mid-80’s slider and he threw 60 innings for the Tigers last year, compiling an even 3.00 ERA with a 3.25 FIP.
The 27-year-old’s velocity has been up a little bit in camp, and he’s looked pretty good. One would assume that his recent track record, and his ability to smother a rally by getting the double play ball, give him the inside lane as the competition for the final bullpen job heats up in the second half of spring camp.
Who has the pole position?
In the end, which reliever the Tigers choose probably isn’t going to matter much. The key is to hang onto the best arms and try to work them into usable shape this spring as depth. As we know, plenty of depth will be necessary along the way. Probably plenty of different arms will get a chance over the course of the season as injuries and ineffectiveness take their toll on the pitching staff.
They appear set for lefties, but picking the right guys to keep out of Johan Simon, Konner Pilkington, Bryan Sammons, Sean Guenther, and prospect Drew Sommers, isn’t an inconsequential decision. They also appear to have longer term project type interest in right-handers like Cole Waites, whose velo hasn’t come back yet post Tommy John, Dugan Darnell, who is dealing with a hip issue, Burch Smith, and presumably a few of the options mentioned above as candidates for the last bullpen spot.
Right now though, the Tigers appear to be in outstanding shape in the depth department. They have a whole host of quality fifth starters who will be in the pen or in Toledo, and there are some relief arms with really good stuff, like Tyler Mattison in particular, who may tighten up their command and become a minor force for good in the pen. We can also point to Keider Montero, who has been up to 98 mph quite a bit in camp, as a good conversion option once the club is through the early season rotation and bullpen attrition that tends to occur. And if Troy Melton avoids injury, he’s the most obvious choice, as the one thing the bullpen could use is a nasty, hard-throwing right-hander for the late innings.
Right now, I would put my money on Hanifee making the team out of camp as the final member of the bullpen. Maybe the Tigers will take two right-handers and option Hurter or something, but I think that’s unlikely, and Hanifee appears to be the best immediate fit for the last spot. He’s already on the 40-man roster. He had a good season in 2025 that oddly seemed to be ignored as much by the Tigers themselves as everyone else, and he fits a specific need as a right-hander who can come in to get ground balls and smother a developing rally.
We’ll find out what the Tigers think in about two weeks. For all the guys on the outside looking in, it’s time to shine, or it’s back to the Triple-A mines.
