After a difficult Detroit Tigers debut last season that saw him moved to a relief role during the first half, right-hander Kenta Maeda has had a much better camp this spring. In the second of his two-year free agent contract, the veteran’s velocity has been up to 92-93 mph after sitting 90-91 mph in 2024. He’s also struck out 36.5 percent of hitters faced and walked only one batter in 12 2⁄3 innings of work. It wasn’t enough.
Cody Stavenhagen of the Athletic Detroit reported on Friday that Tigers’ manager AJ Hinch has already informed the 36-year-old Maeda that he’ll start the season in the bullpen. If he can hold the better stuff we’ve seen this spring, he should be an effective and versatile member of the relief corps. His presence also gives the Tigers a backup plan for the rotation should injuries start to pile up at some point.
The final decision on the starting rotation is now extremely clear. Barring some disaster, Casey Mize has earned the fourth spot in the rotation. The last roster battle for the rotation is between top prospect RHP Jackson Jobe, and another young right-hander trying to break into the rotation full-time in Keider Montero.
The 24-year-old Montero will have another chance to make his case on Friday night in a televised matchup against the New York Yankees. The Tigers presumably would like to get Jobe to the major leagues and continue his development there. Putting him on the Opening Day roster keeps the possibility of an extra draft pick available should Jobe break out and compete in the major award categories in the coming years. However, they have to weigh that against workload concerns with the 22-year-old Jobe, along with some struggles to miss bats at the major league level so far. Those issues could possibly induce a move to Toledo to let him get on a better roll before calling him up to re-join the rotation.
To make that happen though, Montero would have to be extremely convincing. Instead he and Jobe have had similar issues with getting whiffs this spring, and both have had an outing where they got roughed up in the home runs allowed department.
We’ll see what Montero can do against the Yankees. This is his last start of Grapefruit League play, so it better be a really good one. Jobe will likely get one more start early next week before the season begins on March 26 in Los Angeles.
The Tigers will head out to San Francisco on Sunday to play their final two spring games against the Giants in Oracle Park, so one would expect that a final announcement on the rotation and most of the other roster battles will come by then.
