Former No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize has made the Tigers’ Opening Day rotation, manager A.J. Hinch announced this morning (Twitter links via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com). Hinch also revealed that former AL Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer will begin the season in the bullpen, where he’ll be joined by veteran lefty Derek Holland — a non-roster invitee to camp who has made the Opening Day squad. Detroit will need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move once Holland’s contract is formally selected, though that has not yet occurred.
Mize, 23, didn’t have a great spring but was sharper in his most recent outing, holding the Blue Jays to a pair of runs on five hits and no walks with nine strikeouts through four innings. Overall, he’s been tagged for 13 runs in 14 frames during Grapefruit League play, but he’s also punched out an impressive 21 hitters in that time.
Mize made his big league debut in 2020 and looked sharp at times but generally struggled to work deep into games. He held opponents to a tepid .228/.302/.358 batting line the first time through the order but saw those numbers leap to .235/.361/.510 upon turning a lineup over for the second time. It was a small sample, just seven starts, and Mize certainly has the pedigree to pitch at or near the top of a big league rotation. In addition to a strong NCAA track record, the former Auburn ace carries a 2.71 ERA, a 24.8 percent strikeout rate and a tiny 5.4 percent walk rate through 123 minor league innings. He skipped Triple-A entirely due to the canceled minor league season in 2020, but he’ll be given the opportunity to prove to the Tigers that he needn’t ever throw a pitch with their Toledo affiliate.
Mize joins Matthew Boyd, Jose Urena, Julio Teheran and Tarik Skubal in a rotation that looks quite different than it did early in the 2020 season. Righty Spencer Turnbull figures to eventually join the mix in some capacity, but he’s been in Covid-19 protocol since early this week.
Fulmer, too, could eventually work his way back into the rotation picture. The righty has undergone a pair of arm surgeries — ulnar nerve transposition and Tommy John — since being named AL Rookie of the Year back in 2016. He struggled mightily this spring, but Hinch gave him a vote of confidence Friday, calling Fulmer a “big league pitcher” (via Woodbery) and noting that optioning him to Triple-A was not a consideration. He’ll work in a multi-inning role, so he could perhaps slide into the rotation when injuries and/or struggles from the other starters necessitate. The Tigers still control Fulmer through the 2022 season.
As for Holland, he’ll give Hinch a third lefty alongside Gregory Soto and Daniel Norris. The 34-year-old has overwhelmingly earned his roster spot this spring, rattling off eight scoreless innings while allowing just five hits and a walk against 13 strikeouts. Holland has struggled with the Pirates, Giants and Cubs across the past two seasons, but he turned in 171 1/3 innings of 3.57 ERA ball for San Francisco as recently as 2018. He’s worked mostly as a starter in his 12-year big league career but has come out of the bullpen 80 times at the MLB level, so a relief role is hardly unfamiliar territory for him.
Interesting, though not a huge surprise.
Is Casey Mize related to HOF Johnny Mize?
Google is your friend
Agree. How frikkin hard is it to Google or DuckDuckGo?
He’s just trying to create conversation boys
I haven’t seen Fulmer pitch in a good min. How has he looked recently pitching? Velo good? Has he lost any weight or gotten bigger? Those little things can tell you a lot about a guy going through these issues in my opinion.
Look, knowing as little as I do, optioning him down to AAA just seems like the obvious option. If you’re hoping to work him back in a starting role, he will need a little more conditioning and innings to get him to that point. Something much easier done in the minors than in the big league pen. Unless you’re assuming your SP will struggle and he will get a couple innings or more every 3-5 days. I like the idea of lowering the workload and building him up, but the minors seem like a better option to toy around and work on things than the show. But then again, it’s the tigers and there are zero expectations, so maybe the show is the best place to play around
We all hear that ST is for these guys to build up strength/stamina (get stretched out), but it’s also a time for them to work on things. It could be adding a pitch or a grip adjustment and we fans just don’t know except what we see in terms of stats, pitch counts and the control via eye test. You have to hope the coaches have a plan and he’s just doing what they ask. Then when it comes time to put the projects away and get back to work he can do that, and maybe that’s what you all saw during the last start.
He looks good, but had to rework his delivery due to the knee issues that came about after the other injuries he was working through, and that’s been the process for him; to get the delivery in sync… I imagine its gotta be like learning to walk all over again for someone who’s been throwing a certain way most of their career. I kind of envision a scenario where one of the rotation guys struggles (likely Mize), and gets sent down, and Fulmer who’s been doing well (hopefully) out of the ‘pen, will be promoted back to the rotation and hopefully succeed there again. If he does, then I also hope we try to move him to a contender for more rebuild capital, but there’s a whole ton of bridges to cross before any of that happens, haha.
