The Detroit Tigers are wrapping up their series today against the Cleveland Guardians. The Tigers have taken two of the three games against the Guardians entering today and will have Jack Flaherty on the mound facing off against Spencer Howard. This weekend the Tigers will face off against the Los Angeles Dodgers and have their ace on the mound on Friday night. Sunday was supposed to be Kenta Maeda on the mound. Still, Tigers manager AJ Hinch announced today that Maeda will be moved to the bullpen for the “foreseeable future” and they will be going with a bullpen game in the final game of the first half before the All-Star break.
RHP – Kenta Maeda
Maeda this season has struggled in his 16 starts going 2-5 with a 7.26 ERA, a 5.72 FIP, a 1.58 WHIP, a 2.1 HR/9, a 3.2 BB/9, and a 6.9 K/9 in 65.2 innings. Now the hope is with the shift to the bullpen Maeda can figure things out, it won’t be his first time appearing as a reliever as he made four relief appearances in 2017, 19 in 2018, 11 in 2019, and one in 2023. In those 35 relief appearances he had a 3.15 ERA, a 0.99 WHIP, a 1.38 HR/9, a 1.97 BB/9, and a 12.4 K/9 in 45.2 innings; opponents have a .211 batting average when he is a reliever.
Wrap Up
The move may be a good thing for the Tigers moving forward and following the All-Star break may be a spot to bring up Matt Manning or another arm that is currently pitching at Triple-A and opens up options in the starting rotation. The move however is at a rough time with Jack Flaherty despite pitching today dealing with back issues, and Casey Mize is currently on the injured list. Despite all the issues the Tigers have won seven of their last ten and look to keep that going over the next four games before the break.
