I’m a pitching guy, and when it comes to this organization, I pride myself on being somebody who plans for injuries. I feel like I’ve overused the word "depth" to describe the staff over the last several months, but it’s important. Earlier today, I wrote a piece about how Troy Melton is currently dealing with arm soreness. We hope that he’s able to come back healthy, but you can never have enough pitching. That old adage is very true. With that said, one guy that I have completely forgotten about is Ty Madden.
Madden missed all last season with a shoulder injury, and while his stock dropped a little bit in the minor leagues after he was drafted out of Texas, this is a guy who made the postseason roster and even pitched in October a few times in 2024. His sample size at the big league level isn't big enough to get excited about, but it isn’t worth getting discouraged over either. His first outing in the spring was extremely impressive.
Madden's stuff has never really been the issue, and while I expect he’ll make a spot start here and there, I do think his ultimate calling may be the bullpen. Before getting called up in 2024, he was having a disastrous year in the minor leagues. He wasn’t throwing a ton of strikes (walking four batters per nine innings), and his inability to get ahead in counts often led to him giving up a lot of hard contact. But there was a silver lining. Ty Madden is going to miss bats. His career strikeouts per nine innings in the minor leagues is 10.8, and that’s as a starter. You get him in the bullpen for an inning or two at a time, and you let him air out that fastball/splitter mix he has; this could be the high-swing-and-miss guy the Tigers are looking for in middle relief.
There’s obviously been so much focus on what the Tigers have added this offseason. Bringing in names like Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander returning for a second go round were definitely the more newsworthy headlines, but there are a few guys like Dylan Smith and Ty Madden who have only gotten cups of coffee at the big league level, but have more than enough life in their arms to intrigue us going forward. One thing that I’ve always appreciated about the way that A.J. Hinch manages his pitching staff is the fact that he allows guys to work their way into high leverage. He’s not gonna throw you into the fire. You have to earn that trust. I think that’s the proper way to do it.
Even if it is just an inning or two at a time, Madden's command issues could still end up being his undoing. There’s nothing worse than a reliever who comes into the game and immediately walks the first two guys, but he may end up being the most intriguing pitcher to pay attention to this spring. I think a heavy majority of this roster is set, but even if he doesn’t make the team out of camp, I think we’re going to see him getting consistent reps at the big league level this year. It’s definitely too early to give up on him.