Detroit Tigers Bullpen Has Been Pretty Good in Month of June

The Detroit Tigers bullpen has been a source of much consternation for the better part of three years, but the relief corps has performed well in June.

Could the Detroit Tigers bullpen turn into a strength in the second half of the season? The question might be a stretch — especially after Tigers relievers combined fora 4.77 ERA in April and May — but the month of June was solid (at worst) and perhaps very good for the bullpen.

According to FanGraphs’ wins above replacement metric, the Tigers’ bullpen has led all of baseball in relief pitching WAR (1.9) for the month of June. FanGraphs uses a defense independent model when valuating pitchers, and the Tigers’ bullpen FIP of 3.11 for the month (entering Wednesday) was the second best in the sport.

They still don’t tend to strike out many batters — their strikeout rate for the month is still in the bottom third — but they’ve limited the walks to fewer than three per nine innings while also holding the lowest home run rate allowed for the month (five home runs in 95 innings).

Their 3.11 FIP hasn’t completely translated into a diminutive ERA, but their 3.69 June ERA is solid enough and good for fifth in the American League.

The big question remains, however, whether or not the success can last. The answer can’t be definitively known but there are reasons to believe that a solid foundation now exists.

Setup man Justin Wilson has been one of the better relievers in the league all season long and Shane Greene has been tremendous in his transition from the rotation to late-inning setup duty. Greene’s relief sample is still relatively small, but both he and J. Wilson both carry FIPs below 2.00 out of the bullpen.

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Francisco Rodriguez doesn’t exactly have dominant numbers in the closer’s role — his ERA and FIP match in the low threes — but he’s been boring (in a good way!) for much of the season. In fact, outside of opening day (where he allowed three runs) Rodriguez’s ERA is 2.36.

Those are only three spots, but they’re three big spots with potentially lock down pitchers in place. The rest still fall under the umbrella of the unknown, but they have components that could work.

The serviceable duo of Alex Wilson and Kyle Ryan in middle / long relief make for a non-embarrassing lefty-righty pair. Alex Wilson as the eighth inning man is not ideal. Alex Wilson as a fifth or sixth inning guy is just fine.

And then there’s Bruce Rondon and Anibal Sanchez. Neither are being counted on to fill a particularly high leverage role, but both have useful upside. Rondon has returned a new man and Sanchez has been strong in his relief outings.

Next: Getting Michael Fulmer Through the Season

The Detroit Tigers still have room to add a relief arm at the trade deadline if they want to go that route, but they might be better off focusing on finding a solid starter. They might have already found a useful bullpen from inside the organization.

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