Drew Sommers’ Underlying Numbers Are Giving The Tigers Something To Build On In The Bullpen

The Detroit Tigers bullpen has provided its share of uncomfortable innings lately. Tuesday night’s 6-4 win over Cleveland was another example. Detroit carried a 4-1 lead into the seventh, but Cleveland put traffic on the bases against Drew Sommers before scratching across a run. Kyle Finnegan allowed a home run in the eighth, and Kenley Jansen put multiple runners aboard in the ninth before finally closing it out.

There have been close shaves, but underneath those innings, the numbers suggest the Tigers may have found something in Sommers.

Sommers’ 2026 Baseball Savant numbers are particularly interesting because his 3.72 ERA does not accurately reflect the quality of contact he has allowed. His expected ERA sits at 2.40, along with a .179 expected batting average: .245 expected slugging percentage and .241 xwOBA.

The contact numbers are even more impressive. Opponents have produced an average exit velocity of just 82 mph against Sommers. His hard-hit rate is only 15.6%, his barrel rate is 2.2%, and he has generated a 53.3% ground-ball rate. Combine that with a 34.5% strikeout rate, and Sommers is checking several boxes at once.

There is some swing-and-miss. There is weak contact when hitters do connect. There are ground balls. That is a useful combination out of the bullpen. His arsenal also helps explain why.

Sommers has primarily worked with a 94.8 mph sinker at 43.8% usage, followed by a 94.8 mph four-seamer at 29% and an 83.4 mph slider at 24.3%. The changeup has accounted for only 3% of his pitches.

The four-seamer has been his biggest swing-and-miss pitch, producing a 54.5% whiff rate More importantly, Sommers has an unusual weapon that makes the velocity play differently: extension. Tigers love extension on pitchers. 

His 7.3 feet of extension ranks in the 98th percentile. So while 94-95 mph is not unusual in today's game, hitters are seeing the ball released considerably closer to the plate. That reduces their effective reaction time and helps explain why the fastball has generated more misses than its raw velocity might suggest.

There are still areas to monitor. His 10.7% walk rate is higher than ideal, and Tuesday demonstrated what can happen when free passes are mixed with singles. Sommers struck out Brayan Rocchio to begin the seventh, then walked Steven Kwan and allowed a single to Chase DeLauter. A passed ball moved both runners before José Ramírez's groundout brought Cleveland within 4-2. Finnegan came in to record the final out.

But this is where looking beyond ERA becomes useful.

Looking at FanGraphs, Sommers has a 1.93 ERA, 13.50 K/9 and 2.89 BB/9, but the supporting metrics are actually better than the ERA. His FIP is 2.45, his xFIP is 1.87, and his SIERA is 2.00.

That separates him somewhat from a few of Detroit's other recent bullpen success stories.

Jacob Waguespack also has a 1.93 ERA in the sample and gave Detroit two scoreless innings Tuesday, but his 4.91 FIP and 5.25 SIERA suggest his results have been better than his underlying performance. Ty Madden has posted a 0.75 ERA, but a 4.65 xFIP and 4.61 SIERA provide similar reasons for caution.

On the other hand, Tyler Holton has started to look more like himself, with a 0.82 ERA, 0.82 WHIP and just 0.82 walks per nine in the recent sample. Kenley Jansen has also produced a 1.29 ERA with a 1.80 FIP and 15.43 strikeouts per nine, although his 6.43 walks per nine help explain why some of his appearances have been more adventurous than necessary.

That is probably the best way to describe this Tigers bullpen right now.

The results have improved, even if the ride has not always been smooth.

And among the group, Sommers may be one of the more interesting arms because the process backs up the results. The strikeouts are there. The contact suppression is there. His extension gives the fastball another dimension, and his expected statistics are considerably better than his traditional ERA. Twenty innings are not enough to declare anything solved. They are enough to make Drew Sommers worth watching in a bullpen that still has ways to go.

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