It wasn’t that long ago that I wanted him on the Braves desperately. Clearly that would have been painful especially at what he cost then. But yea, if he can bounce back, I can see him getting traded to someone like the Mets or Phillies after one of their guys get injured. Even the Braves of it happens
I would have liked to have seen Mize start the season in the minors and dominate there first. Wonder how long of a leash he will have at the Big Leagues. For most of spring his command had major issues.
Good to see Holland make it, he dominated his games in the spring. Earned it for sure. Tigers have a lot of former starters in their bullpen.
Mize & Skubal are going to be on strict innings limits. They only pitched 30 innings last year so they are likely to do 60-90 this year. Maybe up to their 2019 number of 110-120. That’s 4 IP per game maybe 5 with a 6th starter. Going to need Fulmer, Holland, & Norris to bridge those games & cover for a bad start.
Mize looked pretty good last night against the Jays. Hopefully the Tigers score and play D behind him.
Did Mize really look good or was it the fact hitters couldn’t see due to the game being started at twilight? Hitters can’t see spin during that time of the day. If the Tigers front office let that one game decide their roster decision, then they are overmatched.
Mize needs a ton of work on his delivery/mechanics (from what the experts say), he really has no business starting out w/ the MLB club, but this is an Avila-led organization, so we can’t expect logical decisions to be made.
Absolutely no expert says this. He needs to work on pitch selection and being less predictable, but that needs to be done in the majors where he pays for any mistakes vs the minors where his stuff will overwhelm most hitters.
Mize looked pretty good yesterday against a team that can hit. Something the AL Central runs short on. Hitters do not need more excuses as they are coddled enough to perform at a top level during any daypart.
Denny McLain is on line 1
Eating his morning ten course meal, no doubt.
If I’m AJ, i give Jeremy bonderman a looksie
Mr. Snappy says hello!
Hit up Nate Cornejo and Mike Maroth
Tyler Alexander would give them 4 lefties in the pen
You have to be careful with lefties in the pen. The yankees put Britton and Wilson out there and they had them warming up with righties, but they had them on the wrong side, so their arms collided. Now Chapman is probably going to start injuring all their righties.
At what point this season does Manning join the rotation? I placed a bet at the Tropicana in Atlantic City last week and took the Tigers over 66.5 wins this year. I think they will win at least 70-73 games in that division this year.
Manning threw 8 inning, allowed 3 runs, 10 hits , 3 walks and struck out 7. Only 1 game was start. I suppose if he tears it up in Toledo he could be promoted. Sounds like at least Fuller is ahead of him.
And Mize gave up 13 runs in 14 innings this spring. I think the team will use more than spring training stats when making their decision. He’ll be up by July.
Yea but 5 games and 4 starts for Mize. Spring training usage says more than outcomes at times.
A fool & his money…
What’s going on with Baddoo? Are hinch and the tiges just gonna carry 5 outfielders and hope for the best?
I’m sure we’ll know soon
Still questions in the pen. I see Alexander and Jimenez as possibly going to the alternative site. Not going to happen, but they should just cut their losses on Mazzaro now. Six infielders (Cabrera, Schoop, W Castro, Candelario, Goodrum, and either Nunez or H Castro), Five OF (Grossman, Jones, Reyes, Badoo, Mazzaro), 2 C, leaves 13 pitching spots. 5 starters are named, and Fulmer,Holland, Soto, Norris make 9. Four to choose among Garcia, Alexander, Jimenez, Cisnaro, and Farmer. Turnbull on the 10 Day.
Greg Garcia (infielder) has been told he hasn’t made the team. Has Rony Garcia even pitched in ST? He was a 2019 Rule 5 pick that they used sparingly last year. I think he’s ticketed for AA/AAA.
I hope Robbie Ross makes the roster. good comeback story.
I believe Ross was sent down some time ago, and don’t know if Rony Garcia made it to camp.
Fullmer and Holland are basically there for when the starters have short outings, which you will probably see especially early in the season
Isn’t that Dirty Dan’s role?
Fulmer really needed to go to AAA but this is a reward for all the hard-work he put in. If he gets rocked, then he will probably ask to be sent down to work it out. He’s a class act and an incredibly hard working person. I hope he can make it back.
Bullpen actually looks good.
Bullpen does look good. Of course, we shall see how well they are managed by A.J. If the starters go deep into games and the weather cooperates the pen should be stellar. Doesn’t help that the Sox and Twinkies can rake and Cleveland gives us fits. Go Tigers!